Some More Sleuthing

As you may know, we’re using an image that I found in our archives for the invitation to the Hunt History of Maryland Medicine Lecture.

There was a lot of writing on the original image, and with a little sleuthing, I found out what most of it meant.

The top line on the table is taken from a poem by William Knox: Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, Man passeth from life to his rest in the grave.

The second line is from Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1, as Hamlet holds Yorick’s skull: To what base uses may we return, Horatio?

The third line, Man’s usefulness ends not in death, has no attribution, but it is also seen on a 1901 photograph of an anatomy class, remarkably similar to our archival photograph, but with no identifying information. (And our cadaver doesn’t have a cigarette in his hand!)

Additionally, there’s also the notation P&S, a skull and crossbones, and the year, which was most helpful in targeting the date of the image. Behind the gentlemen is a list of who is in the image, along with their home states. One of the names is E.B. Friedenwald Md. UPDATE: We have since been told that the P&S is for the College of Physicians & Surgeons. So the photo is not from the University of Maryland, as we originally suspected. 

We were able to corroborate this is Edgar B. Friedenwald, who was one of a number of physicians in a Baltimore family. He was born in 1879, so the age is correct. Karen Falk from the Jewish Museum of Maryland sent me this image:

The thinking is that the man second from the left in the image above is the same man as the second from the right in the image below.

Your thoughts?