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- Ohio Medical College Students with Surgical Instruments, Dissecting Cadaver, circa 1876 - Late 19th-century medical schools employed cadaver dissection to teach human anatomy. A post-mortem dissection -- using bodies supplied by prisons or poorhouses or, sometimes, obtained from grave robbers -- became an important rite of passage for medical school students, who documented this instruction through photography. Photographs like this were personal reminders of a student's professional transformation and usually not intended for general viewing.
- circa 1876
- Collections - Artifact
Ohio Medical College Students with Surgical Instruments, Dissecting Cadaver, circa 1876
Late 19th-century medical schools employed cadaver dissection to teach human anatomy. A post-mortem dissection -- using bodies supplied by prisons or poorhouses or, sometimes, obtained from grave robbers -- became an important rite of passage for medical school students, who documented this instruction through photography. Photographs like this were personal reminders of a student's professional transformation and usually not intended for general viewing.