Anesthesia, Addiction, and Asylums: The Private Life of Dr. Freeman Allen

Join Gibson House Museum curator Hailey Robbins for a lecture on Dr. Freeman Allen, Massachusetts General Hospital’s first staff anesthetist and husband of Mary Ethel Gibson. A prominent Boston doctor, Freeman struggled behind closed doors with addiction to morphine and spent the last years of his life in and out of mental health facilities. All the while, Ethel served as his confidant, support system, and anchor.

Content Warning: This lecture discusses mental illness, opiate addiction, alcoholism, suicide, and grief. Please listen with caution. If you or a loved one is struggling with mental illness or addiction, please visit https://namimass.org/resources/ for support. You are not alone.