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

Screenshot of staircase leading from the Bulfinch Lawn to the Bulfinch Building, the top step is painted with a red line across its length

The Intern’s Step

Screenshot of sign reading "MGH Staff Designated Seating Area" in MGH hallway

A sign of the times

A screenshot of a camera reflected in a hallway security mirror

The making of this tour

A title page reading Services at the Laying of the Corner Stone of the Massachsuetts General Hospital

The lost cornerstone

Two high schoolers and an adult lean over a mannequin on a stretcher.

Mannequin for simulation training

yellowed receipt with ornate text on top with an eagle engraving in the top left corner

Shreve, Crump & Low receipt for gas conversion

Still from "Four decades in Bulfinch" video

David Nathan, MD: Four decades in Bulfinch

vests, a coat, and two pairs of pants in a flat, wall-mounted glass case

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

Brass plaque is engraved with the words "G. H. GAY WARD MEMORIAL OF GEORGE HENRY GAY."

Gay Ward plaque

Nursing class in Mass General Ether Dome

Nursing alumnae

Three small wooden boxes with metal handles. One is opened to display a stack of metal printing plates, three of which are propped up in front of the boxes

Printing plates

An old copy of the Boston Herald lies on top of box, surrounded by other cardboard boxes with plaster dust. Headline reads: TAFT WINS DELEGATE TESTS, FIGHTS EISENHOWER SURGE; HOOVER BIDS FOR AIRPOWER"

Joseph Garland

video thumbnail

Latoya Brewster: An elevator ride up to history

A group of doctors listening to a presentation, seated in the tiered seating of a former operating theatre

Visit from Chinese doctors in 1972

Point of view is looking straight up at the dome from the floor. Pale blue dome is interrupted by a gridded window, notched out of roughly 1/10th of the diameter

Skylight

video still

Emery Brown, MD, PhD: Medicine transformed

Title screen of 360 video of Ether Dome.

The Ether Dome through history

white statue of a man wearing a quiver of arrows, a cape, sandals, and a fig leaf. Next to hi right leg is a tree stump with snake climbing up its side.

Plaster Apollo Belvedere

Surgical and medical tools from the mid-19th century

Several dark suited men observing a surgery on a seated, unconscious patient performed by a man with white hair and beard.

“Ether Day, 1846”

Side view of mummy in front of a Sarcophagus in a glass case

Sarcophagus and mummified remains of Padihershef

Scale model of Bulfinch building in plexiglass case

Border of the 1847 addition

A disassembled hanging balance scale with various weights laying between the pans

Site of Balance Room, 1924

Still from "Women at MGH" video

Anne Klibanski, MD: Women at the MGH

detailed painting of a man's head, looking to his right, vignetted in an amber-colored background wash

“Ether Day 1846” character study

Three wall-mounted plaques with several names listed

WWII Honor Roll

A room with a table, chairs, and beds, with adults and children.

Ward 23, 1888

black & white photo of man wearing grey suit, a bow tie, and glasses

The Legacy of William Augustus Hinton, MD

painting of seated gray-haired man is gray suit, pale blue shirt, and navy blue tie.

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

painting of a gray-haired man holding a manila folder in both hands. He is wearing a gray jacket and red tie with black and gold stripes, Behind his is a painting on a wall and a sculpture on the windowsill.

Portrait of Jerrold “Jerry” Rosenbaum, MD

Painting of gray-haired woman wearing an ivory-colored cowl-neck sweater

Portrait of Eleanor Mayher Hackett (1937-2009)

Maurizio Fava, MD: Cobb’s cunning analysis

Framed butterfly specimen case

Items from Thomas Hackett’s home study

black and white drawing with several figures in a medical setting. At the center is a young woman, dressed in a hat and coat, holding a baby with a young boy at her left side, holding onto her coat.

Illustration of an MGH pediatric ward, 1920s

Women lying in beds. One woman on the right is sitting in a rocking chair.

Former site of West Surgical Ward 29, 1888

black & white photo. The girl's dark hair is fashion into a short bowl cut.

Former pediatric ward

Building with columns, and railings are visible behind the columns.

Veranda for the pediatric wards, 1937

black & white photo of large, sunlit room with eighty beds in view with four nurses and five patients

Former location of women’s medical ward

A room with a bed, over-bed table, and a curtained window

Former Location of Isolation Room

Former location of chemistry laboratories

A walled-off pit with wood and concrete inside.

What remains of the wharf

Microscopic image, mostly with small and large violet-colored spots and a few smaller ones are magenta in color.

Changing attitudes about syphilis patients

Loose clay head sculpture cast in bronze

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

Portrait of Stanley Cobb, MD

A grid of 25 video screens with a person holding up a painting they did of the Bulfinch building in each frame.

The building as artistic inspiration

painting of white-haired man seated in an office environment. He is leaning forward, resting his left arm on his desk, and holding a pair of glasses with both hands.

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

painting of a white-haired, seated man wearing a gray suit, glasses and a red tie. Behid him is an illustrated oriental screen

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

painting of white-haired, seated man, wearing glasses, a gray suit, and a bow tie.

Portrait of W. Nicholas Thorndike (1933-2021)

painting of a gray-haired, seated man in a 3-piece gray sit and blue tie. He is holding a pair of glasses in his right hand.

Portrait of John Endicott Lawrence (1910-2007)

oil painting of a seated man in a suit. The man has gray hair and a mustache

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

Original exterior wall

Dark carved wood box with gold details

Ding

painting of a bespectacled, gray-haired man in a gray suit, white shirt, and red tie, resting his left arm on a fireplace mantel

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

white marble (?) bust

Bust of Jacob Bigelow, MD (1786-1879)

Oil painting

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

Portrait of Anna Lyman Gray (1853-1932)

oil painting

Portrait of Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfeld (1939-2017)

painting detail for audio-only video

Samuel O. Thier, MD: Prison break!

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

Impressionistic, full-figure painting

Portrait of Jane Claflin

woodcarving with painted gold accents

The mystery of the Coat of Arms

painting

Portrait of Yvonne Munn, RN (1928-2017)

oil painting

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

Realistic painting from photo reference of Francis J. Bonner with part of the Bulfinch Building exterior in the background

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

painted portrait

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

Oil painting in late gold rectangular frame with oval cut-out

Portrait of James Jackson, MD (1777-1867)

painting in gold frame

Portrait of Samuel Eliot (1739-1820)

Simon Willard Cabinet Clock, 1821

oil painting in thick gold frame

Portrait of Abraham Touro (1774-1882)

Floorplan sketch

Former lives of the Trustees Room

black & white group photo of fourteen men, each identified by writing in the margins of the frame

Group photo on the Bulfinch steps

oil painting

Edward P. Lawrence

hand-written letter

Isolation Room, 1924

yellowed receipt

Former location of patient toilets, 1924

side-by-side columns of text on yellowed paper

Laundry chute

color photo of several people around a conference room table, raising glasses of champagne

Jack W. Szostak, PhD

color photo of ambulances lined up in front of hospital

Extraordinary times, extraordinary people

An 1876 receipt for mosquito netting for beds

Former site of House Pupils’ bedroom, 1872

1821 line engraving

Approximate site of beginning of 1846 extension

black & white photo of two men in a library. The man on the left is in a wheelchair, reaching for a book, and the man in the right reading in a rocking chair

Former site of the Warren Library

color photo of library room

Original location of Treadwell Library

black & group photo of several rows of people standing in white uniforms. Each person's last name is written on their chests

Ether Day Commemoration, October 16, 1942

black & white phot go building with top demolished

Building demolition, July 7, 1937

black & white aerial photo of MGH

Aerial view of the MGH, January 27, 1937

black & white photo shows four people, including a woman examing a girl's posture in a mirror.

Publicity campaign, 1926

Bulfinch yard, ca. 1919

Three black & white photos: The two on top, oval frames, are both portrait of Sara E. Parsons—in a nurse's uniform on the left and a military uniform on the right. The bottom photo features 5 men in a rectangular frame.

World War I effort, ca. 1917

Two stacked black & white photos, each showing an old automobile with various people in or around

Ambulance service, 1908 and 1912

Sepia-toned photo of 9 people performing an operation

Bradlee Ward, ca. 1906

sepia-toned photo of eight men in white coats attending an operation, with several dark-suited men in the theater rows above observing

Bigelow Operating Theatre, January 31, 1903

9 square black & white photos, there rows of three images. Most feature various exterior view of the campus but the center photo shows 5 men in white uniforms

Views of the MGH, ca. 1899

black & white photo of several nurses and bed-ridden patient in a large tented room

Tent Ward, 1898

Sepia-toned group portrait of ten seated women wearing identical nurse uniforms

Training School for Nurses, 1898

Two stacked sepia-toned photos. Top: male patient, three male attendants, a female nurse, and a man in a dark suit in a room. Bottom: three women in beds in the background and a child in the foreground, looking at the camera

Surgical wards, ca. 1897

sepia-toned photo of several men in white coats attending an operation, with many more men in the theater rows above observing

Bigelow Operating Theatre, ca. 1867

black & white photo hallway with two nurses standing at doorways on each side

Pavilion Wards, ca. 1878

Ten black & white photos: Larger group photo of six men in top hats in the center surrounded by ten smaller individual portraits

Boston physicians, ca. 1860s

black and white photo of three buildings on the wars egg. "A Photographic Album: Massachusetts General Hospital" is superimposed on the top

Massachusetts General Hospital, ca. 1856

black and white photo

Portrait of John Collins Warren (1778-1856)

ca. 1856 black and white photo of three buildings on the wars egg. "A Photographic Album: Massachusetts General Hospital" is superimposed on the top

A Photographic Album

black & white photo of apothecary room with several jars lining the wall on the right

Site of Apothecary

Four navy-colored ties, each with different designs embroidered in different colors

Bulfinch Memorabilia

black & white floorpan of Bulfinch building's first floor with a red circles around room "E" and corresponding text in the key; "E Ice Room & Cold Storage"

Ice room and cold storage, 1872

black & white photo of a man sitting in fron of a large device with a cylinder resting on his right arm

Potential site of Dodd’s X-ray

view from landing, looking down at the entryway door and lantern suspended overhead

Cantilevered Steps

black & white photo of a long table with several chairs

Site of House Pupils’ dining room, 1872

“Teeth in the bathroom!”

black & white photo of painting

Nursing quarters, in a nurse’s words

Diet kitchen, 1924

painting of white-haired woman in a nurse's uniform, with two medallions on the left breast pocket. Her right hand is resting onan open book and some papers.

Portrait of Sally Johnson, RN (1880-1957)