Photography, dissection and medical students

The most common dissection image is the group portrait showing students gathered around the dissection table in gross anatomy class. Typically, these images feature the three or four students that worked together on the same cadaver, but some images include up to a dozen or more students. Students are dressed for dissecting class, adorned with protective aprons, smocks, or long coats and, as time progresses, surgical caps and gloves. Tables are often inscribed with the school name and students' class year. Some photos were essentially class pictures, which conveyed the pride associated with becoming a member of the medical profession. In such large group images students are often arrayed on school steps or in the anatomical amphitheatre, and have as a companion a skeleton or cadaver. In such settings students usually have on their best attire.