William H. Welch

William Henry Welch was born in Norfolk, Connecticut on April 8, 1850. He received his AB from Yale in 1870 and his MD from Columbia University of Physician and Surgeons in New York in 1875.

After Yale and Columbia, he spend four years in Europe, mainly at universities in what is now Germany, absorbing the medical and research practices there. He was the first physician to be recruited at the new Johns Hopkins University in 1883. Welch became the first Dean of the School of Medicine, and established the School of Public Health. 

Welch took a sabbatical, and again traveled to Europe, after which he established a research laboratory modeled on those he saw at German universities. He was influential in training a whole generation of medical researches in these practices, effectively propelling medical research in the United States to a level comparable to the state of the art seen in Europe.

He was very interested in the history of medicine, and was involved in creating a medical library at Hopkins. The Welch Library is still in operation today.

Welch was instrumental in the founding of Happy Hills Convalescent Home (now Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital) and served as president of its board until his death in April of 1934. 

William H. Welch is known as one of the "big four" at Johns Hopkins in its earliest years. He was President of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty in 1891-92 and an Orator in 1887 and 1891. 

In 1910, Dr. Welch and Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs had traveled to Paris, and while there, Dr. Welch sat for a commemorative plaque sculpted by Victor David Brenner whose profile of Abraham Lincoln graces every U.S. penny. 

The bronze was created in honor of Welch's election to the Presidency of the American Medical Association. Initially, three small plaquettes were created, but later, larger versions of the plaque were cast. Three of these are held in the collections of Johns Hopkins, Mt. Washington Pediatric Hospital and of course, Med Chi.