On Oct. 16, 1846, Harvard Medical School’s first dean, Dr. John Collins Warren, provided the first public demonstration of anesthesia in surgery.

Dr. Warren was also the first dean of the Medical School and promoted its removal from Cambridge to Boston to obtain better access to clinical facilities. Over the course of his long career, he assembled an extraordinary teaching collection of anatomical and pathological specimens. He presented it to the Harvard Corporation in 1847 along with $5000. This was the beginning of the Warren Anatomical Museum.