Edward Wigglesworth was born on December 30, 1840 in Boston, Massachussets, the son of Edward and Henrietta May (Goddard) Wigglesworth, daughter of Nathaniel Goddard. The family, long prominent in New England, descended from Edward Wigglesworth, who came to America from Yorkshire, England, in 1638. His son, Michael, was graduated by Harvard College in 1651; subsequently every male Wigglesworth for six generations became an alumnus of Harvard.
After a preliminary education in the Boston Latin School, Edward was graduated by Harvard College in the class of 1861. He attended the lectures at the Harvard Medical School and was graduated, with the degree of M. D. , in 1865. Having independent means, he was able to study dermatology under the best teachers in Europe from 1865 to 1870.
He served for nine months in the Civil War, first with the United States Sanitary Commission, later as a private in the 45th Massachusetts Voluntary Militia and, finally, as a voluntary surgeon with the Army of the Potomac. Returning home from Europe, he began the practice of his specialty, being one of the first physicians in Boston to do so. At his own expense he inaugurated and maintained the Boston Dispensary for Skin Diseases from 1872 to 1877. A group of 179 models of dermatological lesions, duplicates from the Hospital St. Louis collections in Paris, and an extensive library were maintained by Wigglesworth for the use of physicians; the models were ultimately given to the Harvard Medical School and his books to the Boston Medical Library. He served as head of the department of diseases of the skin, Boston City Hospital, for many years and as an instructor in dermatology at the Harvard Medical School. Many papers on dermatology were contributed by him to local and national societies. He was one of the collaborators of the Archives of Dermatology, a quarterly journal of skin and venereal diseases, when it was founded in 1874, and he served as president of the American Dermatological Association in 1885. Other interests centered around the Boston Medical Library, the raising of funds for rebuilding the Harvard Medical School, the health department of the American Social Science Association, and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. He was active in introducing a law requiring the registration of physicians in Massachusetts (an effort to eliminate quacks), started the Boston Medical Register, and attempted, prematurely, to popularize the metric system. So ardent was his desire to see a system of metrics adopted that he spent three years and a small fortune on this project without winning public approval. Although he might have led a life of leisure, he chose one continually devoted to the welfare of others. His charities were wide-spread.
Although never in very good health, Wigglesworth was an active member of his profession. He was active in introducing a law requiring the registration of physicians in Massachusetts (an effort to eliminate quacks), started the Boston Medical Register, and attempted, prematurely, to popularize the metric system.
Quiet and scholarly, but with a lively wit, Wigglesworth was much beloved by his contemporaries.
He was married, on April 4, 1882, to Mrs. Sarah (Willard) Frothingham of New York City. Of three children, a son became director of the Museum of Natural History in Boston.
