Harvard Student Life

James A. Emmerton, A hebdomadal reminiscence of diurnal events, 1855-1862

James Arthur Emmerton (HMS 1858) of Salem used this diary every Sunday to record his experiences a student at Harvard Medical School from 1855 through 1857. He then returned to it to document life in the 23rd Massachusetts Volunteers during the Civil War. Here he describes a demonstration of Oliver Wendell Holmes with the microscope in May 1856.

Avalon Hill Game Co., Intern, 1979

Intern was developed by two physicians based on their experiences on the house staffs at Duke University and Johns Hopkins. The object of this unusual board game is for the intern to be the first to admit, diagnose, and treat all of his or her patients in the shortest amount of time.

Harvard Medical School Class of 1991, Can we fake a better doctor?, 1989

A century-old tradition, the Second Year Show allows Medical School students to unwind by turning a satiric eye on the faculty and curriculum. Programs, posters, scripts, photographs, and audio and video recordings from the productions are preserved with the institutional archives, as part of the documentation of the student experience at HMS.

While the program's cover art satirizes the Rembrandt painting, The anatomy lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, the title of the show makes reference to the 1988 WGBH production, Can we make a better doctor?— a NOVA documentary which follows six HMS students from the Class of 1991 through their first year of the New Pathway program.