Scope and Contents
The collection consists of materials by or about Joseph Pancoast, MD, and his family from 1835-1883. The type of materials include addresses (1835-1872) such as introductory lectures to Jefferson students and commencement addresses (1855 and 1865), medical journal articles (1872), and correspondence (1869) concerning the vacancy of PancoastΓÇÖs chair due to ill health.
Biographical / Historical
Joseph Pancoast (1805-1882) was born on November 23, 1805 in Burlington, NJ, to a family of English descent. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with his medical degree in 1828, the same year that his future friend and colleague, Samuel D. Gross (1805-1884) graduated from Jefferson Medical College. Sometime between his graduation and the establishment of his medical practice, Pancoast married Rebecca Abbott. They had one son, William Henry Pancoast (1835-1897), who also became a physician and teacher.
By 1831, Pancoast began offering private courses in anatomy, in addition to his work at his surgical practice. He was affiliated with the Philadelphia School of Anatomy. In 1835, he began working as a physician at the Philadelphia Hospital and its attached Children’s Hospital, a position he would hold in a visiting capacity until 1854. Pancoast earned a favorable reputation as a teacher through his private courses, which led to his appointment as Chairman of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College in 1839. He held this position until 1841, when he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Anatomy. Pancoast served in this role until 1874.
Throughout his career, Pancoast developed and improved several surgical procedures. These included: a type of rhinoplasty; strabismus surgery; cosmetic surgery to treat facial scarring; chest and lung operations; cataract surgery; usage of an ivory tube for obstructed lacrimal damage; the invention of an abdominal tourniquet for compression of the aorta during amputations at the hip or thigh; and an operation for exstrophy of the bladder. Pancoast published his Treatise on Operative Surgeryin 1844. He also edited works by other scholars, including Jean Frederic Lobstein, Caspar Wistar, and Pierre Joseph Manec. Additionally, Pancoast contributed articles to The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, The American Intelligencer, and The Medical Examiner.
Pancoast was a member of the American Philosophical Society, the Medical Society of Pennsylvania, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and the Wistar Society. In 1874, he resigned from his position at Jefferson due to ill health. He was succeeded by his son, William Henry Pancoast. After his retirement, Joseph Pancoast was elected Emeritus Professor of Anatomy. He spoke at the opening of the first detached Jefferson Medical College Hospital in 1877. Pancoast continued to give lectures until his death on March 7, 1882, at the age of 76. At the time of his death Pancoast was the last survivor of Jefferson’s "famous faculty of 1841." He was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.