Thomas Sewall
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Dr. Thomas Sewall (born April 16, 1786, in Hallowell, Maine, died April 10, 1845) was a doctor, writer and professor. He gained notoriety for being convicted of grave robbing, and later went on to become a professor.
In August 1812 he graduated from Harvard Medical School and began practicing medicine. In 1819, he was arrested, charged, and found guilty of multiple counts of the grave robbing in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Forced to leave the state, he moved to the nation's capital to re-establish his career. In 1825 he became a founding faculty member of the medical department at Columbian College (which later became George Washington University), where he became professor of anatomy.
Dr. Sewell is remembered today for his eight graphic drawings of "alcohol diseased stomachs." Colored lithographs of these were made and widely distributed to promote teetotalism and the temperance movement. He was also an opponent of phrenology, the pseudo-science of studying the size and shape of peoples' heads[1].
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- Hanson, David J. Preventing Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol, Culture, and Control. Wetport, CT: Praeger, 1995.
- "A Most Daring and Sacrilegious Robbery" by Cristopher Benedetto
