In 1895 clinical microbiology at Penn received yet another new burst of attention with the opening of the William Pepper Laboratory of Clinical Medicine. Constructed adjacent to the University Hospital complex on Spruce Street, the William Pepper Laboratory was the nation's first fully-equipped facility for both investigative and routine work connected to a medical clinic. The lab resulted from the vision, philanthropy and fund raising of founder and first director William Pepper, Jr., MD (M 1864), provost, professor of theory and practice of medicine, and professor of clinical medicine. Pepper named the laboratory in honor of his father and namesake, William Pepper, Sr., MD (M 1832). The purpose of the William Pepper Laboratory was "to promote the interests of the patients in the said University Hospital by the prosecution of minute clinical studies and original researches, and to advance the interests of science by the publication of such work." From its inception, the Laboratory had an associate in bacteriology to lead investigations and patient care in the burgeoning discipline. The bacteriology staff also took responsibility for certain matters of hygienic importance such as the operating rooms and hospital milk supply.


Microbiologists in the William Pepper Laboratory of Clinical Medicine,
1895-2000


Samuel Stryker Kneass, MD
Frank B. Lynch, MD
Thomas Fitz-Hugh, Jr., MD
Mark Crane, MD
James Stuart Forrester, MD
Thomas S. Harvey, MD
William Beautyman, MB, MA
Howard G. Shaub, MD
Edward Steers, PhD
Harry E. Morton, ScD.
John McKitrick, PhD
David Wright, MD
Daniel L. Kacian, MD, PhD
Ray Strecker, PhD
Irving Nachamkin, Dr.P.H.
Paul H. Edelstein, MD
Jean Baldus Patel, PhD

 

Selected biographies