The Cushing Center — Attraction in New Haven

An intriguing little museum located a couple floors down in the Yale Medical School. This was one of those places that we’d heard about living and working in New Haven, but didn’t take the opportunity to visit until we had family in town who were really interested in it.

It was a great time! The staff who helped us find it once we arrived at the building were wonderful. They gave us a keycard to scan in and let us enjoy the museum at our own pace. Yale ID holders can request swipe access to the museum ahead of time, which we did to be safe, but didn’t end up needing our IDs to get in.

The collection of brains, and the history of Harvey Cushing, is fascinating, and it’s incredible how much documentation they have of his life...

The manager? Curator? Ms. Dagradi let us through the Cushing museum with such skill, intelligence, knowledge, perspective, and energy that I wonder why her name and photograph aren’t there? I hope Yale is acknowledging its staff appropriately. I mentioned this because I worked at a different university where the actual work done by people is erased and attributed to people with fancy titles. This museum is a gem through...

Really interesting place to go visit when you have nothing to do. I was the only person in there, and considering it's in a library basement, there's a bit of a weird smell (most likely due to the preservation fluid the specimens are contained in). It's free, open pretty much all year, and a very interesting look into the history of neurosurgery. Also you get a free postcard for signing the...