Online Exhibits
Most of what follow are panel exhibits that have appeared in the Russell Museum’s Putnam Gallery and other spaces on the MGH campus. Please pardon the PDF format as we work to make the exhibits more accessible.
"Ward 4: A Legacy of Discovery," 2025
In the early 1900s, research in the U.S. began to mature with the emergence of clinical research centers: hospital units designed, equipped, and staffed to advance medical knowledge. At MGH, that unit, opened in 1925, was known as Ward 4. This exhibit covers the century-long history and continued work of the unit, now called the Translational and Clinical Research Center, and its impact on clinical research around the world. Click here to view.
MGH Photo Lab History Booklet, 2025
The 2025 Patricia R. Austen, RN, MGH History Award was given to the hospital’s Photography Lab, recognizing, as its manager Sarah Evans put it, its “nearly 140 years of incredible talent and dedication to the hospital’s mission and our collective responsibility to document its history.” For more about the Photo Lab’s influence—from the early days of photography to its documentation of COVID, surgical firsts and a Nobel Prize win—view this booklet.
"2024 Mass General Research Institute Image Awards Finalists," 2025
The finalists of this yearly contest ranged from stunning microscopy to the wholly unexpected. Click here to view.
"A Legacy of Healing, a Future of Hope: 200 Years of Mass Eye and Ear," 2024
For its bicentennial, neighboring institution Mass Eye and Ear mounted an exhibit at the Russell Museum to celebrate its rich history as a renowned specialty hospital. Click here to view.
"Shop Talk Heard 'Round the World: The Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital," 2023-2024
This exhibit, adapted from Proto magazine, celebrated the centennial of arguably the most famous teaching tool in medicine. Click here to view.
Exhibit credits: Design by Alexander Knowlton, adapted from Proto magazine by Anita Slomski. Illustrations by Christopher Buzelli. Special thanks to Sally Ebeling, Nancy Lee Harris, MD, David Louis, MD, Scott Podolsky, MD, Eric Rosenberg, MD, and Darren Taichman, MD.
"Celebrating 150 Years of Nursing Education at Massachusetts General Hospital," 2023
This exhibit commemorated the influence of the MGH School of Nursing, which operated from 1873 to 1981. Click here to view.
"Celebrating Nurses Month 2022: Ruth Sleeper, RN, BS, MA," 2022
Ruth Sleeper revolutionized nursing practice and training. Click here to view.
"Four Pillars, One Mission," 2022
This exhibit described past and present of the hospital’s four missions: care, research, education and community. Click here to view.
"200 Years of Patient Care: The Patient Pioneer Series," 2021
Part of MGH’s yearlong commemoration of the hospital’s first patient in 1821, museum staff produced videos celebrating other notable MGH first patients:
Maureen Chapman, the first non-infant patient placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) at MGH
Edward Mari, the first patient to undergo a minimally invasive tricuspid valve replacement at MGH
David Monnot, the first patient to receive CAR-T therapy for central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma at MGH
Courtney Joyce, the first patient to receive high-dose nitric oxide (for cystic fibrosis) at MGH
Peter Vieira, the first patient to be treated at MGH’s Gordon-Browne Proton Therapy Center
"A Light in the Darkness: Florence Nightingale's Legacy," 2020
In celebration of Nightingale’s 200th birthday, the World Health Organization declared 2020 The Year of the Nurse and Midwife. Click here to view.
"The Medium is the Message: MGH's School of Medical Illustration 1941-1967," 2018
This school was a short but influential chapter in the hospital’s history. Click here to view.
"Bostonian and Haligonian: Aid After the Halifax Explosion 1917," 2017
When an explosion rocked Halifax, Nova Scotia, MGHers responded. Click here to view.