Objective: To explore the details of Samuel D. Gross's achievements as America's foremost historian of medicine in the mid-nineteenth century.
Background: The life of Samuel D. Gross, the most renowned of the nation's surgeons in the nineteenth century, has been extensively researched and celebrated. Despite the long-standing interest in Gross's accomplishments, there is an important and influential aspect of his career that has been forgotten. Gross was the country's first surgical historian and his boosting of the popular image of the knife bearer was crucial to shaping the future of the craft, in particular surgery's rise as a respected specialty within the whole of medicine.
Methods: An analysis of the published medical literature and unpublished documents relating to Samuel D. Gross and his status as the country's earliest historian of surgery.
Results: At a time when surgery was not considered a separate branch of medicine but a mere technical mode of treatment, Gross's efforts in medical and surgical history provided a much needed boost to surgeons in their pursuit of self-confidence and self-respect.
Conclusions: Although Gross's accomplishments as a medical historian have been overlooked, it is undeniable that he was America's pioneer surgical historian and, as such, afforded surgeons their earliest measure of self-esteem, a critical attribute that was indispensable for the rise of surgery as a distinguished profession.