George Roberts

Artist: John Beale Bordley, II; oil on canvas

George C.M. Roberts was born in Baltimore on June 29, 1806. He was educated at Asbury College where he received his A.M. He became a pupil of his father, George Roberts, M.D. and then attended the University of Maryland, 1826. He received his Doctorate of Divinity from Newton University in Baltimore.

He began practice in Baltimore in 1827 and was a Professor of Obstetrics at Washington University in Baltimore for three years. He was a Vice-President of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty from 1854 to 1856 and then President from 1859 to 1870. Dr. Roberts was a Founder of the American Medical Association.

He was also a clergyman in Baltimore as an Elder in the Methodist Church, and was the author of “Centenary Pictorial Album, Being Contributions of the Early History of Methodism in the State of Maryland” (1866). He also left a notebook, written between 1836 and 1841 with copies of letters written in support of his appointment as chaplain to the U. S. Army troops stationed at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. He was an Acting Surgeon at Fort McHenry in 1842.

The portrait of Dr. Roberts clearly shows his ecumenical side, with his clerical collar, and his hand on the bible.

Dr. Roberts died in Baltimore on January 15, 1870.