Howard Atwood Kelly, MD

Dr. Howard Atwood Kelly

“The Prince of Gynecology”

Find A Grave Memorial ID # 34504991

Medical pioneer, surgeon and one of the founders of Johns Hopkins Hospital & Medical School. He he has been credited with founding the modern medical specialty of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Raised in New Jersey as the child of wealthy parents, he earned high academic honors at the University of Pennsylvania ("Penn"), graduating in 1877. He then entered the University of Pennsylvania's medical school and after taking two years off to work as a wild-west cowboy, during which time he delivered his first baby, received his M.D. in 1882. After training at Episcopal Hospital in Philadelphia, he opened his own facility which was to become the Kensington Hospital for Women.

Dr. Kelly spent some time at Montreal's McGill University then joined the faculty at Penn in 1888, but the next year left for the then-new Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In 1893, he was one of the "Big Four", along with Drs. Welch, Osler, and Halsted, who founded Johns Hopkins' famed Medical School.

The institution's first professor of obstetrics and gynecology, he invented the cystoscope, a device for visualizing the urinary bladder, pioneered numerous surgical procedures, and published extensively, his writings including 1899's "Operative Gynecology", "The Vermiform Appendix and its Diseases" (1905), and the 1908 "Medical Gynecology", as well as a 1906 biography of Walter Reed and "A Scientific Man and the Bible" (1925). His then-controversial use of radium to treat cancer in the early 1900s laid the foundation for modern radiation oncology and chemotherapy.

Dr. Kelly retired in 1919 but retained emeritus professor status, continuing to perform surgery and to teach until close to 80. A devout Christian and observant Episcopalian, he read his Bible every day, was a prohibitionist, and opposed birth control. The oft-told story of his performing surgery for free on a girl who had given him a glass of milk when he was "broke and discouraged" years before is true, but embellished: he was never broke, his faith was always strong and about 75% of his surgery was done without charge anyway, though he did charge high fees to the rich. However, the one about him punching-out a crooked poll-worker on election day is true.

Dr. Kelly headed several professional societies and received numerous honorary degrees as well as awards both domestic and foreign; today, the "Kelly speculum" and the "Kelly clamp" remain in use in every operating room on earth, while the gynecologic oncology service at Johns Hopkins carries his name.

At his death he was the last of John Singer Sargent's "The Four Doctors" and the only one with a child who followed him into medicine. (oil painting in media section)

Dr. Howard A. Kelly Historical Marker

Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service - The Johns Hopkins Hospital