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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…
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,…
Argument before the Tewksbury Investigation Committee
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…
Frozen sections of a child
Thomas Dwight, Instructor in Topographical Anatomy and Histology, made these sections of a three-year-old child for use in his lectures at the Medical School in 1880-1881 and were some of the first frozen sections in use in this country. The plates…
Report on the desirability of an electron microscope for the Harvard Medical School
Drs. Fawcett, for the Department of Anatomy, and Sognnaes, in the School of Dental Medicine, along with Professor Solomon in the Biophysical Laboratory outlined the need for an electron microscope at HMS, a report probably addressed to the dean.…
Anatomy : descriptive and surgical
With dissections by Henry Gray, lecturer on anatomy, and H. V. Carter, demonstrator of anatomy at Saint George's Hospital, London, Gray's Anatomy quickly became a standard text for medical students. It first appeared in the U.S. in 1859 and became…
Student laboratory dissection exercises
First-year medical students, DeWitt Allen Green, Ernest Bingham Oliver, Harold Bengloff, and Bruce Robinson Merrill, produced these drawings as part of their assigned course work on a cadaver in the fall of 1934.
According to the description in…
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…
The Aesculapiad
These photographs show members of the Class of 1971 in anatomy lectures and the dissecting room.
Laboratory guide for gross dissection
The Department of Anatomy produced and distributed this step-by-step manual for dissection "to help the student in the important task of displaying for study the structure of the human body. It represents one plan for completing each day's work with…
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…
Histochemical and cytological techniques
This procedural manual on the preparation of organs and tissue was developed by the Department of Anatomy; the passage displayed outlines work on frozen tissue sections.
Will of Ezekiel Hersey
In his will, Hingham physician Ezekiel Hersey bequeathed £1,000 to the Harvard Corporation to fund a professorship in anatomy and physic [physiology]. Although it took some years for the Corporation to establish a program of medical study, in…
Practical dissections
Richard M. Hodges held the position of Demonstrator of Anatomy under Oliver Wendell Holmes from 1853 to 1861. He published this manual on human dissection for the student in 1858, then revised it thoroughly and reprinted it, as here, in 1867.
This…
A most excellent and learned woorke of chirurgerie, called Chirurgia parua Lanfranci
The 16th century English surgeon, John Hall, translated the medieval Chiurgia parva of Lanfranc and added to it his lament for the poor training of surgeons in his own time. His poetical defense of surgery was intended to show "the behavour that is…
Student notes on anatomy
The Harvard Medical School student in the 1890s attended anatomy lectures four times each week, with additional hours devoted to practical anatomical dissection. Ralph C. Larrabee, who received a medical degree from Harvard in 1897, preserved his…
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…
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…
Charriere dissection kit
This pocket case of dissection instruments belonged to George Thomas Perkins (1838-1880), who attended Harvard Medical School from 1855 to 1857. Perkins served as a surgeon during the Civil War and later practiced in Newton Lower Falls.
Leather case…
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…
Admission ticket to the lectures on anatomy and surgery
for Robert Thaxter
The use of admission tickets for each course of a medical student's education was common until the late 19th century. Students paid the professor or lecturer directly and were then issued these passes for an academic session. Robert Thaxter…
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…
The dissecting room
This lithographic print is based on an original watercolor by Thomas Rowlandson now in the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. It is believed to depict William Hunter (1718-1783) leading students in anatomical dissections in his…
Reminiscences
At the time of his death, Dr. Alfred Worcester—a member of the Harvard College Class of 1878—was the University’s oldest living graduate. He was also an 1883 graduate of the Medical School. In the 1940s, Dr. Worcester composed his…