Boston, Massachusetts: Skull of Phineas Gage and the Rod That Passed Through It
RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report
Countway Library of Medicine
- Address:
- 10 Shattuck St., Boston, MA
- Directions:
- In the exhibition gallery of the Warren Anatomical Museum, which is on the fifth floor of the Countway Library of Medicine. No photography allowed.
- Hours:
- M-F 9-5 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
- Phone:
- 617-432-6196
- Admission:
- Free
- RA Rates:
- Worth a Detour
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Gage had a metal rod blown through his head and lived for years. After he died his skull was dug up, and it and the rod are displayed at the Countway Library of Medicine, in a small public gallery.
Roadsideamerica.com Report... [12/10/2012]Visitor Tips and News About Skull of Phineas Gage and the Rod That Passed Through It
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Without student ID, the security guard initially turned us away. I went back in and explained that we only wanted to see the skull and the medical museum, and we were admitted. You will need a photo ID in order to sign in.
[Jessica, 02/01/2017]Exhibit has a few other historical medical oddities as well. Traffic is bad around there, so opt for public transportation rather than driving.
[Carlee, 09/03/2015]The Warren Anatomical Museum is a small, free medical museum in the Longwood Ave. medical district in Boston. There are some great portraits, including a doctor with a trephaning tool and a skull with a hole in it. The most famous artifact is the skull of Phineas Gage, that guy who had a tamping iron shot straight through his skull while working on the railroad and lived, only to become a very different person. It is in the Countway Library of Medicine, located in Harvard Medical School's Longwood Campus, open Mon-Fri 9-5. It's on the top floor of the library.
[Liz Coffey, 11/27/2003]Nearby Offbeat Places
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Also in the museum's collection: early foam rubber breast implants, 1898 novelty X-rays of Czar Nicholas II and Alexandra, and a colony of the mold from which the first penicillin was developed.