Henry Willis Baxley (1803 – 1876) was an American physician who helped to found the

Baltimore College of Dental Surgery The University of Maryland School of Dentistry is the dental school of the University System of Maryland. It was founded as an independent institution, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, in 1840 and was the birthplace of the Doctor of Dent ...

in 1839. This college has been variously described as the first dental college in

the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, in the world, and in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

Biography

Baxley was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, in June 1803. There, he was educated at St. Mary's College before beginning

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, M ...

at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

, from which he received his

M. D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

in 1824. In 1826, he began working as an

attending physician In the United States and Canada, an attending physician (also known as a staff physician or supervising physician) is a physician (usually an M.D. or D.O.) who has completed residency and practices medicine in a clinic or hospital, in the spec ...

at the Baltimore General Dispensary, where he continued to work until 1829. From 1830 to 1831, he was the attending physician at the Maryland Penitentiary. He was named a demonstrator of

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...

at the University of Maryland in 1834, and replaced Eli Geddings as professor of anatomy and

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

at this institution in 1837. In 1839, Baxley worked with Chapin A. Harris,

Horace H. Hayden Horace Henry Hayden D.D.S. (October 13, 1769 – January 25, 1844) was the first licensed American dentist and dentistry school founder. Education Hayden was born in Windsor, Connecticut. After working as a cabin boy, architect and schooltea ...

, and Thomas E. Bond to found the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. For a year afterward, he taught anatomy and physiology there. He served as professor of surgery at

Washington University of Baltimore Washington Medical College was a medical school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1827, incorporated in March 1833 as ''The'' ''Washington Medical College of Baltimore'', renamed to Washington University of Baltimore in 1839, closed in 18 ...

from 1842 to 1847, and he worked as a physician at the Baltimore Almshouse from 1849 to 1850. In 1850, he moved to

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, where he became chair of anatomy at the Medical College of Ohio. He became chair of surgery there in 1852, and served as the government's inspector of hospitals in 1865. He lived in Europe from 1866 until returning to Baltimore in 1875. Baxley died in Baltimore on March 13, 1876, aged 72. In his will, he bequeathed $23,836.52 to the trustees of

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

for an endowed professorship. In 1901, Johns Hopkins used this money to establish the Baxley Professorship of Pathology, the first endowed chair in the

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...

. It was first held by

William Henry Welch William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

References

Physicians from Baltimore 1803 births 1876 deaths 19th-century American physicians St. Mary's Seminary and University alumni University of Maryland School of Medicine alumni American anatomists American dentistry academics University System of Maryland faculty University of Cincinnati faculty 19th-century American dentists {{US-physician-stub