The Ether Room is located within Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) at 55 Fruit Street. It was the site of the first public use of ether as an anesthetic and now serves as a lecture room and museum. Access to Ether Room is free and usually open daily from 9am-5pm, however, it may be closed on occasion due to scheduled lectures. Having visited the site on multiple occasions, I have personally never had any issues getting in.
How do you access the Ether Room? What you’re going to want to do walks through the main entrance doors to MGH and follow the signs to the Bulfinch wing (marked with purple letters). You’ll basically go to the left of the front desk while walking straight and make a right just past Coffee Central. From there it should be well signed for you. The Ether Room is on the 4th floor so you will have to climb some steps to get there. Once you get to the Ether Room there will be a black telephone and a sign detailing the extension to dial to call security. When security picks up just kindly ask for permission to visit the Ether Room and they will be happy to buzz you in.
Upon entering the Ether Room one of the first things you will no doubt notice is that the acoustics in this room are fabulous. It’s like walking a house with all hardwood floors. The room, to describe it, is a ruined amphitheatre that is painted almost entirely in white with a green rotunda in the center of the room. In the front of the room is a lecture podium while the back has 6-levels of steel chairs situated on a steep incline. You will also notice a series of glass cases on both sides of the room.
From 1818 to 1868 the Ether Room was supposedly home to more than 8000 operations, which were performed in this room. Post 1868, the room was transformed into a storage area, dormitory, dining area and most recently a lecture room.
The event for which this room is most noted and actually named for (although no one is quite clear as to when the name officially came into effect), however, is the historic event which occurred here on October 16, 1846 at approximately 10:15am. It was on this day that ether was used as an anesthetic on a patient. The patient was a 20-year old printer and editor by the name of Edward Gilbert Abbott. Mr. Abbott had a tumor located just underneath his jaw. He was authorized via a sponge dipped in either by a local dentist, William Thomas Green Morton. The procedure was performed by local surgeon and 1st dean of Harvard Medical School, John Collins Warren. Onlookers sat in this very auditorium and watched in amazement as Dr. Warren painlessly cut into the patient. When inquired about the experience after his surgery, the patient Mr. Abbott, claimed he had experienced no pain and only felt the sensation of a blunt object touching his skin. After checking on his patient, Dr. Warren then turned towards his audience to declare his success by stating, “Gentlemen, this is no humbug.”
Directly behind the podium you will see a painting which commemorates this surgery. Now what is interesting regarding this 107’ painting is that it is a recent addition. In January of 2000, twenty physicians from MGH actually donned costumes from the mid-1800s and recreated the scene from the famous surgery. Two hired artists, Warren and Lucia Prosperi, then took numerous photos of the actor surgeons so as to create the painting.
Just to the left of the painting and podium you will notice an Egyptian mummy. This is MGH’s friend, Padihershef, otherwise often referred to just as paid. The pad was one of the 1st mummies brought to the US. He was a gift from a Dutch merchant and officially arrived in Boston in 1823. Less than 1 month after his arrival to MGH Padihershef began a one-year tour of the US where visitors paid almost 25 cents, a sizeable sum in the early 1800s, to view the mummy. Per MGH officials, his tour helped raise almost $1 million for the hospital.
Little is known about Padi although scientists have been able to discern some facts about him via the hieroglyphs and inscriptions on the inside and outside of the sarcophagus. From these they were able to determine that Padihershef (who was named after the Egyptian god, Hershef, the god of water and fertility) was an unwed stone-cutter who died in his 40s. He was from the city of Thebes, and it is likely his tomb only survived because he was a commoner and not of royalty, thus grave robbers would have not attempted to loot his tomb knowing no valuables may exist inside.
Padi’s neighbor to his right is a marble statue of the god Apollo. This statue was actually created in the Louvre in Paris and a gift in 1845 from Massachusetts congressman, Edward Everett. Edward, was of course, best known for being the keynote speaker on the eve of Abraham Lincoln’s infamous Gettysburg Address. Edward’s 2 hour speech has fallen into anonymity versus the two minute speech delivered by President Lincoln.
Lastly, if you wish to get the “complete” Ether Room experience there are, of course, 2 glass cases on either side of the room. Within each of these cases are some examples of old surgical equipment if you’re so inclined as to view.
A tributary statue celebrating the first use of ether may be visited in the Boston Public Garden. To read more about this monument you may read here.
- Website: http://www.massgeneral.org/history/exhibits/etherdome/
- Address: 55 Fruit Street, Bulfinch Building, 4th Floor, Boston, MA
- Cost: Free
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