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Chovet, Abraham (25 May 1704–24 March 1790), anatomist and surgeon, was born in London, England, the son of David Chovet, a well-to-do wine merchant of Swiss Huguenot origin. His mother’s name is unknown. Chovet was apprenticed to Peter Gougoux Lamarque, a “foreign brother” of the Company of Barber-Surgeons of London. After the expiration of his seven-year indenture in 1727, Chovet went to France, where he attended the lectures and dissections of J. B. Winslow in Paris and learned to make anatomical preparations of wax. There is no record that he received the degree of doctor of medicine at this time, but he may have received that degree in 1759. His name appears in the “List of Promotions” in the ...

Curtis, John Green (29 October 1844–20 September 1913), physiologist, surgeon, and medical educator, was born in New York City, the son of George Curtis, president of the Continental Bank, and Julia B. Bridgham. Curtis attended private schools as a child and received private tutoring to prepare him for Harvard College. He graduated from that institution in 1866 with an A.B. and again in 1869 with an M.A. On 1 April 1869 Bellevue Hospital appointed him junior assistant physician for six months, then senior assistant for six additional months, and finally house surgeon for six months. In 1870 Curtis received his medical degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons. After graduation from medical school he entered private practice and became a junior partner with Henry B. Sands. Curtis married Martha McCook Davis in 1871....

Dragstedt, Lester Reynold (02 October 1893–16 July 1975), physiologist and surgeon, was born in Anaconda, Montana, the son of John Albert Dragstedt, the foreman of an industrial blacksmith shop, and Caroline Selene. Both parents were Swedish immigrants. After his primary and secondary education in Anaconda, Dragstedt attended the University of Chicago, where his lifelong interest in physiology was aroused by his association with the eminent physiologist ...

Jameson, Horatio Gates (1778–24 August 1855), anatomist and surgeon, was born in York, Pennsylvania, the son of David Jameson, a physician, and Elizabeth Davis. Jameson began his medical studies at age fifteen with his father and practiced with him from 1795, as the family moved first to West Virginia and then to Pennsylvania. In 1797, at the age of nineteen, he married Catherine Shevell of Somerset County, Pennsylvania; they had nine children. After marriage, he resided successively in Somerset County, Pennsylvania; Wheeling, West Virginia; and Adamstown and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1810 Jameson and his family moved to Baltimore. Shortly thereafter, he began to attend lectures at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, obtaining his medical degree in 1813. In addition to maintaining his medical practice he operated an apothecary....

Lovelace, William Randolph, II (30 December 1907–12 December 1965), surgeon and scientist in aviation and space medicine, was born in Springfield, Missouri, the son of Edgar Blaine Lovelace, a rancher, and Jewell Costley. Randolph was raised north of Sunnyside, New Mexico, where his father homesteaded. In September 1925 Lovelace entered Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. After a poor performance in his freshman year, his outlook improved the next year, and in 1930 he completed a B.A. with a premedicine major, allowing his entrance into Washington University Medical School....

McClellan, George (23 December 1796–08 May 1847), anatomist and surgeon, was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, the son of James McClellan, a respected farmer and schoolteacher, and Eunice Eldredge. His Scottish forebears were fighting Highlanders and American revolutionary patriots. McClellan received his preliminary education at Woodstock Academy, where his father was headmaster. He excelled academically, with a preference for mathematics and language. In 1812 he entered the sophomore class of Yale College, from which he graduated in 1816. During the latter part of his college course he placed himself under the preceptorship of Dr. Thomas Hubbard, a prominent Connecticut surgeon. In 1817 he went to Philadelphia, where he became a private student of Professor John Syng Dorsey and matriculated at the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania....

Pancoast, Joseph (23 November 1805–07 March 1882), anatomist and surgeon, was born in Burlington, New Jersey, the son of John Pancoast and Ann Abbott. Pancoast’s forebears on his father’s side had accompanied William Penn from England to America. Pancoast received his medical degree in 1828 from the University of Pennsylvania. He married Rebecca Abbott in July 1829; the couple had one child. He opened a surgical practice in Philadelphia and joined other bright young doctors in the Philadelphia Association of Medical Instruction....

Pattison, Granville Sharp (23 January 1791–12 November 1851), anatomist and surgeon, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of John Pattison of Kelvingrove, a well-to-do merchant, and Hope Margaret Moncrieff. He lived with his family in a luxurious Robert Adam mansion, but in 1806 his father was forced to sell the property. He attended the University of Glasgow from 1806 to 1812 but did not graduate. In 1809 he served at the private College Street Medical School, Glasgow, as assistant to the well-known anatomist Allan Burns, whom he succeeded as the lecturer in anatomy and surgery in 1813. Later that year he was admitted to the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow....

Penfield, Wilder Graves (26 January 1891–05 April 1976), neurosurgeon and neurophysiologist, was born in Spokane, Washington, the son of Charles Samuel Penfield, a physician and hunter, and Jean Jefferson, a teacher. Because of his father’s financial problems, in 1899 Penfield’s mother took the children to live with her parents in Hudson, Wisconsin, so the children could receive a good education in the local schools. While in Hudson, Mrs. Penfield founded the Galahad School and was the primary teacher. Following graduation, Penfield continued his education at Princeton University, with financial assistance from his grandfather. In 1913 he graduated with a Bachelor of Literature degree....

Smith, Alban Gilpin (22 March 1795–05 August 1861), physician and medical educator, was born near Wilmington, Delaware, the son of Samuel Smith and Lydia Gilpin. Little is known of his parents, who, after brief residencies elsewhere, from 1797 permanently resided in Philadelphia.

Smith’s formal schooling was obtained at Westtown, Pennsylvania, from January 1809 until April 1810. This precluded his being present at Dr. ...

Souchon, Edmond (01 December 1841–05 August 1924), anatomist, surgeon, and public health educator, was born in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, the son of Eugene Souchon, a surgeon-dentist, and Caroline Pettit, both natives of France. His early education was acquired in private schools in St. Martinville, Louisiana, Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, except for a brief period when he attended a public school in New Orleans because of his father’s ill health. Souchon later took pride in relating how he had to sell newspapers during this period to help the family finances....