Waterhouse, Benjamin (1754-1846), introducer of Jennerian vaccination to North America

Material formerly held in the Western Manuscripts collection's Autograph Letters Sequence. Comprises:

MS.7801/1-2: Autograph letter, signed, from Waterhouse to the surgeon and anatomist Dr. Lyman Spalding (1775-1821), with Spalding's reply to Waterhouse, signed. Concerning making vaccination a commercial proposition (1800).

MS.7801/3: Part letter by Waterhouse, apparently to a British correspondent. Mentioning American politics (the presidency of Thomas Jefferson) and disputes involving the physicians Edward Jenner (1749-1823) and William Woodville (1752-1805) (1801).

MS.7801/4-5: Presentation of Waterhouse items to Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. Letter, typescript and signed, from the physician Sir William Osler (1848-1919) to C.J.S. Thompson (1862-1943), Curator of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, presenting items 1-2, and from Thompson to Osler, unsigned typescript carbon, acknowledging the gift (1919).

MS.7801/6: Pamphlet reprint of "Edward Jenner, Waterhouse, Benjamin, and the introduction of vaccination into the United States" by E. Ashworth Underwood of the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum. The paper by Underwood was published in Nature, vol.163 p.823, May 1949, and makes use of the Waterhouse letters held as items 1-2. This reprint has an inscription by the author (1949).

1800-1949

1 file

Nos. 1-2 presented by Sir William Osler, January 1919; nos. 4-5 document this transaction. no. 3 transferred from Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, April 1949, previous provenance not recorded. Accession details of no. 6 not recorded.

Benjamin Waterhouse (1754-1846) was the introducer of Jennerian vaccination to North America.

Database description transcribed from Richard Aspin and Christopher Hilton's typescript supplement to S.A.J Moorat's Catalogue of Western Manuscripts