NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDiaNE REFERENCE DIVISION SELECTED OIL PORTRAITS IN THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE A Series of Sketches Department of Health, Education and Welfare Public Health Service Washington, D„ C. January, 1958 INTRODUCTION Six years have elapsed since the publication of the leaflet MAFML 1 Portraits; a series of sketches , which was compiled by Mrs. Ethel M. Chase of the Library staff in 1952. Prompted by a number of requests to reprint this leaflet, the present revision is prepared. It is hoped that it will prove a useful guide Photographic reproductions of all portraits included in this revision have been prepared and may be obtained from the Art Section, Reference Division, National Library of Medicine at a nominal charge 1. U.S. Armed Forces Medical Library* AFML Portraits; a series of sketches. 23 p» [Washington* D. C. ] 1952. wz 140 biW WO* «'IW of t.:£D:=i;« ^IHINGTON, D. C. OIL PORTRAITS GUIDE TO THEIR LOCATION IN THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE MAIN READING ROOM x BARNES BILLINGS JONES SHIPPEN CRANE GARRISON LOVELL x CRAIK TILTON ^\ GORGAS MOORE FLETCHER BEAUMONT Barker Bichat Hammond Morton Otis Physick Sydenham PORTRAITS HANGING IN OTHER AREAS IN LIBRARY Art Section Art Section West wall stairwell, between first and second floors. Art Section Office of Chief, Reference Division Art Section Art Section LIST OF PORTRAITS Barker, Benjamin F0 Barnes, Joseph K. Beaumont, William Bichat, Marie-Francois-Xavier Billings, John Shaw Craik, James Crane, Charles H0 Fletcher, Robert Garrison, Fielding H. Gorgas, William C. Hammond, William A. Jones, Harold W„ Lovell, Joseph Moore, John Morton, Samuel G. Otis, George A. Physick, Philip Syng Shippen, William Sydenham, Thomas Tilton, James BENJAMIN F0 BARKER 1818 - 1891 The signed portrait in oil of Benjamin Fordyce Barker, one of the founders of New York Medical College, was painted in 1874 by the New York artist, Jacob He Lazarus (1822«1891)0 Benjamin Fordyce Barker was born May 2, 1818, in Wilton, Maine. A graduate of Bowdoin Medical College in 1837, he continued his studies in Edinburgh and Paris, He entered practice in New York City in 1850. In 1852 he became obstetric physician to BeUevue Hospital and in 1860, professor of clinical midwifery and diseases of women in Bellevue Hospital Medical College. Dr. Barker was consulting physician to Bellevue Hospital, the Nursery and Child's Hospital, St. Elizabeth's Hospital, the Cancer Hospital, and for several years surgeon of the Women's Hospital. He was a member of many medical associations, notably the New York Academy of Medicine, of which he was president from 1878 to 1884; the New York County Medical Society; the New York Obstetrical Society; the New York Pathological Society; the New York Medical and Surgical Society; the Medical Society of the State of New York, of which he was formerly president; and the American Gynecological Society, of which he was the first president in 1876, He was also Honorary Fellow of the Royal Medical Society of Athens, of the obstetrical societies of Edinburgh, London, Philadelphia, and Louisville, and of the Philadelphia College of Surgeons. In 1886, the University of Edinburgh conferred upon him the degree of LL.Do, which he already had received from Bowdoin and Columbia Colleges. Dr. Barker was without a rival in his generation as a consultant in obstetrics and contributed many lectures and papers to medical literature. He was the author of a standard work on puerperal diseases, which was published in 1874 and translated into Italian, French, German, and Spanish. He was also the author of a treatise on seasickness. He died May 30, 1891, in New York Citye JOSEPH K. BARNES 1817 - 1883 The portrait of Joseph K0 Barnes, Surgeon-General of the Army, 1864-1882, is one of many portraits of prominent individuals painted in Washington, D. C. by Flavius J. Fisher (1832-1905). General Barnes was born in Philadelphia, in 1817, After some twenty-three years of varied and extensive service as a medical officer, he was "empowered to take charge of the Bureau of the Medical Department of the Army, and to perform the duties of the Surgeon General during the absence of that officer." The following day he assumed the position of Acting Surgeon General, and when General Hammond [later vindicated] was dismissed from the Army by sentence of a court martial in 1864, Barnes was appointed Surgeon General and served as such until 1882. General Barnes was responsible for the con- tinuance of the collection of the Army Medical Museum, commenced by General Hammond, and for the detail of John Shaw Billings to the duty of creating a great medical library. He also stood stoutly for the rights of the Medical Department as to the control of general hospitals and hospital ships. On his recommendation, the Secretary of War (Mr. Stanton) issued orders as to such control, giving medical officers the right to command within their own sphere of action. General Barnes was the first Surgeon General of the Army to be retired by reason of age, causing his immediate relinquishment of active service. He had manifested indications of impaired health, however, for months prior to this event, and he died at his home in Washington, D. C» in 1883. WILLIAM BEAUMONT 1785 - 1853 The portrait of William Beaumont, is a copy by Ivan Summers, Army Medical Museum, from the original painting by Chester Harding, (1792 - 1866) which was painted during Beaumont's later years in St. Louis and which now hangs in the Beaumont Room in the Library of Washington University School of Medicine. William Beaumont was born on November 21, 1785 in Lebanon, Connecticut. He studied privately under a practitioner and after he earned his license to practise, enlisted in the army as a surgeon's mate during the war of 1812. Three years later he resigned to enter private practice and in 1820, he re-entered the army. In 1822 he revolutionized our knowledge of gastric digestion through his observations of the movements of the stomach in situ in Alexis St. Martin, a French Canadian boy in whose stomach an accidental gastric fistula was formed due to a shotgun wound. In 1824, Beaumont sent his report on St. Martin to Surgeon General Lovell and received from him a highly appreciative letter. In his letter the Surgeon General made some suggestions of value concerning future experi- mentation and showed his keen interest in the work Beaumont was doing. In 1839, Beaumont resigned from the Army and established private practice in St. Louis, until his death in 1853. MARIE - FRANCOIS - XAVIER BICHAT 1771 - 1802 The unsigned portrait of Marie - Francois - Xavier Bichat was presented to the Library over fifty years ago by the portrait artist Eliphalet Frazer Andrews (1835-1915) who was at that time Director of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Art School. The apt pupil of the surgeon Pierre Joseph Desault (1744-1795), Bichat was born in Thoirette, France, November 11, 1771, and earned throughout his life high rank as both clinician and anatomist. As creator of descriptive anatomy, he classified the tissues into twenty-one varieties, each tissue having its own particular kind of sensibility and contactility. He correlated pathological anatomy with physiology, and taught how to discriminate between disease processes. Bichat, with his emphasis on tissue pathology, stands midway between Morgagni, who stressed organ pathology and Virchow, who called attention to the pathological changes in the structure of cells. In his brief life span, Bichat was author of many important works. Among these, the most important were: "Traite* des membranes" (1799-1800), "Traite d'anatomie descriptive" (1801-1803), "Anatomie ggn-grale" and "Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort". On July 22, 1802, Bichat died. As to the cause of his death, there seem to be various opinions. Some writers say that it was due to an in- fection incurred at the dissecting table; others mention a fall down the hospital stairs which added to tuberculosis from which he had suffered for some time, ended his brilliant career at the age of thirty-one. JOHN SHAW BILLINGS 1838 - 1913 The full-length portrait of the Library's first Librarian, Dr. John Shaw Billings, is one of the most colorful in the collection0 Painted by Cecilia Beaux in 1895, the portrait was presented to the Library at a testimonial banquet in Philadelphia on November 30, 1895, by 260 physicians of the United States and Great Britain, in recognition of the services of Dr. Billings. A native of Indiana, Billings was born in 1838. He studied medi- cine in the Medical CoUege of Ohio. In 1861, he entered the Army and spent four years of distinguished service as a surgeon, becoming Lieutenant Colonel and Medical Inspector of the Army of the Potomac. In the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, he performed many operations and he was the first surgeon in the war to attempt with success excision of the ankle joint. After the war, he was appointed Librarian of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office (now: National Library of Medicine) which he served for thirty years. Under his leadership, he developed the collection of 1000 odd volumes, into one of the largest collections of medical literature in the world. In 1876, Billings published his Specimen Fasciculus of an index-catalog of Library's collections. In 1880, the first volume of the Index-catalog of the Library, was published. Among Dr. Billings' other accomplishments were the planning of Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the New York Public Library. In his long and fruitful career there were also other chosen fields of his activity: hygiene and sanitary engineering, vital and medical statistics and the advancement of medical education. JAMES CRAIK 1730 - 1814 The portrait of James Craik, Physician-General of the Army from 1798 to 1800, is a copy of the original painting [signature undeciphered] which hangs in the Washington Lodge in Alexandria, Virginia. James Craik was born in Scotland in 1730, studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and emigrated to the New World in 1751, Upon the organization of the Virginia Provincial Regiment, Craik was appointed Surgeon. The command was under the leadership of George Washington, and here began a lifelong intimacy between the General and the doctor. Craik accompanied Washington in an expedition against the French and Indians in 1754, and attended the wounded Braddock a year later at Fort Duquesne. When in the Summer of 1775 Washington was assigned the duty of protecting the Virginia and Maryland frontier, Dr. Craik remained as his chief medical officer. This operation continued for more than three years, during which all the hardships and privations of the hardy frontier troops were shared by the young surgeon. Upon his retirement from this service, Craik purchased a plantation in Maryland and here passed in active medical practice the years elapsing until he again followed his friend at his country's call. At the close of the war he returned to his home, but at the General's suggestion he removed to the neighborhood of Mount Vernon. In 1798, when war with France was threatened and Washington was again summoned to lead the Army, he made the appointment of Craik at the head of the medical department one of the conditions of his own acceptance of the command. Dr. Craik attended Washington in his last illness and was present when the General passed away, Craik himself died Ml of years and honors in 1814. CHARLES H. CRANE 1825 - 1883 The portrait of Charles H. Crane, Surgeon-General of the Army in 1882 and 1883, is by L. P. Spinner. The son of Field Artillery officer, Crane was born in 1825, and his early years were passed at various Army posts where he doubtless imbibed that fondness for the military portion of his chosen profession as well as that strictness of discipline which were his chief characteristics. On completion of his medical studies at Harvard in 1847, he lost no time in appearing before the Army Examining Board. As was then the custom, he was given a contract as Acting Assistant Surgeon and in February, 1848 was commissioned an Assistant Surgeon. He did good service in the closing scenes of the Mexican War and the subsequent years were passed chiefly in the varied duties of a medical officer on the frontier, — in garrison service, in Indian cam- paigns, always increasing his reputation as a faithful and energetic officer, a skillful surgeon, a learned and humane physician. In July 1863 the then Major Crane was detailed for duty as Senior Assistant to the Surgeon-General at Washington, "In connection with the arduous and important work connected with the latter years of the War of the Rebellion," said Major Huntington, "his sound judgment, delicate sense of justice and right, his deliberate action and fine decision soon won for him an enviable reputation and materially assisted in raising the Medical Corps of the Army to the high degree of discipline and efficiency which has characterized it in the past and present," In March 1865, Crane received the brevets of Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel, and Brigadier-General "for faithful and meritorious service during the War of the Rebellion." Promptly after the passage of the Act of July 28, 1866, fixing the peace establishment of the Army, he was appointed Assistant Surgeon-General with the rank of Colonel. On the retirement of General Barnes in 1882, Crane succeeded him as Surgeon- General, and the Medical Department looked forward to a long career of prosperity and usefulness under his judicious management. But it was willed differently, and his unexpected death in October 1883 was a shock to his Corps and to the service for which he labored so long, so faithfully, and so successfuUy. ROBERT FLETCHER 1823 - 1912 The portrait of Robert Fletcher, medical scholar and bibliographer, is one of the finest in the collection. It was painted by Wilton R. Lockwood (1861-1914) and presented to the Library by a group of Dr. Fletcher's friends, Robert Fletcher was born March 6, 1823 in Bristol, England. Following his preliminary schooling, he studied law under his father, a Bristol attorney. After two years, however, Fletcher decided to take up the study of medicine, and in 1839, he entered Bristol Medical School, later transfering to the London Hospital where he completed his medical studies. In 1844, he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries. In 1847, he came to the United States and settled in Cincinnati, where he practised medicine for some years. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the 1st Regiment of Ohio Volunteers as a surgeon, receiving at the end of the War the brevets of lieutenant-colonel and colonel. He withdrew from Army service in August 31, 1867. From August 1871-1876, he worked at the Surgeon General's Office under Lt, Col. J. H. Baxter, Chief, Medical Purveyor, U.S.A., assisting in the preparing publication of medical records of the Provost-Marshal General's Bureau. On September 1, 1876, he transferred to the Library of the Surgeon-General's Office where he assisted Dr. John Shaw Billings in compiling the Library's Index-Catalogue, the first volume of which appeared in 1880. From 1879-1899, Dr. Fletcher served as co-editor, and later (1903-1911), as editor-in-chief of the Index-Medicus. Despite thirty-five years of work on these bibliographies, Dr. Fletcher found time for many contributions to the literature of anthropology and the history of medicine. During the years 1884-1903, he also lectured on medical jurisprudence at the Columbian (now George Washington) Univer- sity and at Johns Hopkins University. He was a member of a number of societies and a recipient of many degrees and honors. He died November 8, 1912 at the age of eighty-nine. FIELDING H. GARRISON 1870 - 1935 The portrait of Fielding H, Garrison, in the uniform of Lieutenant- Colonel, Army Medical Corps, was painted by Franklin B. Clark from a photograph in 1937. After receiving his A. B. degree from Johns Hopkins in 1890, Garrison secured a clerkship in the Library of the Surgeon General's Office in March 1891 and took up the study of medicine at Georgetown University, where he was graduated in 1893. For practically forty years Garrison was associated with the in- stitution which in 1922 was renamed the Army Medical Library. He con- tributed greatly to the first three series of the Index-Catalogue; with Dr. Fletcher he re-inaugurated the Index Medicus in 1903, serving as associate editor until 1912 when he became the editor. After its consoli- dation with the Quarterly Cumulative Medicus of the American Medical Association in 1927, Garrison served as associate editor of this publica- tion until 1929. Garrison made a continuing study of the history of medicine and in time gained recognition as the foremost American authority on this subject. His justly famous An Introduction to the History of Medicine was published in 1913, and by 1929 had gone through four editions. A"~ published bibliography of his works lists 250 titles. Garrison was commissioned a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Medical Corps of the Army and served for two years in Manila, retiring as a Colonel in May 1930 for physical disability. He immediately accepted an appointment as the first Librarian of the Welch Medical Library, He con- tinued in this position and as resident lecturer in the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins until his death in 1935 at Johns Hopkins Hospital, NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE WASHINGTON, D. C. WILLIAM C„ GORGAS 1854 - 1920 The portrait of William Crawford Gorgas was painted by Alexander Robertson James and presented to the Library, March 3, 1921, by the Southern Society of Washington. Born in 1854 near Mobile, Alabama, General Gorgas was known throughout his life as the greatest sanitarian of his time. He attended Bellevue Medical College, graduating in 1879. He served with the Army Medical Corps throughout the West and the South until 1898, and his appointment as chief sanitary officer in Havana, Cuba. Influenced by Dr, Carlos J. Finlay and Walter Reed, he began to screen yeUow fever patients and destroy mosquitoes until in three months, Havana was freed of this disease for the first time in 150 years. In connection with his work on the Panama Canal, Gorgas not only freed that part of the Isthmus from yellow fever, but from all dangerous infections. He later worked with the International Health Board in an effort to eradicate that disease from South America and Western Africa. From 1913-1918, Gorgas served as Surgeon- General of the United States Army. Two years after his retirement from this office, General Gorgas died in London. Fitting tributes to his life were the visits of King George V to his bedside to confer knighthood on him and his funeral in St. Paul's Cathedral in London. WILLIAM A. HAMMOND 1828 - 1900 The portrait of Surgeon General William Alexander Hammond, the largest in the collection, was painted about 1893 by Robert Hinckley, and presented by General Hammond's widow, Helen Nesbit Hammond of Washington, about 1924. Following his graduation in medicine at the University of the City of New York and a year's work at the Pennsylvania Hospital, Hammond entered the Army in June, 1849. He resigned in 1860 to accept the chair of Anatomy and Physiology in the University of Maryland, re-entering the military service at the start of the Civil War, Hammond was appointed Surgeon-General of the Army in 1862 and in his first annual report to the Secretary of War submitted several recommendations that were far-reaching in their effect. Most of these have been adopted, some after a lapse of many years, and have proved of great value. A new and vastly enlarged supply table was instituted by his order; he established a new system of hospital reports designed to embody material for a medical and surgical history of the war; he founded the Army Medical Museum. Among other improvements, he recommended the formation of a permanent hospital corps, the establishment of an army medical school, the location of a permanent general hospital in Washington, and the institution of a military medical laboratory. Soon after his appointment as Surgeon-General, however, Hammond incurred the displeasure of Secretary of War Stanton, who in the fall of 1863 issued orders detaching him from his work in Washington. Confident of acquittal, Hammond demanded trial by court martial, but was dismissed from the Army in 1864. He then took up practice in New York, becoming an authority in diseases of the nervous system. He was appointed lecturer upon that subject in the College of Physicians and Surgeons and later successively occupied a professorship in the same specialty in Bellevue Hospital Medical College, the University of the City of New York, and the New York Post-Graduate Medical School. In 1878 he opened his campaign for vindication of his conduct as Surgeon-General. Congress passed a bill authorizing review of the court martial proceedings, and President Hayes reinstated him with the rank of Brigadier-General on the retired list. General Hammond later returned to Washington where he resided until his death in 1900. HAROLD W, JONES 1877- The portrait of Colonel Harold Wellington Jones, Librarian and Director, (1936-1945) is the work of the contemporary portrait painter, Rolf Stoll (1892- ). It was presented to the Library in 1944 by the Friends of the Army Medical Library, Born November 5, 1877 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Colonel Harold Wellington Jones began his medical career in Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1901. He interned at the Children's Hospital, Boston and in 1903, entered the practice of surgery with Dr. Nathaniel Allison in St. Louis. At that time, he was also Associate Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at St. Louis University Medical School. In 1906, Colonel Jones entered the Army Medical Corps and was assigned to the Army Medical School, which was housed at that time in the Army Medi- cal Library and Museum Building. In the intervening years. Colonel Jones had a diversified career serving as ship's surgeon, commander of one of the largest hospital centers in World War I - the Beau Desert in France, as Secretary-General of the American delegation of an inter- national congress of military medicine, and as chief of the surgical services of several military hospitals. In 1936, he returned to Washington and the Army Medical Library building, to serve for nine years as its Librarian and Director. With vision and a desire for reform, Colonel Jones served the Library well. After,the detailed" survey of the Library in 1944, which was sponsored by the American Library Association and supported by a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, he put into effect many of the recommen- dations for reorganization of the staff and collections. On December 31, 1945, he terminated his lon^ career as military surgeon, author, and librarian. He is now residing in Orlando, Florida. JOSEPH LOVELL 1788 - 1836 The portrait of Joseph Lovell, founder in 1836 of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office, U.S. Army, now, National Library of Medicine, is by an unknown artist. Born in 1788, Joseph Lovell graduated from Harvard in 1807 and immediately began to study medicine in Boston under the preceptorship of Dr. Ingalls, a well-known practitioner in that city. He entered military service as surgeon of the 9th Infantry in May 1812. In 1818, he became the first Surgeon-General of the Army under definite planned legislative enactment. He revised and rewrote the Regulations of the Medical Department, and was largely responsible for the reorganization of the Medical Corps in 1821. He labored earnestly to secure increases of pay for medical officers and his efforts were ultimately successful. He banished the whiskey ration from the Army and established boards to weed out the incompetents of the Medical Department. He died in 1836, the same year the National Library of Medicine was first founded. JOHN MOORE 1826 - 1907 The portrait of Brigadier General John Moore is a copy of a photograph by an unknown artist. John Moore was born in Indiana and received his education at the Indiana State University. He entered the Army Medical Corps in 1853 and served during the Civil War, receiving the brevets of Lieutenant Colonel for gallant and meritorious service during the Atlantic Campaign and Colonel for faithful and meritorious service during the war. Between the Civil War and his appointment in 1886 by President Cleveland to the office of Surgeon General of the Army, Dr. Moore served at various Army posts and took a long leave of absence for European travel. The administration of Surgeon-General Moore was marked by the greatest advances in Army medical work since the War of the RebeUion. Instruction in first-aid was inaugurated in 1886, and in 1887 the Act organizing a Hospital Corps in the U. S. Army became a law, the most important medico-military legislation since the Act of 1847 which gave definite rank to medical officers. The last volume of the gigantic Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion appeared during his term of office^ After his retirement in 1890 by operation of law, General Moore resided in Washington until his death in 1907. SAMUEL G. MORTON 1799 - 1851 The portrait of Samuel George Morton is by an unknown artist. Born in 1799, Dr, Morton was educated in Philadelphia, graduating in medicine in 1820. He later went to Edinburgh and received his doctorate in medicine in 1823. His thesis for his doctor's degree was entitled "De corporis dolore," On the flyleaf of the copy in the Library, in Morton's handwriting, is: "To Dr. Bradley with the best regards of his friend, the author," He dedicated his thesis to James (his uncle), Philip Syng Physick, and Joseph Parrish. In his day Morton was the most eminent craniologist in America. From the time he was thirty until he was in his mid-forties, he collected and studied the skulls of a multitude of American Indians, Egyptians, and Toltecans, and recorded his observations. To the close of his life a few years later at the early age of fifty-two, he studied the human skuU, and his collection in time grew to nearly a thousand. At his death it went to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Retzius of Stockholm observed in 1847 in a letter to Morton: "You have done more for Ethnography than any living physiologist." Humboldt too was a warm admirer of Morton and showed this in his numerous letters. Agassiz soon after his arrival in America said of Dr. Morton's collection of skulls: "Nothing like it exists anywhere. The collection alone is worth the journey to America," Dr. Morton was widely known as a skilled practitioner and had a large practice. His published works, numerous indeed, are practically all in the realm of ethnology and craniology. GECRGE A. OTIS 1830 - 1881 The portrait of George A, Otis at the age of twelve was painted on wood by Thomas Sully, American portrait painter (1783-1872), George Alexander Otis was born in 1830 and lived but fifty-one years. He received his medical education at the University of Pennsylvania, completing his studies in Paris* He early manifested a taste for literature and on his return to the United States settled in Richmond, Virginia, becoming co-editor the following year [1853] of The Virginia Medical and Surgical Journal. He served in the Civil War, afterwards entering the Regular Army Medical Corps. In July 1864, Surgeon Otis was ordered to duty in the office of Surgeon-General Crane and assigned as assistant to the Curator of the Army Medical Museum. In October of the same year he succeeded Dr. Brinton as Curator, which post he held until his death. He is closely associated with the development of the Army Medical Museum and with the preparation of the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, on the third volume of which he was engaged at the time of death. PHILIP SYNG PHYSICK 1768 - 1837 The portrait of Philip Syng Physick was painted about 1800 by Benjamin West (1728-1820). In a letter to Dr. Billings, Physick's grandson stated that the portrait was presented by Thomas Sully of Philadelphia. Physick was born in Philadelphia in 1768. After graduation at the University of Pennsylvania and additional study in his home city, he went to London in 1789 as a private pupil of John Hunter. After re- ceiving the licence of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1791, he spent a year in Edinburgh for his doctorate in medicine at the University. One of the most eminent surgeons of his time, Physick was elected Surgeon to the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1794, and in 1805, was appointed professor of surgery. He resigned this chair in 1818 to accept the Chair of Anatomy, which he held until 1830. Something of a mechanical genius, Dr. Physick invented or modified surgical instruments to meet his needs. He invented the tonsiUotome and a punch forceps for eye operations; he introduced modifications and improvements in the treatment of fractures and in genito-urinary surgical instruments. One of his most famous opera- tions was the lithotomy which he performed on Chief Justice MarshaU in 1831. By developing and raising American surgery from a somewhat low state to where it equalled the best surgery in Europe, Physick fully merited the title which has since been conferred on him: "The Father of American Surgery." WILLIAM SHIPPEN 1736 - 1808 The portrait of William Shippen, Director-General of the military hospitals of the Continental Army, is from a portrait by Thomas Sully, (?) by Elsa Koenig Nitzsche, of Philadelphia, William Shippen, junior, was born in Philadelphia, the son of Dr. William Shippen, one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania and for thirty years a trustee of Princeton College. On his graduation from Princeton in 1754, the son at once began the study of medicine with his father. He went abroad in 1757 to continue his studies in London, Edinburgh, and Paris, receiving his doctorate at the great Scottish University in 1761. He was strongly impressed while in Europe with the need for systematic instruction in America, and upon his return to Philadelphia in 1767 established a course in anatomy and suggested the institution of a medical school in the city. When the medical school of the CoUege of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) was established three years later, he be- came its first Professor of Anatomy and Surgery. Shippen early demon- strated remarkable oratorical ability and his lectures, given annually for many years, soon became famous. He served in the Revolutionary War beginning in 1776, resigning from the Army in 1781, soon after his reappointment as Director-General of Military Hospitals, to return to his professional work in Philadelphia. Here he regained his former success both as a teacher and practitioner. In 1798, on the death of his only son, Dr, Shippen began gradually to with- draw from active life. The year foUowing his death Wistar said of him, in a eulogy delivered before the CoUege of Physicians of Philadelphia: "It appears that he had the peculiar talent of successfully promoting an object of immense utility to his country, and that his steadiness in pursuit thereof entitles him to be ranked amongst the benefactors of mankind." THOMAS SYDENHAM 1624 - 1689 Painted by a contemporary British artist, Mary Cradock Beale (1632-1697) the portrait of Thomas Sydenham was purchased by the Library in 1940. Thomas Sydenham was born on September 10, 1624, at Wynford Eagle, Dorsetshire, England. At the age of eighteen, he entered Oxford, where he received the M.B. degree in 1648. After further study and a period of service in the Army, he continued his research at Montpellier. In 1663 he completed the examinations of the Royal College of Physicians and began practice of medicine in London. In 1676, he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine at Cambridge. He died in London, December 29, 1689, Regarded by his contemporaries as the "English Hippocrates", Sydenham rejected the traditional dogmas of medicine and insisted that observation should have precedence over theory. An astute clinician, Sydenham is credited with the first diagnosis of scarletina and a modern definition of cholera. His treatise on gout: "Tractatus de podagra et hydrope", London, 1683 is considered his major work. For his clear-cut accounts of the diseases of his day, especially of malaria, plague, small-pox, bronchopneumonia, Sydenham has been called the founder of modern clinical medicine. JAMES TTLTON 1745 - 1822 The portrait of James TUton, Physician-and Surge on-General of the Army, was the gift of a descendant, Mr. James Tilton of WUmington, Delaware, in 1875. As in the case of several other portraits in the collection, the artist is unknown. Born in Delaware, graduated in the first class of the Medical School of PhUadelphia, TUton relinquished a lucrative practice to enter the service of his country in 1776. He saw much active service with the Delaware Regiment and his devotion to duty was recognized by appointment as Hospital Surgeon. He was placed in charge of the hospital at Princeton and when the Medical Department was reorganized in 1780, his name appeared at the head of the list of "hospital physicians and surgeons." His dissatisfaction with the medical situation and his visit to Philadelphia to present his views to the medical committee of Congress, resulted in marked reforms. He accompanied the Army on tiie momentous campaign in Virginia, witnessing the Battle of Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis. A year previously he had been tendered a chair at his alma mater, but he declined the honor, preferring to re- main with the Army until its disbandment in 1782. He then returned to Dover, served a term in Congress, and was repeatedly chosen to represent his district in the state legislature. After a long period of civil life, his interest in mUitary medicine was again aroused by the War of 1812 and he prepared a treatise "Economical Observations on MUitary Hospitals; and the Prevention and Cure of Diseases Incident to an Army. In three parts address: I, To ministers of state an