Robert Latou Dickinson

Robert Latou Dickinson (1861-1950) was an American obstetrician and gynecologist, surgeon, maternal health educator, artist, sculptor and medical illustrator, and research scientist.

Robert Latou Dickinson was born on February 21, 1861 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was the son of Horace and Jeannette Latou Dickinson. He became a noted obstetrician, gynecologist, surgeon, research scientist, author, and public health educator. He also was an unusually prolific artist, carver and sculptor, who used his skills to illuminate his professional work — and throughout his personal life to delight friends and family.

According to James Reed, as a boy of ten, Rob Dickinson was trying to beach a boat that he and his father had built. An eddy drove the metal prow into Dickinson's abdomen, gashing it deeply. Holding the two sides of the wound together and some internal organs inside, Dickinson dragged himself to shore; his injury was stitched by a lay person, but it took a long time to heal and a scar remained for the rest of his life. Thereafter, Dickinson determined to become a doctor.

He sketched all his life, including delightful if irreverent sketches in the edges of his school books. He attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and schools in Germany and Switzerland, sketching and studying classical art all the way. After his return, Dickinson studied at the Long Island College Hospital, and received his medical degree in 1882. He then practiced obstetrics and gynecology in Brooklyn. He became Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Brooklyn Hospital and at Methodist Episcopal Hospital. During the First World War, he was Assistant Chief of the Medical Section of the Council of National Defense, and Medical Advisor on the General Staff. He served a turn as President of the American College of Surgeons, which he had helped to create, President of the American Gynecological Society, and Chairman of the Obstetrics section of the American Medical Association.

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