Haunting Images: Photography, Dissection and Medical Students

Group portraits

The most common dissection image is the group portrait showing students gathered around the dissection table in gross anatomy class. Typically, these images feature the three or four students that worked together on the same cadaver, but some images include up to a dozen or more students. Students are dressed for dissecting class, adorned with protective aprons, smocks, or long coats and, as time progresses, surgical caps and gloves. Tables are often inscribed with the school name and students' class year.

Dittrik image 1999-34-21Dittrick image 1999-34-17

Postcards     Tomfoolery & Humor     Class Photographs

Dessection book cover
Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in
American Medicine 1880-1930

By John Harley Warner and James M. Edmonson.
Read more about the book and get an order form here.