March 1, 2002

It appeared to be a normal day in the operating room for David Bernstein, MD, former chief resident in MGH Anesthesia and Critical Care. The only difference was that in the far corner of the operating room, photographer Mike Robinson was visually documenting Bernstein's pre-surgical administration of anesthesia in a shoot for Discover magazine.

Robinson, who hails from Toronto, wasn't taking photographs for an article about cutting-edge medicine, a new kind of surgical procedure or anything related to health care at all, for that matter. Robinson also isn't an average shutterbug: He is a self-taught daguerreotypist — one of only a few in the world who have mastered the lost art of making daguerreotypes. Daguerreotypes are an early form of photography created by a process using a light-sensitive metallic plate and mercury vapor for developing.

Robinson during the developing process.

The MGH is no stranger to this type of photography, which is why the hospital agreed to be profiled in the magazine. In October 1846, within weeks of the first demonstration of ether used as an anesthetic during a surgical procedure in the MGH Ether Dome, hospital administrators hired a local firm to take a series of daguerreotypes in that operating room for documentation of the history-making procedure.

Operating Room staff pose for the daguerreotype.

When Robinson came to the MGH last winter, his two-day visit was made possible by numerous departments, including the operating room staff and the MGH Photography Department. The daguerreotype article is featured in the February issue of Discover.