The Warren Anatomical Museum, housed within Harvard Medical School's Countway Library of Medicine, was founded in 1847 by Harvard professor John Collins Warren,[1] whose personal collection of 160[2] unusual and instructive anatomical and pathological specimens now forms the nucleus of the museum's 15,000-item collection.[3] The Warren also has objects significant to medical history, such as the inhaler used during the first public demonstration of ether-assisted surgery in 1846 (on loan to the Massachusetts General Hospital since 1948[4]), and the skull of Phineas Gage, who survived a large iron bar being driven through his brain. The museum's first curator was J.B.S. Jackson.[5]
The museum gallery is closed for renovation until winter/spring 2023, as stated on the museum's website,[6] 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.