John P. Smith

Artist: Edward Caledon Bruce, oil on canvas

In the early 1900's, our long-time librarian, Marcia Crocker Noyes, found this painting, and persuaded the Library Committee to acquire this portrait. She always loved it, and joked that when she finally retired (which she did after 50 years of service), she was going to sneak it out in her suitcase.

Upon her retirement, this painting was given to Marcia in appreciation for her long and valued services from 1896 to 1946. 

Her will specified that it should be given to MedChi upon her death, which occurred later in 1946. The painting is the work of Edward Caledon Smith, a painter of Confederate subjects who possibly studied with Thomas Sully in Philadelphia.

It was only in 2014 that we found out the story of the portrait and who it depicted. You can read about it here. 

Dr. John Philip Smith was a founding member of the Winchester Medical College in Winchester, Virginia. He was born in Virginia in 1822, and died in Clarke County, Virginia, in 1884. During the Civil War he was a surgeon in the Second Virginia Infantry. For much of the war, he was on duty at four different hospitals in Virginia.