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- Collection: Harvard Medical Library
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Laryngoscope placement in a newborn
Figure 33 from Obstetrical Anesthesia, Its Priciples and Practice, Bert B. Hershenson, MD demonstrates the first step in intubating a newborn—placement of the laryngoscope.
Insertion of nasopharyngeal airway
Figure 23 from Obstetrical Anesthesia, Its Priciples and Practice by Bert B. Hershenson, MD demonstrates the proper placement of an endotracheal tube.
A Treatise on Etherization in Childbirth, Page 126
Page 126 from A Treatise on Etherization in Childbirth, by Walter Channing, MD, depicting a design for an ether delivery devise. Dr. Channing was Professor of Midwifery and Medical Jurisprudence and Dean of the Faculty at Harvard Medical College. In…
A Treatise on Etherization in Childbirth, Page 1
First page of A Treatise on Etherization in Childbirth, by Walter Channing, MD. Dr. Channing was Professor of Midwifery and Medical Jurisprudence and Dean of the Faculty at Harvard Medical College. In 1832, he became a founder and chief physician of…
A Treatise on Etherization in Childbirth, Title Page
The title page from A Treatise on Etherization in Childbirth, by Walter Channing, MD.
Dr. Channing was Professor of Midwifery and Medical Jurisprudence and Dean of the Faculty at Harvard Medical College. In 1832, he became a founder and chief…
Plate 1 from De l'auscultation médiate
Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laënnec (1781–1826) was a French physician who invented the stethoscope in 1816. This illustration of his design for a monaural stethoscope is from his book about auscultation, called De l'auscultation médiate.
A Journal of the Harvard Medical School Unit to the American Ambulance Hospital in Paris, Spring of 1915 / by Elliott Carr Cutler. [S.l.] : [s.n.] 1916?
Harvard's first involvement in World War I was staffing the American Ambulance Hospital in Neuilly during the spring of 1915; it was the second unit dispatched from the United States to the hospital. The Harvard Unit had a surgical staff, under…
Henry Jacob Bigelow at age 23
Image of Henry Jacob Bigelow in Paris in 1841.
Drawing of the head and neck, lateral view
This is one of the several hundred original drawings produced by H. F. Aitken and eventually published in Warren's handbook. The text accompanying this illustration states, "The side of the skull has been cut away; the brain has been removed leaving…
Warren's handbook of anatomy
The lineal descendant of John Warren and John Collins Warren, John Warren (1874-1928) received a degree from the Medical School in 1900; he became a professor of anatomy at Harvard and was noted for his dissection work. During the last years of his…
Fine structure of an unusual intracellular supporting network in the Leydig cells of Amblystoma epidermis
The Department of Anatomy preserved a set of reprints of articles by its members for over fifty years. The article displayed here illustrates research with the electron microscope. This is the first article published by Elizabeth D. Hay from her…
Course outlines for anatomical lectures and dissections
This notebook was used by John Warren as Assistant, later Associate, Professor of Anatomy, to record the daily outline of lectures and dissections for first and second-year students, from 1911 to 1916. The pages displayed record Warren's notes on…
On the importance of the study of anatomy. From the Westminster Review, with some additional remarks
This pamphlet on anatomy and dissection laws is attributed to English sanitary reformer, Thomas Southwood Smith, who would later perform the anatomical dissection of Jeremy Bentham in 1832. The "additional remarks," included in the reprinting of the…
Newspaper clippings concerning the Tewksbury Investigation
A state almshouse for paupers at Tewksbury was founded in 1852. In the 1880s, charges of theft and abuse of the inmates–including the sale of bodies of the deceased to Harvard and other medical schools for anatomical dissection–were…
Address to students in physic
Two years after the opening the Medical School, this account, published by the Harvard Corporation in the Boston magazine, described the progress of the new institution. Anatomical study under John Warren was one of the foundations of the curriculum,…
Curso de botanica medica
This is a second edition of Durañona’s basic textbook for the study of medicinal plants and their uses.
Aristotelous
This is a rare early Greek edition of the collected medical and scientific works of Aristotle and contains texts on birth and death, youth and old age, respiration, divination, sleep, and memory.
The natural method of cureing the diseases of the body, and the disorders of the mind depending on the body
This copy of the second edition of George Cheyne’s work on disease is a rare and notable survivor of the disastrous Harvard fire of 1762. On the night of January 24th, during a storm of snow and high wind, Harvard Hall, containing the…
Compulsion, the key to collectivism
Following U.S. Senate Committee on Education and Labor hearings on a proposed National Health Bill in 1946, the National Physicians Committee produced this pamphlet to warn against the danger of compulsory health care as a threat to the American way…
Intern : now you are the physician!
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…
Royal Jennerian Society for the Extermination of the Small-pox
Following the discovery of Edward Jenner, the Royal Jennerian Society was formed at the London Tavern on January 19, 1803. Under the patronage of the Prince and Princess of Wales, the society's goal was to promote the eradication of smallpox through…
A book of the records of inoculation for the kine pock
A colleague and friend of Harvard's Benjamin Waterhouse, Sylvanus Fansher (1770-1846) successfully vaccinated over 35,000 individuals in New England, New York, and New Jersey before 1816. This register, maintained by the town council of Providence,…
Adventures of a deaf-mute
Another specimen of mendicant literature is this pamphlet by carpenter William B. Swett, recounting his explorations in the mountains of New Hampshire. Proceeds from its original printing were devoted to the Boston Deaf-Mute Mission, but Swett's…
Fundamental psychological conceptions
To complement the oral history interviews of its C. G. Jung Biographical Archive, the Library collects actively in Jungian-related publications, such as this volume of transcripts of a series of lectures on dream analysis and the mind. A revised…
A history of George W. Murray, and his long confinement at Andersonville
A pattern-maker in Springfield before the outbreak of the Civil War, George W. Murray was taken prisoner, along with his three elder brothers, after the battle of Spotsylvania and confined to the infamous Confederate prison at Andersonville. He…
A hebdomadal reminiscence of diurnal events
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…
Aberrant visual projections in the Siamese cat
In 1981, Harvard researchers David H. Hubel and Torsten N. Wiesel shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine with Roger W. Sperry of Caltech for their discoveries relating to information processing in visual systems. This article on the Siamese cat,…
John Warren to Secretary of War William Eustis regarding an opening at the Boston Marine Hospital
Two page letter from John Warren to Secretary of War William Eustis regarding an opening at the Navy's Boston Marine Hospital. Warren remarks that he hopes that the new appointee would employ favorable teaching conditions for the faculty and students…
An act in addition to "An act more effectually to protect the sepulchres of the dead, and to legalize the study of anatomy in certain cases"
Photostat copy of "An act in addition to "An act more effectually to protect the sepulchres of the dead, and to legalize the study of anatomy in certain cases""
An act to protect the sepulchres of the dead.
Photostat copy of the State of Massachusetts' "An Act to Protect the Sepulchres of the Dead." Act was approved by the Governor on March 2, 1815.
Catalogue of Books in the Boylston Medical Library (1824)
Before the formation of the Boston Medical Library, Harvard's Boylston Medical Library was the principal local collection not in private hands. The collection remained with the University in Cambridge after the Medical School removed to Boston in…
Library of the Massachusetts Medical College
Harvard Medical School established a library of its own in 1816. This pamphlet of rules was printed and distributed to students following the collection's unification with the Boston Medical Library in 1819.
Catalogue of Books in the Boston Medical Library, and the Rules and Regulations concerning the Same (1808)
The copy of the 1808 Catalogue belonged to Dr. John Collins Warren, who held the office of Librarian at this time. The emendations probably represent an inventory of the collection, along with printing corrections for a subsequent edition in 1810.
Somnia Danielis
The Somnia Danielis [“Daniel’s Dreams”] is a work on the interpretation of dreams; it originated in the eighth century.
The Surgical Treatment of Facial Injuries
Among Dr. Kazanjians important contributions to the literature of plastic surgery is the textbook, The Surgical Treatment of Facial Injuries. Co-authored with Dr. John M. Converse, this textbook is considered a classic work in the field. This diagram…
Correction of Midfacial Deformities
Published in 1971 in Surgical Clinics of North America, this article, written by Joseph E. Murray , M.D., Lennard T. Swanson, D.M.D., Melvin Cohen, D.M.D., and Mutaz B. Habal, M.D., illustrates the interdisciplinary nature of the diagnosis and…
Photograph Album of J. Collins Warren
Following in the tradition of his father and grandfather, John Collins Warren-usually known as "Coll"-studied medicine at Harvard and then completed his education in England, France, and Germany.
This album of carte-de-visite style photographs was…
Pedigree of the Family of Warren
Shortly before his death, Dr. John Collins Warren (1778-1856) researched and published Genealogy of Warren with Some Historical Sketches (Boston : John Wilson and Son, 1854), tracing his family from its earliest origins down through the birth of his…
Account Book of John Collins Warren (1778-1856)
These personal accounts from 1822 and 1823 show the salary which Dr. John Collins Warren earned for the professorship of anatomy and surgery at Harvard Medical School and the fee charged for training of individual pupils. The account book also…
Catalogue of the Library of Dr. John Collins Warren (1778-1856)
Dr. John Collins Warren began his own book collection while in Europe in 1799, and added to it many medical titles when he inherited his father
Memoranda Book of J. Mason Warren (1811-1867)
Before J. Mason Warren departed to pursue his medical studies in Europe, Dr. John Collins Warren composed for him a volume of miscellaneous advice, suggesting lectures to attend and eminent physicians to meet, and charging him with certain…
Autopsy of Dr. John Collins Warren (1778-1856)
John Barnard Swett Jackson was Harvard Medical School's first professor of pathological anatomy and first curator of the Warren Anatomical Museum. He published catalogues of the specimens in the museum of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement…
Insensibility during Surgical Operations Produced by Inhalation
On October 16, 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. John Collins Warren performed the first public operation on a patient under ether anesthesia administered by dentist William T. G. Morton. Dr. Henry Jacob Bigelow witnessed the event and…
Map of Boston
Published in the May 5th issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, this map for attendees of the meeting graphically demonstrates the distance of the new Medical School campus from the center of Boston.
Invitation to Tea
Each afternoon during the American Medical Association's meeting in Boston, a musical tea was held on the new Medical School Quadrangle.
Hymn 283
The so-called "Harvard Hymn" was sung by the Alumni Chorus at the Academic Session of the Dedication on September 26th. It was composed by John Knowles Paine, the University's late professor of music.
Scientific Exhibit in the New Buildings of the Harvard Medical School
During the course of the AMA meeting, demonstrations, lectures, models, photographs and slides, and other anatomical, pathological and scientific exhibits were all mounted in the amphitheaters, laboratories, and museum galleries of the new buildings.…
The principles and practice of medicine
In the first edition of his monumental textbook, Sir William Osler advocates the use of acupuncture for sciatica and, as here, lumbago "in acute cases, the most efficient treatment…. I can corroborate fully the statements of [Sydney] Ringer,…
The physician's pulse-watch
English physician Sir John Floyer invented a watch to measure the rate of the pulse and here translates some relevant portions of the Specimen medicinae Sinicae("The Chinese art of Feeling the Pulse is describ'd; and the Imitation of their Practice…
Materia medica Americana potissimum regni vegetabilis
This first account of American plants and their medicinal uses was, oddly enough, published in Germany. Johann David Schöpf was a military surgeon who came to the country during the Revolutionary War and later traveled through New York,…
The Bibring Seminar
The article highlights the previous seven years of the seminar, with a focus on Dr. Bibring’s personal experience and the issues that are confronted during the group sessions.
Vaccine Inoculation
This unusual illustration of a child's arm with the distinctive mark of inoculation was inserted in Benjamin Waterhouse's own copy of The Origin of the Vaccine Inoculation (London : printed by D. N. Shury, 1801). The Origin was Edward Jenner's…
A Collection of Papers Relative to the Transactions of the Town of Milton
The Selectmen of Milton, Massachusetts, assembled, published, and distributed this assortment of documents to prove the efficacy of vaccination against smallpox and encourage towns throughout the state to establish vaccination programs. Through the…
A Prospect of Exterminating the Small Pox, Part II
In this companion pamphlet to his original publication just two years earlier, Waterhouse recounts the popularity of smallpox inoculation following his experiments, as well as the consequent appearance of spurious cowpox matter which caused a…
Letter from Benjamin Waterhouse to Edward Everett
In the 1820s, years after his initial vaccination experiments, Benjamin Waterhouse remained closely involved with the subject. He used this letterbook to keep copies of correspondence with President John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, and other…
Analytical review of Jenner's "An Inquiry..."
This anonymous article, appearing in December 1798, is the first American publication to discuss the work of Edward Jenner.
An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolæ Vaccinæ
The first edition of Edward Jenner's publication contains his evidence that inoculation with cowpox vaccine matter could be a preventive against smallpox. Pages 32-35 concern Case XVII, an eight-year-old named James Phipps, who was inoculated with…
Trial of Professor John W. Webster for the Murder of Doctor George Parkman
While few early photographs exist of the Harvard Medical School building on North Grove Street, considerable information about the structure and its interior can be found, ironically, in the published transcripts of the 1850 murder trial of John W.…
Description of the Physiological Laboratory
A large proportion of the new building on Boylston Street was devoted to laboratory space with adequate natural light. The Physiological Laboratory (“… intended to serve primarily as a laboratory of research, and secondarily as an…
The Parkman Murder : Trial of Prof. John W. Webster for the Murder of Dr. George Parkman
While few early photographs exist of the Harvard Medical School building on North Grove Street, considerable information about the structure and its interior can be found, ironically, in the published transcripts of the 1850 murder trial of John W.…
The North Grove Street Building
In 1847, Harvard Medical School erected a new building, on North Grove Street, adjoining Massachusetts General Hospital, on land donated by Dr. George Parkman—whose body would all too soon be found buried beneath it. The school building itself…
Student Lecture Notes on Anatomy
Even the most renowned of neurosurgeons was once a first-year medical student, as illustrated by this volume of Harvey Cushing's notes on the anatomical lectures of Thomas Dwight. The Harvard Medical School student at this period attended anatomy…
Harvard and Its Surroundings
This 19th century guidebook to Harvard University describes the current—and overcrowded—conditions of the Medical School on North Grove Street as well as some of the collections of the Warren Anatomical Museum. A building on Cambridge Street was…
Course Schedule
As part of the reform movement at Harvard, the recommended medical degree course was extended from three years to four in 1880. Students could still finish the requirements for an M.D. in three years, and anyone who completed a fourth was granted the…
An Introductory Lecture Delivered before the Medical Class of Harvard University
Introductory lectures to new medical students were customary at the opening of each academic year and often printed in pamphlet form or, as here, in the pages of a medical journal. James C. White cautions the students against specializing too early…
Medical Education : New Professorships in the Medical Department of Harvard University
The challenge to reform American medical education and bring it closer to the higher standards current in Europe started even before this editorial appeared in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. James C. White, a member of the faculty of the…
Glances and Glimpses, or Fifty Years Social, Including Twenty Years Professional Life
Harriot Kesia Hunt
Some Account of the Medical School in Boston, and of the Massachusetts General Hospital
This brief promotional pamphlet describes the Harvard Medical School at its Mason Street location and also the clinical and surgical opportunities offered by the new Massachusetts General Hospital. The school and hospital both at this period would…
Medical Lectures
Dr. John George Metcalf of Mendon attended Harvard Medical School and used this notebook during the lectures of Drs. John Collins Warren, Jacob Bigelow, and Walter Channing. The notebook also served as Metcalf’s diary, and his account of life at…
A Syllabus of the Lectures Delivered at the Massachusetts Medical College to the Medical Students of Harvard University
Harvard’s first professor of clinical medicine, James Jackson, found that the time spent with his students on the wards at Massachusetts General Hospital detracted from his formal lecturing, and so he published these brief notes of his lectures…
Report of the Select Committee of the House of Representatives ... Legalizing the Study of Anatomy
This state report provided key arguments for the repeal of the 1815 Act to Protect the Sepulchres of the Dead by the Massachusetts Legislature and so legalized dissection of human bodies for anatomical study. Dr. John Collins Warren, stressing the…
Mémoires de la P. de Sales Laterrière et de Ses Traverses
Pierre Laterrière, who first studied medicine under M. de la Rochambeau in France, came to Harvard and received the degree of Bachelor of Medicine in 1789. He went on to practice medicine in Canada. Laterrière’s Mémoires,…
Lectures upon Anatomy
Partially in the handwriting of Dr. John Warren, this volume of lecture notes, beginning on December 10, 1783, contains the earliest surviving record of teaching at Harvard Medical School. The lectures were delivered in Harvard Hall, on the campus in…
A Discourse upon the Institution of Medical Schools in America
The first book to be published on medical education in America was written by Dr. John Morgan, who founded the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, the nation’s first medical school, in 1765. This particular copy is notable for…
Waldo E. Boardman
Dr. Waldo E. Boardman (1851-1922) was the Museum's third curator, serving over thirty years, from 1891 until 1922. Boardman was also part of the class of 1886.
Charles Wilson
Dr. Charles Wilson (1842-1912) was the curator of the Museum from 1881 until 1891. Wilson was also part of the class of 1870.
The Harvard Dental School Museum
The only surviving photographs of the interior of the Dental Museum are found in issues of The Mirror, the yearbook of the Dental School, and Richard Locke Hapgood's published History of the Harvard Dental School (1930). This photograph is from the…
A Treatise on the Management of the Teeth
In addition to the collection housed in the library of the Dental School, there were also books, pamphlets, prints and pictures preserved in the Dental Museum, including this early text on Dentistry. The title-page engraving shows an inferior denture…
Facial Moulages
During World War I, Dr. Varaztad H. Kazanjian (1879-1974) used his surgical skills to treat the soldiers severely disfigured during combat. In 1915, he was appointed chief dental officer of the First Harvard Unit, organized to serve overseas with the…
A List of a Few of the Attractions of the Museum
A brief overview of some of the highlights of the Dental Museum collection indicates the scope and breadth of the collection.
Catalog entry for Oliver Wendell Holmes denture
This version of the Museum's catalog was in use from the 1890s through 1907.
Here among the entries for items of mechanical dentistry are specimens 1562 and 1565
Here among the entries for items of mechanical dentistry are specimens 1562 and 1565
Catalogue of the Specimens in the Museum of the Harvard Dental School
This volume functioned as an accession book for specimens acquired by the Museum through 1896. Items were assigned an ordinal number and shelf location as received, and the information was later transcribed into the formal catalog. The items listed…
The Museum of the Harvard Dental School
George Howard Monks, the professor of oral surgery in the Dental School, presented an overview of the Dental Museum and its holdings to the Boston Medical History Club in March, 1925. The paper was then printed in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin and…
World's Largest Tooth Now Owned by Harvard
In 1929, Boston newspapers ran some unusual articles on the latest acquisition of the Dental Museum. This was no human Tooth, but a mastodon's tusk estimated to be 50,000 years old. Over 11 feet long and weighing 300 pounds, it was one of the…
Announcement of the Dental School of Harvard University, Session 1868-69
This first annual catalog from the Dental School lists the faculty members and outlines the course of instruction. Among the qualifications for graduation may be seen the earliest reference to the existence of the Dental Museum: "He must also deposit…
The Mirror
From 1912 until 1943, the Dental School had its own yearbook, The Mirror, analogous to the Medical School's yearbook, The Aesculapiad. The 1925 edition describes the Dental Museum and its holdings and includes photographs of the interior and the…
Museum Catalog Entries
Each specimen in the Dental Museum was assigned a serial number and cabinet and shelf location. Sheets like these were used to record information about the item and its acquisition and were then bound together into formal catalogs.
