MS053
Robley Dunglison Collection
1837 - 1980
0.25 Linear Feet (1 Box )

Biographical Note
In 1824 Robley Dunglison (1798-1869) accepted Thomas Jefferson’s invitation to leave his medical practice in London to occupy the chair of anatomy, physiology, materia medica, and medical jurisprudence at the newly established University of Virginia. Shortly after Dunglison arrived he became the former president's close friend and personal physician. He treated Jefferson during his last illness and was present at Monticello at the time of the former president’s death. After nine years at the University of Virginia, Dunglison accepted the chair of materia medica and medical jurisprudence at the University of Maryland. He resigned this position in 1836 in order to assume the chair of the institutes of medicine at Jefferson Medical College, which he held until his retirement in 1868. In addition to his professorial duties Dunglison also assumed the responsibilities of the deanship at Jefferson between 1854 and 1868. Dunglison enhanced his reputation as an educator with numerous literary accomplishments. His medical dictionaries and textbooks could be found in nearly every medical college and practitioner’s office in the United States. Dunglison’s salient contributions to the study of physiology earned him particular acclaim as the "Father of American Physiology."

Scope and Contents
The collection consists of materials by or about Robley Dunglison, MD and his family from 1837-1980. Included are introductory lectures and one commencement address (1837) given by Dunglison while at Jefferson Medical College, miscellaneous correspondence of Dunglison (1851-1869) as well as photocopied letters (1866-1980) between Dunglison’s children. In addition, the collection contains an "autobiographical Ana" published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society in 1969 and a memorial address to Robley Dunglison given at the College of Physicians in 1869.

Organization and Arrangement

1. Addresses (1837-1854)
   Arranged in chronological order
   
   
2. Correspondence (1851-1980)
   Arranged in chronological order
   
   
3. Autobiographical Ana (pub. 1963)
   
   
4. Necrology (1869)
   
   

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