MSS 2/0076-01 Acc. 1989-005 KEEN, WILLIAM W., (1837-1932) Personal Correspondence and Photographs, 1855-1932 Box Ser. 1 1 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION, 1923-1932: 1. Distribution of personal property and related material [copy] (1 folder) 1923-1926 2. Military record (1 folder) [ca.1932?] 2 PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE, 1855-1881: 2.1 Correspondence with Keen family members 1. Borden, Emma Corinna, to Elisa (1 folder) [n.d.] 2. Keen, Charles B., to William W. Keen (1837-1932) (1 folder) 1859-1865 3. Keen, Harriet, to William W. Keen (1837-1932) (1 folder) 1865 4. Keen, William W. (1797-1882), to William W. Keen (1837-1932) (5 folders) 1855-1862 5. Keen, William W. (1837-1932) and Emma Corinna Borden, to daughters (1 folder) 1881 6. Keen, William W. (1837-1932), to Margaret Butcher (1 folder) [n.d.] 7. Wedding invitations (1 folder) 1867;1878 2.2 Correspondence received from friends 1. Chapman, Robert B. (1 folder) 1859 2. Greene, Mary C. (1 folder) 1860-1861 3. Poinier, Samuel T. (1 folder) 1864 4. Porter, G. L. (1 folder) 1863;1864 5. Porter, H. K. (1 folder) 1860-1864 6. Porter, M. C. (1 folder) 1863 7. Sears, Lizzie C. (1 folder) 1862 3 MISCELLANEOUS, [circa 1866?]: 1. Lecture admission tickets (2) from Philadelphia School of Anatomy (1 folder) [ca.1866?] Box Ser. 1 4 PHOTOGRAPHS, 1921 and undated: 1. Keen, Emma Corinna Borden, seated, half length [n.d.] 8" x 10" bw print [n.d.] 2. Keen, William W. (1837-1932) portrait [n.d.] 8" x 10" bw print [n.d.] 2 3. Keen, William W. (1837-1932) seated, half length, Goldensky Studios, Philadelphia, Pa. 1921 11" x 14" bw print mounted 1921 1855-1932 2 boxes 4/03/1990 jde MSS 2/0076-01 Acc. 1989-005 KEEN, WILLIAM W., (1837-1932) Personal Correspondence and Photographs, 1855-1932 Biographical William Williams Keen, surgeon and neurologist, was born on 19 January 1837 in Philadelphia. He was the third son of merchant William W. Keen and Susan (Budd) Keen. Keen married Emma Corinna Borden in 1867; they had four daughters, Corinne, Florence, Dora, and Margaret. William W. Keen died on 7 June 1932. Keen graduated from Brown University in 1859. He entered Jefferson Medical College in 1860, left in 1861 to become Surgeon to the 5th Massachusetts Regiment, then returned to Jefferson and received his M.D. in 1862. He then became Acting Assistant Surgeon in the U.S. Army and worked in a succession of military hospitals, including the Turner's Lane Hospital in Philadelphia, where he studied gunshot wounds and other neurological problems with S. Weir Mitchell and George R. Morehouse. From 1864-1865, Keen studied medicine in Europe. From 1866 to 1875, he taught pathology at Jefferson Medical College and was the head of the Philadelphia School of Anatomy. He was also Professor of Artistic Anatomy at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1876-1889). From 1884 to 1889, Keen was Professor of Surgery at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. From 1889 to his retirement in 1907, he was Professor of Surgery at Jefferson Medical College. In 1887, at St. Mary's Hospital in Philadelphia, Keen performed the first successful removal of a brain tumor in the United States. He was the first physician to perform a decompression of the skull and also the first physician in Philadelphia to use Lister's antiseptic surgical practices. Keen was interested in focal epilepsy and microcephaly as well. William W. Keen edited Gray's anatomy in 1883 and wrote numerous articles and monographs, including, in conjunction with J. William White, the American text book of surgery (1892). Keen was the author of A system of surgery (1906-1921) also. He was elected to fellowship in the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1867 and was its president (1900-1901). Keen was also a member and president of many other professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, American Philosophical Society, American Surgical Association, and the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery. In 1920, he was president of the International Society of Surgery and presided over the society's 1923 meeting in Paris. Scope and contents This small collection of correspondence, 1855-1881, documents the personal life, particularly the youth, of William W. Keen. Also included are three photographs of Keen and his wife, Emma Corinna (Borden) Keen, 1921 and undated; biographical information concerning Keen's military career and estate, 1923-1932; and two lecture admission tickets from the Philadelphia School of Anatomy, circa 1866. Major correspondents in Series 2.1 are Keen's father, William W. Keen (1797-1882), his elder brother, Charles B. Keen, and sisterin law, Harriet. The extensive series of letters from father to son, 1855-1862, concern many family matters, Keen's undergraduate education at Brown University, bank failures in Philadelphia in 1857, and impressions of the beginnings of the Civil War. The letters from Charles B. Keen, 1859-1865, and Harriet Keen, 1865, give vivid accounts of popular reaction in Philadelphia to the final events of the Civil War, including the fall of Richmond, the surrender of Robert E. Lee, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Also contained in this series are three letters, 1881, from Keen and his wife to their four daughters. These letters, written at sea and in England, describe the Keen's transatlantic voyage and impressions of London and Oxford. The letters in Series 2.2 are from friends of William W. Keen who were associated with his student days at Brown University. There are detailed accounts of army life during the Civil War from Samuel T. Poinier, G. L. Porter, who was a physician during the war, and H. K. Porter. The series of letters from H. K. Porter, 1860-1864, also describe Porter's student life at Brown and the Newton Theological Institution and his attachment to "Tinnie" [Emma Corinna Borden] who later became the wife of William W. Keen. Also included are several letters from Lizzie C. Sears, the daughter of Barnas Sears, president of Brown University. Provenance This collection of William W. Keen's personal correspondence and photographs was donated to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia by W. W. Keen Butcher of Philadelphia on 20 January 1989. The collection was formerly in the possession of W. W. Keen Butcher's mother, Margaret (Keen) Butcher, one of the daughters of William W. Keen. The collection was processed and catalogued in April 1990. 1855-1932 2 boxes 4/04/1990 jde