William Travis Howard

Artist: Thomas C. Corner; Oil on canvas

William Travis Howard was born in Cumberland County, Virginia on January 12, 1821. He was educated at Hampden Sidney and Randolph Macon Colleges and was a pupil of Dr. John Peter Mettauer of Virginia. He studied at the University of Maryland and Jefferson Medical College where he received his medical degree in 1844.

Howard practiced in Warren County, North Carolina, and then moved back to Baltimore in 1866. He became a lecturer on Auscultation and Percussion at the Summer Course at the University of Maryland, an Attending Physician Special Dispensary in 1866, and an Assistant Professor of Physiology in 1866-67. From 1867 to 1897, he was the Professor of Diseases of Women and Children University of Maryland, the first separate chair on these branches in the United States.

Howard was a Founder of the American Gynecological Association and was its President in 1884-85. He was a Founder of Baltimore Obstetrical and Gynecological Society 1885 and its President in 1886-87. He was President Medical and Chirurgical Faculty in 1902. 

Dr. Howard was a Consulting Surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Union Protestant Infirmary and Hebrew Hospital, and a Founder and Surgeon of the Hospital for the Women of Maryland. His lectures were reported by his students and printed in book form. He had offices at 802 Madison Avenue in Baltimore.