Thomas Jefferson and a Glittering Group of American Foremost Medical and Scientific Luminaries Welcome Robert M. Patterson to the American Philosophical Society

Besides Jefferson, it is signed by Caspar Wistar, namesake of the Wistar Institute; Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, founder of the American Medical Association; Benjamin Smith Barton, America’s greatest botanist of the era; Thomas Hewson, author of America’s first book on pharmacology; Mahlon Dickerson, a member of Andrew Jackson’s cabinet; and Thomas James, pioneering obstetrician

The American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia was the hub of knowledge and its pursuit in the early United States. At that time the term philosophical meant what we would call scientific. Among its early members were America’s most prominent scientists of the time, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, both of whom served as presidents of the Society. Robert Patterson was an early mathematician and perhaps the preeminent astronomer of his generation. He served in leadership of the Society for a period, and was among a select few to prepare Meriwether Lewis for his expedition. In 1779, after the College and Academy of Philadelphia were reorganized into the University of Pennsylvania, Patterson successfully applied to the Provost for the post of Professor of Mathematics. Patterson was at Penn as Professor of Mathematics from 1779 to 1810, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics from 1810 to 1813, and Vice-Provost from 1810 to 1813. He was granted an honorary Master of Arts in 1788 and an honorary Doctor of Laws in 1819. After presenting his resignation in 1814, Patterson was succeeded as Professor of Mathematics as well as Vice-Provost by his son, Robert M. Patterson.

Like Meriwether Lewis, the younger Patterson (Robert Maskell Patterson) was a pupil of the elder Patterson in the fields of mathematics and astronomy. Dr. Patterson studied medicine in Paris, and in 1811 went to London, where he heard the last course of lectures delivered by Sir Humphry Davy. In 1813, back in the U.S., he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, and a year after was elected to the Chair of Mathematics, Chemistry, and Natural Philosophy. In this last he was successor to his father. A month later he was made vice-provost.

Patterson father and son led parallel careers. Both were prominent Penn professors, astronomers, friends and correspondents with Thomas Jefferson, and members of the Philosophical Society. Robert M. Patterson (son) was the youngest person elected to the American Philosophical Society – at 22 in 1809. Four years later he was elected a secretary, then a vice-president in 1825. It was he who informed Jefferson of his re-election as President of the Society, a position he would later occupy.

At the time of the younger Patterson’s admission to the Society – 1809 – Jefferson was president, a role he dubbed “the honorable station in which they have been pleased so long to continue me”. The three vice presidents were the elder Patterson, Caspar Wistar, and Benjamin Smith Barton. The four secretaries of the Society were Mahlon Dickerson, Nathaniel Chapman, Thomas T. Hewson, and Thomas C. James.

It’s nothing short of extraordinary that two of the foremost Founding Fathers (Franklin and Jefferson) were scientists and inventors. For half a century in public office and in private life, Jefferson led the growth of American optimism about science, technology, and the future. When he was leaving the presidency in early 1809, Jefferson he wrote, “Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight.” In fact, during the week in 1797 when he became vice president of the United States, he also presented a formal research paper on paleontology to his scientific colleagues in the American Philosophical Society. Jefferson also helped invent modern agricultural science and technology. He re-engineered the plow according to scientific principles that came from Sir Isaac Newton, and pioneered in methods for excavating archeological sites. He invented or improved on the polygraph, pedometer, dumbwaiter, and a swivel chair, among many others inventions. He was also interested in architecture, and his drawings for improvements to Monticello survive.

Caspar Wistar took his Bachelor of Medicine at the University of Philadelphia in 1782 and later received his Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Edinburgh. From 1789 to 1792, Wistar was Professor of Chemistry and Medicine at the College of Philadelphia, and then adjunct Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the University of Philadelphia until 1808, when he was appointed to the Chair of Anatomy, a post he held until his death. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1803. Wistar saw the importance of vaccination and founded the Society for Circulating the Benefit of Vaccination, which vaccinated over a thousand people in its first year. He belonged to the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, of which he became president in 1813. In winters, his house became a salon, and he hosted gatherings of students, scientists, and distinguished visitors to discuss topics of interest. The renowned Wistar Institute, named after him, was the nation’s first independent biomedical research institution, and continues today as a leader in the field of bio-medical research.

Dr. Nathaniel Chapman was the founding president of the American Medical Association, which is today the largest association of physicians in the United States. He was also was the first editor of what became the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, a publication that still exists, with the purpose of supporting the exchange of knowledge and information, and publishing high quality clinical, basic, and education research. Chapman was professor of the Practice of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and was founder of the Philadelphia Medical Institute. He was active with the American Philosophical Society and would become its president.

Benjamin Smith Barton was a physician and the foremost American botanist and naturalist of his day. A nephew of David Rittenhouse, he accompanied his uncle on his survey of the western boundary of Pennsylvania in 1785. Attending Philadelphia Medical College, he studied under Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1790, he was elected to a fellowship at Philadelphia’s College of Physicians. The same year, he became professor of Natural History and Botany at the College of Philadelphia which merged with the University of Pennsylvania the following year. There he was one of the first professors of natural history in the United States and built the largest collection of botanical specimens in the country. He wrote the first American textbook on botany. Barton was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, of which his uncle Rittenhouse had been the second president.

Mahlon Dickerson received his college degree from Princeton. He was the Governor of New Jersey and a United States Senator from that state. n the Senate, he was chairman of the committee for the Library of Congress. Dickerson would become Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of the Navy and ended his career as Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Dickerson was also a member of the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Thomas Hewson was born in England, to the family with whom Benjamin Franklin stayed when in London. Hewson graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was a noted practitioner of medicine. He was appointed as a Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1822 Hewson established a school of medicine which offered classes in anatomy and practice. He also played a leading role in the planning and publication of the first national Pharmacopoeia (pharmacology reference work), and in 1804 was elected to the American Philosophical Society. From 1835 to his death in 1848, he was president of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia.

Thomas C. James graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s medical school. He was an early trained practitioner in obstetrics, and gave lectures on midwifery. In 1807 he was appointed a physician to Pennsylvania Hospital, beginning a twenty-five year relationship with that institution. In 1810 James was elected Professor of Midwifery (today this would be called obstetrics and gynecology) at the University of Pennsylvania. James was a member of the American Philosophical Society, the librarian of the College of Physicians, and a founder of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He opposed slavery and was a member of the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery.

Document signed, Philadelphia, April 21, 1809, stating that the American Philosophical Society confers membership on “Robert M. Patterson…hereby granting unto him all the rights of fellowship, with all the liberties and privileges thereunto belonging.” It is signed by Jefferson as president, just months after he left the Executive Mansion; by Patterson, Wistar, and Barton as vice presidents; and by Dickerson, Chapman, Hewson, and James as secretaries. The society’s fine seal is still present.

An early and significant document in American science and medicine.