2025 LAMPHHS Annual Meeting, April 30-May 1 (Boston, MA)
This year’s LAMPHHS meeting will be held in Boston, Massachusetts on April 30 and May 1, 2025. This will be the third Boston gathering in our organization’s history, following meetings held here in 1980 and 2003. Registration for the conference, tours, and dinner is now closed. Please see the full schedule of programming here.
2025’s Annual Meeting marks 50 years of LAMPHHS (and its predecessors, ALHHS and MeMA)! This presentation, compiled by Stephen Greenberg, includes photos from meetings and associated gatherings of years past.
Lodging
The conference hotel is:
Sheraton Boston Hotel
39 Dalton St
Boston, MA 02199
The hotel is accepting room reservations through the American Association for the History of Medicine’s discounted block. Rooms are available from April 29-May 3 at $279 per night plus 16.45% state and local taxes. You can book online or by calling (617) 236-42000 and letting the person you speak with know that you are booking through the American Association for the History of Medicine room block.
The cutoff date for the special rate for the hotel is April 9, though the block may fill before then.
Travel to Boston
Logan International Airport (BOS) serves Boston. A free shuttle will take you from the airport to Back Bay. (Return shuttle tickets are $3, and you can buy them online). Make sure to get off at the 800 Boylston St stop in front of the Prudential Center. You’ll be around the corner from the hotel.
The city is served by Amtrak train routes from points west, north, and south. Of the city’s major train stations, Back Bay is the closest one to the hotel. A fifteen minute walk or bus ride will get you from that station to the hotel.
If you drive to the conference, you’ll need to pay for parking. Valet parking at the hotel costs $70 per day. Other local garages offer daily rates; they will be quite expensive.
Getting Around Boston
We encourage conference attendees to take public transit to travel between the hotel and Countway and to the tour venues. Boston’s MBTA system now allows you to pay your fare by tapping your credit card chip on board. No special ticket or pass required. Bus trips cost $1.70 per ride. Subway trips are $2.40.
Conference Venue
Thursday’s LAMPHHS program will be held on Harvard Medical School’s campus in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area. The campus is home to the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine and its Center for the History of Medicine.
Travel from the hotel to Harvard Medical School takes 15-20 minutes on the 39 bus (outbound towards Forest Hills) or the Green Line E branch (outbound towards Heath St).
Wednesday Night Dinner
The traditional pre-conference dinner will be held from 6-9pm on April 30th at Trident Booksellers & Cafe. Trident is located at 338 Newbury St., a short walk from the Sheraton. The dinner costs $75 per person, and you’ll be able to sign up when you register.
The menu will include a buffet with several entree choices and side dishes, as well as beer and wine, coffee, and desserts.
The venue is accessible. Most dietary needs can be accommodated.
Tours
When you register, you will have the opportunity to sign up for a tour (or several!) All tours are held on Wednesday, April 30 and are free. A member of the LAC will communicate with each tour group about meeting to take public transit from the hotel to the tour venue.
Center for the History of Medicine at Countway Library & Boston Children’s Hospital
- 11:30am-1pm
- 1:30pm-3pm
This joint tour will begin at Countway Library. Attendees will see highlights and staff favorites from a variety of collections related to surgery, public health, nutrition, and reproductive health, as well as anatomical atlases. Our first stop is the Center’s gallery which hosts numerous unique and significant instruments, objects, and anatomical artifacts (like Phineas Gage’s skull and an early plethysmograph). Then we will spend time with a hands-on display in the Center’s reading room and the Prescriptions for Peace exhibition.
The group will then walk a few blocks through the heart of the Longwood Medical Area, to Boston Children’s Hospital, and receive a campus tour of historical highlights led by the Archives Program. Attendees will learn about the people, places and breakthroughs at Boston Children’s that have helped shape the field of pediatric medicine since the hospital’s founding in 1869. With exclusive access to artifacts and exhibits not generally open to the public, we hope attendees will come away with an example of how a small archives team utilizes outreach to promote collection services by connecting users and stakeholders to the immense and ongoing history of an active institution
Paul Russell Museum at Massachusetts General Hospital & Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
- 1:30-3pm
- Drop-in hours from 3-5pm
This joint tour will begin at Mass Eye and Ear, home to a world-class collection of books and artifacts related to ophthalmology and otolaryngology. Attendees will enjoy an open house in the Rare Book Room, featuring medical instruments, prostheses, and books dating back to 1490, as well as a visit to the Howe Library’s new exhibit on the history of medical illustration. From there, we walk to the Mass General Hospital’s first operating theater. On October 16, 1846, this theater – now known as the Ether Dome – hosted the first successfully publicly demonstrated use of surgical anesthesia in a patient. The tour will finish at the Mass General Hospital’s Russell Museum of Medical History and Innovation, where visitors will find an 1846 ether inhaler, 19th century surgical instruments, and a host of interactive exhibits highlighting past and present medical innovation.
Missed the tour? Feel free to drop by the MGH Russell Museum, the MGH Ether Dome and Mass Eye and Ear Rare Book Room for a look at these sites during special LAMPHHS open hours.
Massachusetts Historical Society
- 3:30-4:30pm
Attendees will receive a private tour of the nation’s oldest historical society and learn more about the institution’s history and collections. The tour will include public-facing and behind-the-scenes spaces. In conjunction with AAHM, a medicine-themed exhibition will be on display.