Records relating to the founding of the Hersey Professorship of the Theory and Practice of Physic

The committee reports and Corporation votes extracted from the Harvard Corporation meeting minutes in this collection document the legislative process by which the Hersey Professorship of the Theory and Practice of Physic, the Hersey Professorship of Anatomy and Surgery, and the Erving Professorship of Chemistry and Materia Medica, were established at Harvard College. The creation of these professorships led to the establishment of the Harvard Medical School in 1782. The votes of the President and Fellows of Harvard College acknowledge Dr. Ezekiel Hersey's bequest of £1000 to Harvard College for the establishment of professorships in anatomy and physic and also ask Mrs. Sarah Derby (formerly Mrs. Hersey) for the loan of a portrait of Dr. Hersey so that a copy can be made and placed in the Philosophy Chamber with the portraits of the founders of other professorships. The extracts relative to medical professorships consist of a committee report and Corporation votes taken from the meeting minutes of the Harvard Corporation pertaining to the establishment of the medical professorships at Harvard University from September 19, 1782 to September 27, 1791. The committee report explains the deficiencies in medical instruction at Harvard in the late eighteenth century and outlines the rules for the appointment and removal of medical professors, specifies the qualifications needed for the professorship, and describes the professorships teaching responsibilities. The Corporation votes note the appointments of Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse as Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic, Dr. Aaron Dexter as Professor of Chemistry and Materia Medica, and Dr. John Warren as Professor of Anatomy and Surgery. In addition, the votes document the attempts by the Corporation to improve and expand medical instruction at Harvard by seeking to establish a relationship with the Boston Overseers of the Poor to care for the sick in the local Alms House and by asking the Massachusetts General Hospital to organize a public infirmary to serve as a teaching hospital where Harvard medical students could observe their professors treating the sick and poor.

The records were assembled as an archival collection by the archivist at an unknown date from various sources without regard to original provenance in order to document University professorships.