MGH’s Bulfinch Building: highlights
Even as patient wards gradually moved elsewhere and numerous buildings have mushroomed around it, the Bulfinch Building remains the seat of the hospital’s soul, an object of awe for newcomers and enduring affection for those who spend time there.
Most of the building is inaccessible to the public. In this glimpse behind the scenes, you will meet just some of its extraordinary denizens, past and present.

- All
- Basement
- Ether Dome
- First floor
- Second floor
- Third floor

The Intern’s Step

A sign of the times

The making of this tour

The lost cornerstone

Mannequin for simulation training

Shreve, Crump & Low receipt for gas conversion

David Nathan, MD: Four decades in Bulfinch

Wedding attire of J. Mason Warren, MD (1811-1867)

Gay Ward plaque

Nursing alumnae

Printing plates

Joseph Garland

Latoya Brewster: An elevator ride up to history

Visit from Chinese doctors in 1972

Skylight

Emery Brown, MD, PhD: Medicine transformed

The Ether Dome through history

Plaster Apollo Belvedere

Surgical and medical tools from the mid-19th century

“Ether Day, 1846”

Sarcophagus and mummified remains of Padihershef

Border of the 1847 addition

Site of Balance Room, 1924

Anne Klibanski, MD: Women at the MGH

“Ether Day 1846” character study

WWII Honor Roll

Ward 23, 1888

The Legacy of William Augustus Hinton, MD

Portrait of Francis Sargent Cheever, MD (1909-1997)

Portrait of Jerrold “Jerry” Rosenbaum, MD

Portrait of Eleanor Mayher Hackett (1937-2009)

Maurizio Fava, MD: Cobb’s cunning analysis

Items from Thomas Hackett’s home study

Illustration of an MGH pediatric ward, 1920s

Former site of West Surgical Ward 29, 1888

Former pediatric ward

Veranda for the pediatric wards, 1937

Former location of women’s medical ward

Former Location of Isolation Room

Former location of chemistry laboratories

What remains of the wharf

Changing attitudes about syphilis patients

Bronze head of Stanley Cobb, MD (1887-1968)

Portrait of Stanley Cobb, MD

The building as artistic inspiration

Portrait of W. Gerald Austen, MD (1930- )

Portrait of J. Robert Buchanan, MD (1928- )

Portrait of W. Nicholas Thorndike (1933-2021)

Portrait of John Endicott Lawrence (1910-2007)

Portrait of Frederic A. Washburn, MD (1869-1949)

Original exterior wall

Ding

Portrait of James J. Mongan, MD (1942-2011)

Bust of Jacob Bigelow, MD (1786-1879)

Portrait of the Hon. William Phillips (1750-1827)

Portrait of Anna Lyman Gray (1853-1932)

Portrait of Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfeld (1939-2017)

Samuel O. Thier, MD: Prison break!

Portrait of Samuel O. Thier, MD (1937- )

Portrait of Jane Claflin

The mystery of the Coat of Arms

Portrait of Yvonne Munn, RN (1928-2017)

Portrait of Henry P. Walcott, MD (1838-1932)

Portrait of Frances J. Bonner, MD (1919-2000)

Portrait of Juan Manuel Taveras, MD (1919-2002)

Portrait of James Jackson, MD (1777-1867)

Portrait of Samuel Eliot (1739-1820)

Simon Willard Cabinet Clock, 1821

Portrait of Abraham Touro (1774-1882)

Former lives of the Trustees Room

Group photo on the Bulfinch steps

Edward P. Lawrence

Isolation Room, 1924

Former location of patient toilets, 1924

Laundry chute

Jack W. Szostak, PhD

Extraordinary times, extraordinary people

Former site of House Pupils’ bedroom, 1872

Approximate site of beginning of 1846 extension

Former site of the Warren Library

Original location of Treadwell Library

Ether Day Commemoration, October 16, 1942

Building demolition, July 7, 1937

Aerial view of the MGH, January 27, 1937

Publicity campaign, 1926

Bulfinch yard, ca. 1919

World War I effort, ca. 1917

Ambulance service, 1908 and 1912

Bradlee Ward, ca. 1906

Bigelow Operating Theatre, January 31, 1903

Views of the MGH, ca. 1899

Tent Ward, 1898

Training School for Nurses, 1898

Surgical wards, ca. 1897

Bigelow Operating Theatre, ca. 1867

Pavilion Wards, ca. 1878

Boston physicians, ca. 1860s

Massachusetts General Hospital, ca. 1856

Portrait of John Collins Warren (1778-1856)

A Photographic Album

Site of Apothecary

Bulfinch Memorabilia

Ice room and cold storage, 1872

Potential site of Dodd’s X-ray

Cantilevered Steps

Site of House Pupils’ dining room, 1872

“Teeth in the bathroom!”

Nursing quarters, in a nurse’s words

Diet kitchen, 1924
