LAUSR

When you hear the name Oliver Wendell Holmes, you can’t help but wonder if one is referring to Oliver W Holmes Jr, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932, and acting chief justice of the United States in 1930. This study is about the physician, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr, poet, writer, teacher, and physician. What do we know about him? What can we learn about him and what can we learn from him? The object of this study was to determine why Oliver Wendell Holmes is not better known as a physician than he is as a writer and poet. Did his writing and poetic skills overshadow all his other capabilities? Figure 1 is an image of Oliver Wendell Holmes. This is a portrait posted on many websites such as Wikipedia and Google images. Internet searches will not reveal much about this famous physician, as opposed to searches related to Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, highly regarded Supreme Court justice, whose reputation surpassed that of his father, until recently. Moreover, descriptions of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr usually highlight his literary abilities and work in poetry, with little mention of his role as an important medical reformer. Many believe that his capabilities as a physician were not equal to his classical writing abilities. We will demystify such assumptions in this manuscript. Oliver W Holmes’ father was a strict Calvinist minister. His mother was the exact opposite of her husband, loving and devoted to her family. The father demanded a lot of the boy and raised him with strict discipline. His mother was much more outgoing and fun loving, and he inherited characteristics of both of them. He had a wonderful personality. His childhood home was in Cambridge, MA, where he grew up, and, as a child, he loved to have fun.