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Portrait
Artist: Osgood (of Salem, MA)
Date Created: 1830
Date Acquired: 1950
MGH Department Affiliation: Administration
Bartlett, Reverend John
Catalog Number: 78
Oil painting, 26" x 22", 27.5" x 23.5" with frame.
Reverend John Bartlett (1784-1849) was the minister of the 2nd Congregational Church of Marblehead. He was also chaplain of the Alms House on Leverett Street (Boston) and minister to the poor of the West and North Ends from 1807-1810. His experiences there, "seeing the distress of the sick and insane of Boston," led him to call a meeting of prominent Bostonians in March of 1810, to consider "the establishment of a hospital for the insane." The result of that meeting, which included Drs. John C. Warren and James Jackson, was the formation of a committee to "consider and report on the expediency of establishing a General Hospital for the reception of the sick, lunatics & pregnant women, who may need such an Asylum." The activities of this committee led directly to the founding of both Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital.
A man of great social consciousness, he also founded the first local Sunday schools in the area; the Female Humane Society (1816), later known as the Dorcas Society; the Moral Union Society (1817), the Braid & Straw Society (1826), formed to furnish poor women with equipment & supplies to be able to work at home; and the Marblehead Lyceum (1830). Bartlett Hall on the MGH main campus is named for him (see Record #201).
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