Massachusetts General Hospital history

In 1816 the Trustees bought and renovated an estate in Charlestown (in an area later absorbed by Somerville) for use as the mental illness facility of Mass General.

On September 3, 1821, the hospital admitted its first patient into the building that had been designed by Boston architect Charles Bulfinch.

The hospital opened in 1823.

The first successful public demonstration of the use of ether as an anesthetic in surgery, on October 16, 1846, was carried out by MGH co-founder Doctor John Collins Warren.

Two 1878 graduates of the Massachusetts General Hospital Training School for Nurses, Sophia Palmer and Mary E. P. Davis, founded the American Journal of Nursing, the first independent nursing publication to be owned and operated by nurses.

In the 1880's, interest in brain surgery increased, and Doctor John Elliot performed several trephinations for brain tumors, three of which were witnessed by Doctor Harvey Cushing during his years at the MGH as medical student and intern.

Though MGH’s Ida M. Cannon and Doctor Richard Cabot are credited with establishing the first Social Service department located within a hospital, Cannon was preceded by Garnet Pelton, a 1903 graduate of the MGH Training School for Nurses.

In 1911, all brain surgery was placed in the hands of Doctor S. J. Mixter.

He later shared the assignment with his son, Doctor W. J. Mixter, who described herniation of the intervertebral disc with Doctor J. S. Barr and became the first Chief of the Neurosurgical Service at MGH in 1939.

1782 (opening of Harvard Medical School) – 2011 (MGH bicentennial). MGH access only.