Henry K. Beecher was a pioneering American anesthesiologist, medical ethicist, and investigator of the placebo effect. An article by Beecher in 1966 on unethical medical experimentation in the New England Journal of Medicine – “Ethics and Clinical Research” – was instrumental in the implementation of federal rules on human experimentation and informed consent. This image will feature in an upcoming video series produced by Massachusetts General Hospital celebrating this week’s 175th anniversary of the first successful public demonstration of the use of ether for surgical anesthesia, making pain-free surgery possible. The videos will highlight the work of important Massachusetts General Hospital anesthesiologists throughout time. The sitting record shows that Dr. Beecher was photographed at Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University.