WILLARD PARKER (1800-1884) NEW YORK PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON

Willard Parker, recognized as the leading New York City surgeon in the mid-19th century, was born in the village of Lindeborough, Hillsborough County, NH, into a farming family. He was raised in Chelmsford [now Lowell], Mass, and, after teaching in a district school to prepare himself scholastically and financially for higher education, he entered Harvard College from which he received the AB degree in 1826. Although he planned initially for the ministry, a chance observation of John C. Warren's surgical skill turned him to medicine and the Harvard Medical School.¹ After practical training as an intern at the Chelsea Marine Hospital, Parker graduated MD from Harvard in 1830. The same year he was appointed professor of anatomy in the Vermont Medical College at Woodstock, Vt, there dividing his time with the Berkshire County Medical College at Pittsfield, Mass. He taught two terms as professor of anatomy at Geneva Medical