The Warren Anatomical Museum, housed within
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
's
Countway Library of Medicine
The Boston Medical Library (est. 1875) of Boston, Massachusetts, was originally organized to alleviate the problem that had emerged due to the scattered distribution of medical texts throughout the city. It has evolved into the "largest academic ...
, was founded in 1847 by Harvard professor
John Collins Warren
John Collins Warren (August 1, 1778 – May 4, 1856) was an American surgeon. In 1846 he gave permission to William T.G. Morton to provide ether anesthesia while Warren performed a minor surgical procedure. News of this first public demonstrati ...
, whose personal collection of 160 unusual and instructive anatomical and pathological specimens now forms the nucleus of the museum's 15,000-item collection. The Warren also has objects significant to medical history, such as the inhaler used during the first public demonstration of
ether
In organic chemistry, ethers are a class of compounds that contain an ether group—an oxygen atom connected to two alkyl or aryl groups. They have the general formula , where R and R′ represent the alkyl or aryl groups. Ethers can again be c ...
-assisted surgery in 1846 (on loan to the Massachusetts General Hospital since 1948), and the skull of
Phineas Gage
Phineas P. Gage (18231860) was an American railroad construction foreman known for his improbable survival of an accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe, and ...
, who survived a large iron bar being driven through his brain. The museum's first curator was
J.B.S. Jackson
John Barnard Swett Jackson (June 5, 1806 – January 6, 1879) was an American surgeon and pathologist. He was the first curator of the Warren Anatomical Museum and was dean of Harvard Medical School from 1853 to 1855. In 1854, the Shattuck Profes ...
.
Closed until 2022
The museum gallery is closed for renovation until 2022,
although the collection remains accessible to researchers by appointment. Normally a rotating subset of items, including Gage's skull and the tamping iron that passed through it, is on public display.
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See also
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William Fiske Whitney
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...
*
Harvard Dental Museum
References
Sources
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External links
Warren Museum websiteFinding aid for Warren Anatomical Museumin
Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Medical Heritage Library Increases Warren Museum Accessibility
History of anatomy
Harvard Medical School
Medical museums in the United States
University museums in Massachusetts
Museums in Boston
Science museums in Massachusetts
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