William Bird Van Lennep 1853 - 1923

William Bird Van Lennep 1853 - 1923? taught for nearly twenty years at the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia as a lecturer on General Pathology and Morbid Anatomy, on Surgery and General Pathology, and as Professor of Surgery. Van Lennep was also the Senior Surgeon at the Hahnemann Hospital.

Van Lennep was also whose co-editor of the _Hahnemannian Monthly_.

of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was born in Constantinople, “Turkey, December 5, 1853, son of Rev. Henry John Van Lennep, D. D. (for thirty years a missionary to that country and author of several standard works on the Orient), and Emily Ann Bird, his wife.

On the paternal side he is a descendant of the Van Lenneps of Holland, the de Hochepieds, French Huguenots, and the von Heidenstams of Sweden ; and on the maternal side from the Birds of Connecticut and the Parkers, who were among the first settlers in New Hampshire.

As a youth he was sent to school in Smyrna, Turkey, and after the return of his parents to America he attended Sedgwick Institute in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, where he prepared for college.

In 1872 he entered Princeton and graduated there A. B. in 1876 ; A. M., 1879. In 1877 he matriculated at the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia and came to his degree in 1880, with the highest honors, winning the gold medal prize for proficiency, his standing, 100.

For six months following graduation he was on the staff of Ward’s Island Hospital, New York, and for the next year and a half took charge of the practice of several older Philadelphia physicians during their absence from the city.

In 1882 he went abroad and continued his studies in the hospitals of Vienna, Paris and London, and in 1884 returned to Philadelphia, where he has since lived and practiced, and where in later years he has acquired a reputation second to no other in the ranks of the profession in the special and boundless field of surgery.

And he is known, too, as a factor in the life and history of his alma mater, Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia, having been a part of its teaching force nearly twenty years ; lecturer on General Pathology and Morbid Anatomy, 1886-90 ; lecturer on Surgery and General Pathology, 1890-92 ; lecturer on Surgery, 1892-94 ; Associate Professor of Surgery, 1894-95 ; and Professor of Surgery since 1895. Besides this he is Senior Surgeon to Hahnemann Hospital.

Nor is his name wholly unknown in the field of homœopathic literature, his treatises and monograph articles relating largely to the subject of surgery, and being given to the profession at large through the medium chiefly of the ”_Hahnemannian Monthly_,” whose co-editor he has been since 1888.

Dr. Van Lennep is a member of the American Institute of Homœopathy, the Pennsylvania State and Philadelphia County Homœopathic Medical societies, and various other medical and surgical organizations, and the Union League, the Rittenhouse, the Corinthian Yacht, the Bachelor’s Barge, the Princeton, the Orpheus and other clubs.

He married, April 28, 1886, Clara Reeves Hart, by whom he has one daughter, Rebecca Reeves Van Lennep.

During the Great War:

[While a goodly number of our men and women served on various County, City and State Councils of Defense, we were officially and nationally recognized](http://www.homeoint.org/books2/ww1/activities.htm) by the appointments of Doctors [Florence Nightingale Ward](http://www.berkeleyhomeopathy.com/florence.html), [Charles Elmer Sawyer](/archives/2008/04/22/the-sawyer-surname-and-homeopathy/), [Charles E. Kahlke](/archives/2008/04/19/charles-edwin-kahlke-and-homeopathy/) and William B. Van Lennep to the Medical Section of the Council of National Defense and by the selection of Doctor [Anna Howard Shaw](/archives/2007/11/26/anna-howard-shaw-and-homeopathy/) as chairman of the Women's Section of the Council.