Henry Walcott

February 23, 1838 (age 93)

Hopkinton, Massachussets, United States

Subsequently he began to practise in Cambridge, Massachussets, at first as assistant to his former teacher, Dr. Morrill Wyman. After service on the Cambridge school committee and as city physician, he was appointed in 1882 a member of the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity. The public health movement was vaguely coming into being and the pioneer efforts of Lemuel Shattuck were bearing fruit. Four years of membership were followed by twenty-nine years as chairman. Walcott's first task was the reorganization of the badly maintained Tewksbury State Almshouse. This accomplished, he next, in 1886, widened the influence of the Board of Health by giving it advisory power regarding public water supplies, drainage, sewerage, and the protection of the purity of inland waters. By assuming only advisory capacity and never mandatory powers, he upheld the town and local authorities and never usurped any of their jealously guarded rights. That he succeeded well is evident, for the decisions of the Board were almost invariably accepted without question by the towns. Subsequently the Board of Health of which he was chairman recommended and planned the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission to co"rdinate the work of many communities near Boston. A special commission of which he was chairman in 1893 recommended the building of the Charles River Basin in Boston, a public health measure of first importance. Finally, he planned and saw executed in 1895 the metropolitan water supply system for Boston. He also established an antitoxin laboratory, under the direction of Theobald Smith, for the manufacture of diphtheria antitoxin for free distribution in the state. In addition to his chairmanship of the Board of Health, Walcott was chairman of the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board and was president of the American Public Health Association, of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For many years he was a trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, chairman of the trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital and, in 1912, he served as president of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography in Washington. He was an honorary fellow of the Royal Sanitary Institute of Great Britain. He was one of the incorporators of the Cambridge Hospital in 1872 and served as its president for twenty-five years. In 1890, while serving as Overseer, he was made a member of the Board of President and Fellows of Harvard College, and acting president in 1900 and again in 1905. Besides tributes to Charles W. Eliot and Reginald H. Fitz in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vols. LII and LX (1919, 1927), and a memoir of Morrill Wyman, printed in Sons of the Puritans (1908), Walcott wrote an essay on Alexander Agassiz which he delivered before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Otherwise his writing was practically confined to the annual reports of the Board of Health. In them one finds the germinal ideas of most of the public health movement in America. Building on the sound foundations laid by Lemuel Shattuck, Walcott erected a structure of wide usefulness to his local community, and helped to make public health the concern of all civilized peoples. He was the most important man in the field in his day. He retired, except for his connections with Harvard University, fifteen years before his death. He died in his ninety-fourth year in Cambridge, Massachussets, partially deaf, wholly blind for the previous five years but with intellect, wit, and good spirits unimpaired.

Henry Pickering Walcott

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physician

Background

Henry Pickering Walcott was born on December 23, 1838 in Hopkinton, Massachussets, the son of Samuel Baker and Martha (Pickman) Walcott.

Education

Following his graduation at Harvard College in 1858, Walcott studied medicine under Morrill and Jeffries Wyman and took his degree of M. D. in 1861 at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me. He went to Europe in June 1861 to further his medical studies in Vienna and Berlin, returning to America in November 1862.

Career

Subsequently he began to practise in Cambridge, Massachussets, at first as assistant to his former teacher, Dr. Morrill Wyman. After service on the Cambridge school committee and as city physician, he was appointed in 1882 a member of the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity. The public health movement was vaguely coming into being and the pioneer efforts of Lemuel Shattuck were bearing fruit. Four years of membership were followed by twenty-nine years as chairman. Walcott's first task was the reorganization of the badly maintained Tewksbury State Almshouse. This accomplished, he next, in 1886, widened the influence of the Board of Health by giving it advisory power regarding public water supplies, drainage, sewerage, and the protection of the purity of inland waters. By assuming only advisory capacity and never mandatory powers, he upheld the town and local authorities and never usurped any of their jealously guarded rights. That he succeeded well is evident, for the decisions of the Board were almost invariably accepted without question by the towns. Subsequently the Board of Health of which he was chairman recommended and planned the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission to co"rdinate the work of many communities near Boston. A special commission of which he was chairman in 1893 recommended the building of the Charles River Basin in Boston, a public health measure of first importance. Finally, he planned and saw executed in 1895 the metropolitan water supply system for Boston. He also established an antitoxin laboratory, under the direction of Theobald Smith, for the manufacture of diphtheria antitoxin for free distribution in the state. In addition to his chairmanship of the Board of Health, Walcott was chairman of the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board and was president of the American Public Health Association, of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. For many years he was a trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, chairman of the trustees of the Massachusetts General Hospital and, in 1912, he served as president of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography in Washington. He was an honorary fellow of the Royal Sanitary Institute of Great Britain. He was one of the incorporators of the Cambridge Hospital in 1872 and served as its president for twenty-five years. In 1890, while serving as Overseer, he was made a member of the Board of President and Fellows of Harvard College, and acting president in 1900 and again in 1905. Besides tributes to Charles W. Eliot and Reginald H. Fitz in Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vols. LII and LX (1919, 1927), and a memoir of Morrill Wyman, printed in Sons of the Puritans (1908), Walcott wrote an essay on Alexander Agassiz which he delivered before the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Otherwise his writing was practically confined to the annual reports of the Board of Health. In them one finds the germinal ideas of most of the public health movement in America. Building on the sound foundations laid by Lemuel Shattuck, Walcott erected a structure of wide usefulness to his local community, and helped to make public health the concern of all civilized peoples. He was the most important man in the field in his day.

He retired, except for his connections with Harvard University, fifteen years before his death. He died in his ninety-fourth year in Cambridge, Massachussets, partially deaf, wholly blind for the previous five years but with intellect, wit, and good spirits unimpaired.

Achievements

He was an honorary fellow of the Royal Sanitary Institute of Great Britain. He was one of the incorporators of the Cambridge Hospital in 1872 and served as its president for twenty-five years. He was one of the most beloved and honored figures in Boston during his many years of service to the commonwealth.

Connections

On May 31, 1865, he was married to Charlotte Elizabeth, daughter of Reuben Richards of Boston. Of the three children, one died as a baby, one became a cotton merchant, and the other a judge, lawyer, and bank president.

Father:: Samuel Baker Walcott
Mother:: Martha (Pickman) Walcott
Friend:: Nathaniel S. Shaler
Friend:: William James
Friend:: Charles W. Eliot
Friend:: Charles Sprague Sargent

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Henry Pickering Walcott

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