John Collins Warren Papers 1738-1926 Guide to the Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketches Sources Collection Description Related Materials Arrangement Acquisition Information Organization Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms Materials Removed

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketches

Joseph Warren (1741-1775), born in Roxbury, Mass., on June 11, 1741, was a physician and soldier who became a leader in the American Revolution. He graduated from Harvard in 1759 and began practicing medicine in 1764. A close friend of Samuel Adams, Warren was an outspoken opponent of naval impressment and the Stamp Act of 1765. He was a member of the Boston Committee of Safety and, with Samuel Adams and James Otis, helped to form the first Committee of Correspondence in November 1772. In 1774, Warren drafted the "Suffolk Resolves," which advocated forcible resistance to the British and placed the colony of Massachusetts in open rebellion against the British government. He delivered an important oration on March 5, 1775, commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Boston Massacre. On the night of April 18, 1775, he dispatched William Dawes and Paul Revere on their famous "Midnight Rides" to Lexington and Concord, and he fought alongside General Heath in the battle the following day. Warren was a member of the first, second and third Provincial Congresses between 1774 and 1775 and president of the third. On June 14, 1775, he was appointed second major-general of the Massachusetts forces. He was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill just three days later on June 17.

John Warren (1753-1815), brother of Joseph Warren, was born in Roxbury, Mass., in 1753. A 1771 graduate of Harvard, he became a leading surgeon in New England. He served in the Revolution and was a founder of the medical school at Harvard, where in 1782 he was appointed professor of anatomy and surgery.

John Collins Warren (1778-1856), son of John Warren, was born in Boston, Mass. The son and nephew of famous Boston doctors, he also became a surgeon. After graduating from Harvard, he studied surgery with his father, completed his education in Europe, and finally set up a practice in Boston in 1802. Warren was a member of the Harvard Medical School faculty for most of his career (1809-1847), serving as dean from 1816-1819. He was active in reforming medical education and practice in the U.S. and became one of the founders of Massachusetts General Hospital. On October 16, 1846, Warren performed the first operation using ether as an anesthesia (administered by dentist W.T.G. Morton), and he was the first American to operate on a strangulated hernia. He wrote an important book on his speciality, Surgical Observations on Tumours (1837).

Jonathan Mason Warren (1811-1867), son of John Collins Warren, was born on February 5, 1811. He received his medical degree from Harvard in 1832 and studied in Europe before returning to practice in Boston in 1835. In 1846, he was appointed visiting surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital. Warren specialized in plastic and reconstructive surgery and performed the earliest rhinoplastic operations in the U.S. He also worked with skin grafts and developed a procedure for closure of the cleft palate. Warren died on August 19, 1867.

John Collins Warren II (1842-1927), son of Jonathan Mason Warren, was born in Boston, Mass. He was a surgeon associated with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital for most of his professional career. He studied for three years in Europe before returning to the U.S. in 1869 to begin practice in Boston. His most important book, based on his studies of infectious bacteria, was called Surgical Pathology and Therapeutics (1895).

Sources

For additional biographical information, see:

Frothingham, Richard. Life and Times of Joseph Warren. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown & Company, 1865.

Truax, Rhoda. The Doctors Warren of Boston: First Family of Surgery. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1968.

Warren, Edward. The Life of John Collins Warren, M.D.: Compiled Chiefly from his Autobiography and Journals. Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, 1860.

Warren, Edward. The Life of John Warren, M.D.: Surgeon-General During the War of the Revolution; First Professor of Anatomy and Surgery in Harvard College; President of the Massachusetts Medical Society, etc. Boston, Mass.: Noyes, Holmes and Co., 1874.

Collection Description

The John Collins Warren papers, housed in 23 document boxes, 84 bound volumes, and 2 oversize boxes, document the lives and careers of four generations of Warren family physicians: General Joseph Warren (1741-1775), John Warren (1753-1815), John Collins Warren (1778-1856), Jonathan Mason Warren (1811-1867), and John Collins Warren (1842-1927) (hereafter John Collins Warren II). The collection is divided into three series: I. Loose manuscripts, II. Bound volumes, and III. Oversize material. Series I contains general Warren papers, including genealogical materials, Joseph Warren's 1775 oration commemorating the Boston Massacre, and John Warren's Revolutionary War diary. Series II primarily consists of medical account books, ledgers, and journals (both personal and medical). Series III contains miscellaneous oversize material.

Subjects described in the papers include general medicine, medical aspects of the American Revolution, the founding and early years of the Harvard Medical School, the Massachusetts General Hospital, the controversy over the first use of ether as anesthesia, and phrenology.

Related Materials

The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) holds the following materials related to the John Collins Warren papers:

John Collins Warren additions, 1842-1929. Ms. N-1731.1.

John Collins Warren papers II, 1756-1857. Ms. N-1732.

John Collins Warren photographs, ca. 1850-1918. Photo. Coll. 192.

John Warren papers, 1765-1821. Ms. N-838 (Tall).

Joseph Warren account books, 1763-1788. Ms. N-2074 (XT).

Arrangement

The loose manuscripts in this collection (series I) were originally tipped into 46 volumes, and each document was individually cataloged in the MHS catalog, indexed by volume and page number. However, those 46 volumes have since been disbound and the documents rehoused into 23 archival boxes, rendering the volume and page numbers in the catalog obsolete. Researchers should disregard these numbers and instead access items by date, except for the topical volumes, such as those relating to Spurzheim and anesthesia, which are still arranged by subject.

The arrangement of the rest of the volumes in this collection (series II) has not been disturbed, with the exception of volume 115, which has been disbound and is now located in box 23. Original volume numbers in this series, beginning with volume 47, have been retained.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Dr. J. Collins Warren, April 1921.

Oration of General Joseph Warren and diary of Dr. John Warren, 19 April 1775-11 May 1776, deposited by J. Collins Warren.

Journal of Jonathan Mason Warren, 1834, deposited by Joseph Warren, 26 Sep. 1955.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series:

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

John Collins Warren papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.

Materials Removed from the Collection

Photographs from this collection have been removed to the John Collins Warren photographs. Photo. Coll. 192.