Follow Us
Like Us
Historical records matching Dr. Adam Simon Kuhn, M.D.
view all 24
Immediate Family
-
wife
-
son -
son
-
wife -
daughter
-
son
-
daughter
-
daughter
-
mother
-
father
-
sister
About Dr. Adam Simon Kuhn, M.D.
Adam Kuhn (28 November 1741 – 5 July 1817) was an American physician and naturalist, and one of the earliest professors of medicine in a North American university.
Kuhn was born in Germantown, Province of Pennsylvania, son of German immigrant parents. He studied medicine under his father, Dr. Adam Simon Kuhn.[1] Then he went to Sweden and studied medicine and natural history 1761–1764 at Uppsala University, where he was probably the only American student of Carl Linnaeus. He continued his studies at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated as M.D. in June 1767, and published his thesis, De Lavatione frigida.[1] Returning to America, he practiced as a physician in Philadelphia and was 1768–1789 professor of Materia medica and 1789–1797 of the Theory and Practice of Medicine at the Medical School of the College of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania), founded in 1765 as the first faculty of Medicine in the thirteen colonies.
Kuhn was a physician of the Pennsylvania Hospital from May 1775, until January 1798. He was one of the founders of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1787, and was its president from July 1808 until his death.[1] His students included Valentine Seaman, who mapped yellow fever mortality patterns in New York and introduced the smallpox vaccine to the United States in 1799.[2]
Benjamin Rush wrote in his autobiography that Kuhn, after the death of Dr John Jones in June 1791, was considered the leading physician in Philadelphia and the one favored by "the principal officers of the general government". He treated "Washington Custes" (George Washington Custis, the son of Washington's stepson, see Martha Washington) and functioned as the family physician of George Washington. There is, however, no evidence that he actually treated the President.[3] Wikipedia
Adam Kuhn was born on November 17, 1741 (Old Style) in Germantown, Philadelphia. His grandfather, John Christopher Kuhn, and his father, Adam Simon Kuhn, were both natives of Farfeld, a small town near Heilbronn, Germany. They immigrated to Philadelphia in 1733. Kuhn’s father, an educated man, was a successful and skillful medical practitioner who subsequently removed to Lancaster to become a magistrate and an elder of the Lutheran Church.
Kuhn’s early studies of medicine were with his father. In 1761 he went to Norway and Sweden to study botany under Linnaeus and other professors of the University of Upsala. He was there until 1764. After residing in London for one year, Kuhn went to Edinburgh, where he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine on June 12, 1767.
In January 1768, after visiting France, Holland, and Germany, Kuhn returned to America, where he was immediately appointed professor of materia medica and botany in the Medical Department of the College of Philadelphia, becoming the third member of Penn’s first medical faculty. He commenced his first course of lectures in May of 1768, three months after his arrival from Europe. Kuhn continued in this position until 1789, when he was made professor of the theory and practice of medicine. After the 1791 union of the College of Philadelphia and the University of the State of Pennsylvania as the University of Pennsylvania, he continued in this same chair until his resignation in 1797. In 1806, he was elected a trustee, but declined to serve.
In January of 1774, Kuhn was one of the physicians of the Society for Inoculating the Poor. He was one of the founders of the College of Physicians, the first of its kind in America. He served as its President in 1808. He was also a member of the American Philosophical Society, and an honorary member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Kuhn was twice elected to the medical staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital, serving from 1774 to 1781 and from 1782 to 1798, when he resigned. He was also a well-known botanist.
Kuhn had a profound talent for observation. His peers described him as studious, abstemious in his diet, and neat in his person. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac Hartman, on the Island of St. Croix, West Indies, in May of 1780, and had two sons. Kuhn died in Philadelphia on July 5, 1817, at the age of seventy-six. Archive/UofPenn
- Updated from MyHeritage Family Trees via son Hartman Kuhn by SmartCopy: Sep 9 2015, 18:04:26 UTC
son of Adam Simon Kuhn & Anna Maria Schrack
- Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jun 19 2019, 5:12:08 UTC
Adam Kuhn (November 17, 1741–July 5, 1817) was born in Germantown. He studied medicine with his father, Adam Simon Kuhn, a skilled medical practitioner and elder of the Lutheran Church. At the age of 20, he studied Botany under Carolus Linnaeus and other professors of the University of Upsala. He received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in Edinburgh on June 12, 1767.
His brothers were Dr. John Kuhn (a surgeon in the Revolutionary army) and Dr. Frederick Kuhn.
In January 1768, he returned to America, and was appointed Professor of Materia Medica and Botany in the College of Philadelphia, being the third member of Penn's first medical faculty. In 1789, he was made Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine (in 1792 the College was reconstituted as the University of Pennsylvania). Among his students was Philip Syng Physick.
In January of 1774, Kuhn was one of the physicians of the Society for Inoculating the Poor. He was a founder and President (succeeding William Shippen) of the College of Physicians, the first of its kind in America. He was also a member of the American Philosophical Society. Kuhn was twice elected to the Medical Staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital. USHistory.org
view all 14
Dr. Adam Simon Kuhn, M.D.'s Timeline
| 1741 |
November 17, 1741
|
Germantown, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States
|
|
| 1770 |
1770
|
||
| 1771 |
1771
|
||
| 1774 |
1774
|
||
| 1775 |
1775
|
||
| 1783 |
1783
Age 41
|
Pennsylvania, United States
|
|
| 1784 |
February 4, 1784
|
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States
|
|
| 1785 |
April 12, 1785
|
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States
|
|
| 1789 |
June 15, 1789
|
Pennsylvania, United States
|