| Phone Numbers: |
| (617) 432-6196 |
| fax | (617) 432-4737 |
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| Email Addresses: |
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| Address: | Warren Anatomical Museum
Countway Library of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
10 Shattuck Street
Boston, MA 02115
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| Access Policy: |
| Open to all. |
| Open by appointment. |
| General exhibit open to all; for research of materials not on exhibit by appointment. |
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| Extent of Collections: | Approximately 13,500 items. |
| Dates: | Mid 18th century to mid 20th century, chiefly 19th century. |
| Holdings Description: | Wet and dry medical specimens and preparations, artifacts, instruments; memorabilia of physicians and surgeons; also the Minot collection of microscopic slides. Archival formats include personal papers, photographs, memorabilia, printed ephemera, drawings, and sketches. |
| History: | The Warren Anatomical Museum was the gift of Dr. John Collins Warren. Like many physicians of his day, Dr. Warren collected interesting and unusual anatomical specimens. He began collecting materials as early as 1799 and expanded his collection to assist in the teaching of medical students. When he resigned his professorship in 1847, most of the collection was presented to Harvard with an endowment of $ 5,000 to support its preservation.
The collection, known as the Warren Anatomical Museum, continued to grow as other prominent and local physicians contributed specimens. The museum was housed in a large room in the North Grove Street building in 1847, and moved with the School to its Boylston Street home in 1883, and again, to the Longwood campus in 1906, where it occupied the upper floors of the Medical School's main administration building. When the Countway Library renovation is completed, selections from the collection will be on display in the Warren Museum Exhibition Gallery.
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| Printed Guides & Catalogs: | J.B.S. Jackson, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Anatomical Museum of the Boston Society for Medical Improvement (Boston: Ticknor, 1847).
J.B.S. Jackson, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Warren Anatomical Museum (Boston: A. Williams, 1870).
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| Online Guides & Catalogs: | A small but growing number of catalogued material can be found in the HOLLIS Catalog. It is the intent of the Museum to have some of its holdings searchable in VIA in the future. The records of the Warren Anatomical Museum will also be catalogued and available for research in the future. |
| Contact for permission to publish requests: | Curatorial Assistant for Museum and Archives Collections |
| Reproduction services: |
| Printing from microfilm. |
| Photocopying by staff only. |
| Photographic reproduction services. |
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| Items allowed in Reading Room: |
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