Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland manuscript collection

The Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland (MedChi) was incorporated by an act of the Legislature in 1799, in response to a petition from the academically-trained members of the medical establishment. Its purpose was to “prevent the citizens from risking their lives in the hands of ignorant practitioners or pretenders to the healing art.” When it incorporated, MedChi was given the power to examine and license physicians and it is one of the oldest medical societies in the United States. While it no longer carries this responsibility, it still focuses on providing quality health care for Maryland citizens through continuing medical education, peer review, and public health initiatives.

The prominent medical families represented in this collection include:

Archer Family

John Archer (1741-1810) was born near Churchville in Harford County. After studying at Princeton College, he began a career as a Presbyterian minister; but in 1765 he entered the new College of Medicine in Philadelphia, and in 1768 became the first to receive its Bachelor of Medicine diploma. He supported the Revolution and served as a delegate to the Maryland Constitutional Convention of 1776. At home in Harford County, he established “Medical Hall” as a school where he instructed about fifty pupils, including his own sons.

Of Archer’s four sons, three are represented in the collection: Thomas Archer (1768-1821), Robert Harris Archer (1775-1857), and John Archer, Jr. (1777-1830). Thomas, who like his father was a founder of MedChi, is said to have stayed close to home due to fragile health, but apparently also heard lectures from Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia. Richard Harris Archer practiced in Baltimore 1798-1805 as a physician to City Hospital; he later moved to Cecil County, then back to Harford County, and also served in the Legislature. Less is known about John Jr., but he also went to Philadelphia and became the first in his family to earn an M.D.

Wiesenthal Family

The first physician of note to settle in Baltimore was Charles Frederick Wiesenthal (1726-1789), who emigrated from Prussia in 1755. He became involved in efforts to organize a medical society, and also established a small anatomical school at his residence. His only son was Andrew Wiesenthal (1762-1798), who took over the school after attending medical lectures in both Philadelphia and London. Andrew married Sarah Van Dyke from the Eastern Shore, and their son Thomas Van Dyke Wiesenthal (1790-1833) was born in Chestertown. He earned an M.D. in Philadelphia, served as Surgeon-Major in the U.S. Sixth Infantry, and was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the U.S. Navy in 1814. The Wiesenthal manuscripts here consist primarily of personal correspondence and legal documents.

Chatard Family

Pierre Chatard (1767-1848) came from a family with roots in medieval France, and was the first in a line of Chatard physicians in Maryland that continued through the 20th century. He was born in San Domingo but earned his M.D. in France, at the University of Montpellier in 1788. In 1794 he came to Wilmington, Delaware, but in 1800 moved to Baltimore, where he practiced at Baltimore Hospital and taught at Washington Medical College. His son Ferdinand Edme Chatard (1805-1888) earned his M.D. at the University of Maryland in 1826, and his son Ferdinand Edme Chatard, Jr. (1839-1900) studied at Mount Saint Mary’s College in Emmitsburg before taking the M.D. at University of Maryland in 1861. In addition, there was a brother of Ferdinand Edme Chatard, Jr., Silas Marean (or Silas Francis Marean) Chatard (1834-1918), who earned his M.D. with a thesis on yellow fever in 1856, practiced briefly in Baltimore but then entered the Roman Catholic priesthood, eventually becoming Bishop of Indianapolis.

Richard Gundry and Family

Richard Gundry (1830-1891) was born in Hampstead, England, but emigrated to Canada in 1845. He took his M.D. at Harvard in 1851, and after some travel abroad obtained a teaching position at Sterling Medical College in Columbus, Ohio. In 1855, he was appointed assistant physician to the Columbus Insane Asylum; then in 1857, he was transferred to the Southern Ohio Insane Asylum in Dayton, where he became medical superintendant in 1861. He held a similar position in Athens, Ohio 1872-1877 and then went back to Columbus, but in 1878 he resigned his position due to problems with state politics. It was then that he came to Maryland, serving as Superintendant of the Maryland Hospital for the Insane, which is now called Spring Grove Hospital Center.

Beginning in 1880, Gundry was also Professor of Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Mental Diseases at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, an institution that later merged with the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The collection preserves his many lectures, addresses, and articles which were carefully written out in longhand (but are mostly undated).

Gundry and his wife Mary had four sons and four daughters. Three of the sons, Richard F., Lewis H., and Alfred Gundry became physicians, and one daughter, Mattie Gundry, became superintendant of a home for feeble-minded children in Falls Church, Virginia. Alfred was the father of Rachel K. Gundry, who earned her M.D. at the University of Maryland in 1931 and conducted medical research which was published in the 1950s.

Julius and Harry Friedenwald

The brothers Julius and Harry Friedenwald were two members of a distinguished Baltimore medical family. Their father, Aaron Friedenwald, was a founder of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (1872), at which they both became faculty members. Julius (1866-1941) earned his M.D. at the College in 1890, then went on to study at Berlin and Vienna. As Professor of Diseases of the Stomach, he published numerous articles in his field, many of which are in the Historical Society’s library (see Catalog). Harry Friedenwald (1864-1950) took his M.D. in 1886 and became a professor of ophthalmology. He also had a keen interest in history, and most of his publications in the library are about Jewish contributions to medicine. The MedChi manuscripts contain primarily the travel diaries of Julius, plus a scrapbook collected by Harry on his 1886 graduating class.

Baltimore General Dispensary

As a response to the inadequacies of almshouses, a group of Baltimore philanthropists formed the Baltimore General Dispensary in 1801 as a society “for the purpose of furnishing medical relief to the indigent poor.” In 1807 it became the third corporation to be chartered by the State of Maryland.

Supported by private donations, but always in precarious financial shape, the Dispensary was not a hospital but a group of physicians who visited the poor in their homes, according to assigned districts. The Dispensary did have a headquarters in downtown Baltimore, which changed location many times; it housed offices, meeting rooms, and an apothecary. The organization operated under a Board of Managers, which selected the physicians who applied for work. In 1959 the Dispensary was closed and transformed into a foundation which contributed funds to hospitals for the purchase of medicines.

Its written documents, including minutes of meetings, patient case records and physician daily records, were deposited with MedChi and remained there until transferred to the Maryland Historical Society. Printed copies of the Dispensary’s charters and bylaws are kept separately in the library’s book collection.

Additional note: The physician daily records begin with 1831, but according to C. Herbert Baxley’s History of the Baltimore General Dispensary (1963), the earliest of these records deposited with MedChi begin with 1821; to date, these have not been found.