Warren Anatomical Museum and Phineas Gage

The Warren Anatomical Museum at the Countway Library of Medicine houses medical specimens and artifacts, including the skull and tamping iron associated with Phineas Gage, a 19th-century railroad worker who survived a traumatic brain injury. Gage's case became a foundational and much-discussed example in neuroscience for alleged personality changes after brain injury. The museum's collection of preserved anatomical specimens and surgical artifacts has long attracted attention for its macabre and historically significant material. Interpretations of Gage's personality changes and their significance remain debated among historians and scientists.