Walking the halls of Bldg. 1 at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth is like stepping into a time machine and traveling back through history. Nearly 300 photographs, paintings and lithographs line the walls and give reference to some of the most important events in NMCP and naval history. Until recently, these pieces of art stood alone, most without a literary understanding as to what the viewer was seeing.

The hospital has been in existence since before the Civil War and its history runs deep. Many of the photos are from the first 100 years of the hospital. These photos and architectural drawings give the viewer a chance to travel back in time and see what the hospital looked like in its infancy.

"Every picture throughout the building are receiving placards with captions," said Jane Pellegrino, the head NMCP librarian and initiator of the project.

The ongoing project has been a team effort between Pellegrino, Al Cutchin, the command historian, and Cindy Doering, a Red Cross volunteer and retired nurse.

"The building was renovated in 2001 and the pictures, which were chosen by the interior decorator who was hired, went up in 2002. The public affairs officer thought it would be a good idea to have captions with each picture so the viewer would better understand what the significance was," Cutchin explained. "The project was put on hold, but once we got to it, it took two months to get the caption information and about a year to finish the project."

With the help of Joseph Judge and Marta Joyner from the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, the team was able to decide how to get the placards and what they should look like.

"We got the museum experts to help us on every detail from the placards to the font (typeface)," Pellegrino said. "Joseph Judge, who is the curator at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum, proofread all of the captions, so we owe a great debt to them for that."

"It really has been a team effort," Cutchin added. "It was really important to get this done because a lot of people ask us what the meaning is behind these photographs and now there is a description for people to read."

The placards, locally made in Portsmouth, not only have captions but also the name of the museum that holds the original pieces of art, including the painting depicting the First Encounter of Ironclads between the Monitor and the Merrimac, which can be found in the Library of Congress.

"These captions are what make the stories of this hospital come alive," Doering said. "Like the photos of the porches, which were used to bring fresh air to the patients."

The next step for the historical team is to offer the public a chance to tour the building.

The captioning effort will take another few months to complete as they are each being placed by hand, courtesy of Cutchin every Thursday.

For more news from Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, visit www.navy.mil/.