Entry No. 18 — the Boston file — filed under: history

Warren Anatomical Museum

Founded in 1847 with 160 'unusual and instructive' specimens, this free museum on the library's upper floor now holds about 15,000 anatomical and pathological objects — including the actual skull of Phineas Gage, the railroad foreman who survived a three-foot iron tamping rod blown through his frontal lobe in 1848, alongside the rod itself.

The move: Wander the free public galleries at Harvard's medical library, then stand face to face with Gage's skull and the tamping iron that made him neuroscience's most famous case study — no ticket, no line, just you two and 15,000 preserved oddities.

• 📍 Longwood Medical Area
• 💸 $$
• ⚡ Up for anything
• 🌗 Indoors

Where: 10 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA 02115 (Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School)

Hours: Added 2026-07-20 — confirm current hours before you go.

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Further reading: countway.harvard.edu · Wikipedia · thebostoncalendar.com

last checked: 2026-07-20