Doctor Photography 19th century
Carte de Viste photo of a doctor with a Cammann binaural and a wooden monaural stethoscopes resting on the table and aslo holding in his left hand a percussor resting on a medical text, c. 1855.
Carte de Viste photo of a doctor with a surgical set resting on the table. Note the phi beta kappa medical honor society pin on his vest, c. 1860.
Brigade Surgeon Dr. Stephen F. Elliot, cdv c. 1863. Dr. Elliot was a 1848 graduate of Harvard Medical School and moved to California during the gold rush of 1849 where he was commissioned Surgeon, 4th Battalion California Mountaineers in which he served until 1862. In April 1862, President Lincoln commissioned Dr. Elliot as Brigade Surgeon for Brig. Gen. George Crockett Srong, who he treated for a fatal wound received during the union assault on Fort Wagner, Morris Island, South Carolina in July 1863. Dr. Elliot was charged with insubordination for disobeying orders from the chief medical officer for Morris Island when he persisteed in placing his field hospitals too close to the field of battle. He resigned his commission in October 1863.
Dr. George Cammann (1804-1863) of New York designed the first usable binaural stethoscope (1852). During his postgraduate training at Paris hospitals in 1828-1830, he acquired a special interest in auscultation while attending lectures given by a friend and colleague of Laennec's, French physician Pierre-Charles-Alexandre Louis . He was working as a physician caring for the working poor at the Northern Dispensary in New York City (1831-1859) where he recognized the need for a better stethoscope and developed a practical instrument that came to bear his name. Interestingly, he never patented the stethoscope believing it should be freely available to physicians. The stethoscope was named Cammann's Stethoscope by the manufacturer of the original instrument, George Tiemann & Co.
Austin Flint Sr. M.D. cdv c. 1861
Austin Flint, Sr., M.D. (1812-1886) who was recognized as an execptional clinician and teacher, prolific writer, visionary thinker and the forerunner of modern cardiology, was regarded as the "American Laennec." Dr. Flint was one of the founders of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College (1861), also serving as professor of both the Long Island College Hospital (now SUNY Downstate Medical College) and Bellevue Hospital Medical College (now NYU School of Medicine). He was elected president of the New York Academy of Medicine in 1872 and the American Medical Association in 1884. Dr. Flint continued to evolve the art of physical diagnosis and especially percussion and auscultation. His texts on diseases of the heart, respiratory system and manual on percussion and auscultation are considered classics.
Albumin photo of Women's Ward 20 at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, circa 1888.
The photo has a legend identifying the hospital, ward, physicians and nurses bearing the mark of the Bellevue Hospital Photography Department, NY City. The enlarged photo shows Dr. Nammack holding a Cammann stethoscope in his left hand, Dr. Tingley taking notes, and nurse Ried with an open chart. Note that Dr. Nammack is also holding his patient's hand, perhaps to reassure her, as he discusses his observations.
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Dr. William H. Nammack was a 1886 graduate of Bellevue Medical College and was one of four "successful candidates for appointment in the Bellevue Hospital ". He served as a House Physician on the 3rd Medical Division at Bellevue Hospital in 1886-1887. Dr. Witter Kinney Tingley was also a graduate of Bellevue in 1886 and another of the four graduates to serve as a House Physician on the 3d Medical Division in 1887-1888. Dr. Robert Alexander Murray was a graduate of University Medical College (NYU) in 1873 and a House Physician on the 2d Medical Division from 1874-1875. Ms. Ried, Autisdale and Chase were Nurses at Bellevue Hospital.
A photo dated May 1889 of a physician in his office with a medical text on his lap, surrounded by medical equipment including a Bauch & Lomb microscope and Cammann stethoscope on his desk. The use of the microscope and stethoscope by physicians represents the advances in technology applied to the practice of medicine in the nineteenth century.
Rounds at Bellevue Hospital from the Bellevue Hospital Photography Department, c. 1891. A physician is using a Cammann Stethoscope to auscultate the heart of a young patient, while a medical student takes notes of the physical diagnostic findings and a nurse holds an open chart.
A photo of the Cardiac Clinic at the New York Post Graduate Medical School and Hopsital (now Tisch University Hospital of NYU Medical Center) with a physician standing who is using a ford bell stethoscope to auscultate a patient's heart and another physician sitting who is taking the blood pressue of a patient, c. 1910
A glass lantern slide with a label that reads "Doctor using stethoscope to listen to patient's heart; nurse making record on chart. Cornell Med. Center, NY" c. 1911.
John Creery Ferguson, M.B. photo c. 1863
John Creey Ferguson, A.M., M.B., T.C.D. Hon. F. King’s and Queen’s Coll. Phys. (1802-65). First Professor of Medicine Queen’s Medical College (1849). First President of Ulster Medical Society (1862-63). Ferguson was one of the leading figures in Irish medicine in the nineteenth century as practitioner, researcher and educator. He was a prominent advocate of using the stethoscope for auscultation, especially to detect the fetal heart beat in pregnant women.
Portrait of Dr. John William Schmidt, Jr. (1811-1858), a New Yorker, circa 1849. Dr. Schmidt was a close friend to the well-known surgeon Dr. Valentine Mott, and, fittingly, in the painting, Schmidt is holding upright a book titled Mott's Velpeau. Dr. Mott's translation of Alfred-Armand-Louis-Marie Velpeau's Operative Surgery was published in 1847. Schmidt was the first visiting surgeon to St. Vincent's Hospital, New York, opened in 1849. Ex. New York Academy of Medicine.
Wood engraving of St. Vincent's Hospital, 11th Street and Seventh Avenue, New York City, Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York, 1870, page 405.
Valentine Mott (1785-1865) was considered one of the most influential American surgical leaders of his time. He received his medical degree from Columbia Medical College in 1806. In London, Mott studied surgery under Sir Astley Cooper. In 1809, Mott returned to New York City and was appointed professor of surgery in Columbia College. From 1811 to 1834 he was in very extensive practice as a surgeon, and most successful as a clinician and teacher. Mott was a founding faculty of the University Medical College of New York, now NYU School of Medicine. In 1849, he was elected president of the New York Academy of Medicine, as well as serving as president of the medical and surgical board of the newly opened St. Vincent’s Hospital. Valentine Mott was the first American to ligate successfully a great number of large arteries. Because of his extraordinary vascular surgery work, he is known as the “father” of American vascular surgery.
Page 372 from the Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York showing Professor Mott, M.D. as President of the Medical and Surgical Board and Consulting Surgeon and Consulting Physician of St. Vincent's Hospital. St. Vincent's Hospital was established in 1849, but was only identified in the Manual starting in 1861. Dr. Mott served continuously as President of the Board from 1849 until his death in 1865. Note that his son, Alex. B. Mott, M.D. was a Visiting Surgeon at the hospital.
Early Photograph of Dr. Étienne Destot (1864-1918) at the Hôtel-Dieu, Lyon, France, signed by the photographer Jules Sylvestre, c. 1896. Noted as France's pioneer radiologist, Dr. Destot did much original radiological research while tending to WWI wounded. A monaural Stokes stethoscope standing upright on its ear plate is set upon the table. Part of an early sphygmomanometer is also resting on the front of the table.
​​In 1896, Scipione Riva-Rocci developed the mercury sphygmomanometer, almost as we know it today. The sphygmomanometer could only be used to determine the systolic blood pressure. Observing the pulse disappearance via palpation would only allow the measuring physician to observe the point when the artery was fully constricted. Dr. Riva-Rocci is on the left side of the photograph taking a patient's blood pressure, c. 1910