Robert King Stone

Robert King Stone

Robert King Stone (December 11, 1822 – April 23, 1872) was an American physician and professor at Columbian College Medical School, the predecessor to George Washington University School of Medicine. He was considered "the dean of the Washington, D.C. medical community".[1][2]

Stone served U.S. President Abraham Lincoln during the years of the American Civil War, frequently treating maladies from the Lincoln family.[3] Stone was present at Lincoln's deathbed and at his autopsy in 1865.[1][4] Stone was one of 14 doctors to attend President Lincoln at his death bed.[5] Stone was the only witness to his condition at the military tribunal,[5] and his testimony has been shared by the National Archive of the United States.[6]

Early life and education

Stone was born December 11, 1822, in Washington, D.C., the son of engraver William J. Stone and his wife Elizabeth Jane Lenthall.[7] Lenthall was the daughter of John Lenthall one of the architects of the United States Capitol.[7]

He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1845 and visited major hospitals of London, Paris and Vienna before starting his own medical practice in the United States in 1847.[8] Stone specialized in eye problems and was professor of Ophthalmic and Aural Surgery.[9]

At the time of his death, from apoplexy, he was one of the most prominent physicians in Washington, D.C. He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth J. Stone, who died in 1892.[8]

Legacy

Diploma of Dr. Stone, National Museum of Health and Medicine (1950s)

A collection of his papers is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.[10] Stone's "lost" report of the Lincoln autopsy was discovered in 1965 and examined by John K. Lattimer.[11] Some of his notes of the autopsy were displayed at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York.[12]

References

1. Robert K. Stone Archived 2012-02-13 at the Wayback Machine. The Lincoln Institute
2. Baker, Jean Harvey (2008-10-17). Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-07568-7.
3. "Abraham Lincoln Writes Pass to South for Dr. Robert Stone's Wife on Day of His Assassination | Shapell Manuscript Foundation". Shapell. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
4. "Robert King Stone – Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, 1865". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
5. Bredhoff, Stacey (March 2007). "Eyewitness Account of Dr. Robert King Stone, President Lincoln's Family Physician" (PDF). Social Education. 71: 99–104.
6. "Dr. Robert King Stone Testimony". rememberinglincoln.fords.org. Retrieved 2019-04-16.
7. "Robert King Stone". Eminent and Representative Men of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the Nineteenth Century: With a Concise Historical Sketch of Virginia. Brant & Fuller. 1893. pp. 298–299.
8. Westory Building^[permanent dead link‍]. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. planning.dc.gov
9. Boritt, Gabor S.; Borit, Adam (1983). "Lincoln and the Marfan Syndrome: The Medical Diagnosis of a Historical Figure". Civil War History. 29 (3): 220. doi:10.1353/cwh.1983.0002. ISSN 1533-6271. PMID 27652392. S2CID 11907189.
10. "Robert King Stone Papers 1853-1857". National Library of Medicine.^[permanent dead link‍]
11. Lattimer, John K. (1965-08-02). "Autopsy on Abraham Lincoln: Retrieval of a Lost Report". JAMA. 193 (5): 349–350. doi:10.1001/jama.1965.03090050025007. ISSN 0098-7484. PMID 14313888.
12. Beardmore, Matt (2015-03-04). "In Lincoln Exhibit, Witnesses to History". New York Times. Retrieved 2022-05-31.

Further reading

• Crellin, J. K. (February 1979). "Robert King Stone, M.D., physician to Abraham Lincoln". IMJ. Illinois Medical Journal. 155 (2): 97–99. PMID 33141.
• Kelly, Howard Atwood (1920). "Stone, Richard French". A Cyclopedia of American Medical Biography: Comprising the Lives of Eminent Deceased Physicians and Surgeons from 1610 to 1910. W.B. Saunders Company. pp. 1110–1111.