An opening reception for "When the Emory Unit Went to War,” an exhibition documenting Emory medical personnel, is Friday, June 13, at 6 p.m. in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center (WHSC) Library at 1462 Clifton Road.

This free and open event from Emory Libraries will introduce the exhibition, which focuses on the stories of Emory doctors, nurses and enlisted men who comprised Base Hospital 43 during World War I and World War II. Base Hospital 43 was the Emory Unit during both the world wars. It was designated the Emory Unit due to the large number of personnel who came from Emory University.

Diary entries, scrapbooks, photographs, uniforms and books about the unit are featured. Drawn from WHSC Library's historical collections and Emory's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL), the display includes the complete nurse's uniform of Leila Anderson, who served in France during World War I.

There are also images of the hospital exterior, wounded soldiers in the hospital wards, nurses in action during World War II, and nurses disembarking from a boat and wading into the water in southern France.

A group of 24 officers, 65 nurses, and 154 enlisted personnel answered the call for medical personnel in World War I, training for several months before being deployed to Blois, France, in 1918. During World War II, the unit was again called into service and served in Algeria and France.

WHSC archives specialist Clayton McGahee and Health Sciences Library director Sandra Franklin will make brief opening remarks and will be on hand to discuss the individual display cases and content with visitors as they view the exhibit.

For more information on the exhibit and opening, contact McGahee.