Dr. John Warren

Hazelton, Mary B. · 1934

In 1780, during the Revolutionary War, surgeon John Warren (1753-1815) began to deliver anatomical lectures to physicians at the military hospital in Boston. Warren went on to deliver public lectures during the winter of 1781-1782, at the invitation of the Boston Medical Society. The success of these lectures prompted the Harvard Corporation to approach Dr. Warren to devise a plan and course of medical study. On September 19, 1782, the Corporation adopted a detailed plan for medical study in Cambridge, including the formation of a library "more perfect than any in America," acquisition of medical apparatus, facilities, and anatomical preparations, and the establishment of professorships of anatomy and surgery, physic, and chemistry. This plan became the basis for Harvard Medical School. John Warren was appointed to the professorship of anatomy and surgery in November, and two other faculty appointments Portrait of Dr. John Warren (1753-1815) by Mary B. Hazelton after Rembrandt Peale