John R. Quinan

Dr. John Russell Quinan was born in Lancaster, PA on August 7, 1822, the son of the Rev. Thomas H. Quinan. He was educated at Marietta College in Ohio. He did his preceptorship under Dr. J.K. Mitchell, and received his medical degree at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1844. He moved to Calvert County, MD and practiced there for 25 years. While there, he was the President of the Calvert County School Board.

In 1869, Dr. Quinan moved to Baltimore and became a lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence at the Women's Medical College. In 1884-85, he served as the Vice President of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty, and in 1885-86, he was became President of the Faculty. 

Dr. Quinan is remembered for his magnum opus, "The Medical Annals of Baltimore" which were the basis for Dr. Eugene F. Cordell's later work, "The Medical Annals of Maryland, 1799-1899" due to Dr. Quinan's death in 1890. 

Dr. Quinan's Annals contain information on every physician who had practiced in Baltimore City from 1608 to 1880.  For example, compare Dr. Quinan's entry on Edmondson Atkinson

with Dr. Cordell's.

Dr. Quinan's was much more detailed, mainly because of the narrower geographic range. Dr. Quinan worked on the Annals over many years, searching through the records of the University of Maryland, as well as those of the Faculty.

When Dr. Quinan became President of the Faculty, his address, "The Chartered Right of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland to Extract Licenses to Practice in this State" discussed the founding of our organization in 1799, and how the rights conferred by the original charger were inalienable and guaranteed by the Legislature forever. 

On the occasion of Dr. Quinan's death, it was said that "there never breathed a truer or warmer soul than John R. Quinan or one more entirely devoted to the best interests of this Faculty or the profession."