Monday, August 22, 2022

A Mystery is Unraveling

Sometime in October of 2018, I got an email from a professor at Duke University who told me that her great-grandfather had worked at MedChi for decades! Once she told me his name, Gustave O. Caution, I realized that he was the second full-time employee at what was then known as the Faculty. 

Marcia Noyes had hired him to be the "Man Friday" around the building, serving as porter, custodian, cloakroom attendent and general helper. Mr. Caution worked at the Faculty for 56 years, and his son Walter, joined him and stayed for several decades, as well. 

At some points, Mr. Gustave Caution's address is given as the address of the Faculty, and at other times, it is elsewhere in the city, but close to the Faculty. 

His grand-daughter was visiting Baltimore on another matter, and asked to come by and see where her ancestor had lived and worked. Of course, we were pleased to welcome her and show her around the building where Gustave had worked for decades. 

We found an old city directory which listed his home address, and drove to find that. We also found and visited the church where he and his family had been active for decades. 

However, one of the things that we couldn't find was where Gustave was buried. 

I am beginning to do some deep research on Marcia Crocker Noyes for a possible book, so I headed over to the Maryland Center for Culture and History (formerly the Maryland Historical Society), to search her files which were donated to them in the late 1990s. 

The Medical Library Association had done a highly-researched article on Marcia, who was one of its founders, in the 1980s. I came across a letter which was written to the Faculty, asking where Marcia was buried. Of course, we know the answer to that - it's Green Mount Cemetery in Baltimore. 

But what we didn't know was that both Gustave and Walter Caution were also buried on the same plot as Marcia, her sister Kitty, and their nephew.

At the bottom of the letter, in handwriting that is possibly Mike Murray's, is a listing of who is buried in the plot at Green Mount Cemetery. And that's where we learned that Gustave and Walter were both buried there. Gustave died in Baltimore in 1961 at age 88 years old. He started working at the Faculty in 1897, just a year after Marcia was hired and when it was still located on Hamilton Place, Eutaw Street. 

The plots are unmarked, but we are working with the cemetery to find out exactly where the Caution plots are, and if there are any markers that we've missed.

Stay tuned!

Wednesday, August 10, 2022

2022 Hunt History of Maryland Medicine Lecture

Please Join the History of Maryland Medicine Committee for the 2022 Hunt History of Medicine Lecture: 
Medicine and Mount Vernon on Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. at MedChi

The Board of Center for a Healthy Maryland and the History of Medicine Committee invite you to the annual Thomas E. Hunt, Jr., MD History of Maryland Medicine Lecture, "Medicine and Mount Vernon" featuring Dr. Hunt's son, historian Jamie Hunt. The lecture will be presented in hybrid format, subject to change as we move closer to the event.

Since the 1700's, Baltimore's historic Mount Vernon neighborhood has had an affiliation with the City's medical commity. From the Revolutionary War when General John Eagar Howard was seriously injured, to the establishment of the Medical Arts Building, Dr. William Osler moving to the neighborhood and the continuation of physicians with private offices along the tree-lined streets, Mount Vernon has played a key role in the City's medical history. Jamie Hunt will be exploring the importance of medicine to the neighborhood and how the Mt. Vernon benefitted from it.

The Hunt History of Maryland Medicine Lecture is named for the late Baltimore orthopedic surgeon Dr. Thomas E. Hunt, Jr., who was an active member of MedChi and the Baltimore City Medical Society for many years. Dr. Hunt’s interest in the history of medicine in Baltimore and Maryland led to the establishment of this annual lecture series in his honor.

Current masking requirements, as dictated by the local jurisdiction, will be enforced. When you RSVP, please indicate whether you will be attending via Zoom, or in person at MedChi's Osler Hall. If you choose to attend via Zoom, a link will be sent the day before the lecture. Due to masking requirements, we will only be serving light refreshments this year. To RSVP, please click HERE by September 15, 2022. 

Both free and paid parking are available in the general MedChi area, including on MedChi's lot at 1204 Maryland Avenue, and across the street (paid). 

If you would like to make a contribution in support of the Hunt Lectures, the History of Medicine in Maryland, the historic archives, or any of our other projects and programs, please click here.

Monday, August 8, 2022

Our Little Visitor!

We had a little visitor stop by this weekend. It's Yama the Firetruck, whose adventures can be found on Instagram here. Yama is a retired 1993 Diahatsu Hijet fire engine from Katsymama City, Fukua Prefecture in Japan, now having fun in Baltimore. 

Yama's owner has been exploring Baltimore and taking pictures of Yama in front of various landmarks. We were delighted that they stopped by MedChi!