Henry K. Beecher, M.D. (left), Harvard’s first Anaesthetist-in-Chief, grew up in Kansas as Harry Unangst, a bookish and self-sufficient lad. Young Harry would adopt the surname Beecher before matriculating at Harvard Medical School. As a medical student, Beecher’s research prowess impressed Edward Churchill, M.D., Professor of Surgery. In 1936, Churchill would appoint Beecher, then merely a novice anaesthetist, as Chief of Anaesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Seven years later, Beecher would follow his mentor into the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, where battles were “bitterly contested.” Away from the MGH’s hallowed halls, the battlefield became both Beecher’s laboratory, and Beecher’s clinic. When he was not resuscitating wounded soldiers in “shock tents” (upper right) near the front lines, Beecher was scribbling furious notes and analyzing copious data on patients in hemorrhagic shock. Within two years, his investigations would lead to more efficient and effective rescue measures. Several treatments—elevation of the foot of the bed, nasal oxygen supplementation, whole blood transfusion, gastric drainage, and close monitoring of blood pressure—became the standard of care (lower right, from Beecher HK, Resuscitation and Anesthesia for Wounded Men, Charles C. Thomas, 1949). For his exceptional efforts in wartime, Lieutenant Colonel Henry K. Beecher would receive the prestigious Legion of Merit. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)