Edward Livingston Trudeau
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
physician who established the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium
Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium
The Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium was a tuberculosis sanatorium established in Saranac Lake, New York in 1885 by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau. After Trudeau's death in 1915, the institution's name was changed to the Trudeau Sanatorium, following changes in conventional usage...
at Saranac Lake
Saranac Lake, New York
Saranac Lake is a village located in the state of New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 5,406. The village is named after Upper, Middle, and Lower Saranac Lakes, which are nearby....
for treatment of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
.
Biography
Trudeau was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to a family of physicians. During his late teens, his older brother James contracted tuberculosis and Edward nursed him until his death three months later. At twenty, he enrolled in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(then Columbia College), completing his medical training in 1871. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1873. Following conventional thinking of the times, his physicians and friends urged a change of climate. He went to live in the Adirondack Mountains
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
, initially at Paul Smith's Hotel
Paul Smith's Hotel
Paul Smith's Hotel, formally known as the Saint Regis House, was founded in 1859 by Apollos Smith in the town of Brighton, Franklin County, New York in what would become the village of Paul Smiths; it was one of the first wilderness resorts in Adirondacks...
, spending as much time as possible in the open; he subsequently regained his health. In 1876 he moved to Saranac Lake and established a medical practice among the sportsmen, guides and lumber camps of the region.
In 1882, Trudeau read about Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n Dr. Hermann Brehmer
Hermann Brehmer
Hermann Brehmer was a German physician who established the first German sanatorium for the systematic open-air treatment of tuberculosis.-Biography:...
's success treating tuberculosis with the "rest cure" in cold, clear mountain air. Following this example, Trudeau founded the Adirondack Cottage Sanitorium, with the support of several of the wealthy businessmen he had met at Paul Smiths. In 1894, after a fire destroyed his small laboratory, Trudeau organized the Saranac Laboratory for the Study of Tuberculosis with a gift from Elizabeth Milbank Anderson
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson , philanthropist and advocate for public health and women's education, was the daughter of Jeremiah Milbank , a successful commission merchant, manufacturer and investor, and Elizabeth Lake...
; it was the first laboratory in the United States for the study of tuberculosis. Renamed the Trudeau Institute
Trudeau Institute
The Trudeau Institute is an independent, not-for-profit, biomedical research center located in the Village of Saranac Lake, New York, whose scientific mission is to make breakthrough discoveries that lead to improved human health....
, the laboratory continues to study infectious diseases. One of Trudeau's early patients was author Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
and in gratitude, Stevenson presented Trudeau with a complete set of his works, each one dedicated with a different verse by Stevenson (the books were later lost in a fire at Saranac). Trudeau's fame helped establish Saranac Lake as a center for the treatment of tuberculosis.
Trudeau had a camp on Upper Saint Regis Lake, and was active in the community, helping to found St. John’s in the Wilderness Episcopal Church
St. John’s in the Wilderness Episcopal Church
St. John's in the Wilderness Episcopal Church is an Episcopal church in Paul Smiths in the Adirondacks, New York State, US. It was founded in 1876 by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau with the help of Paul Smith and many of the wealthy camp owners around Spitfire, Upper, and Lower Saint Regis Lakes...
in Paul Smiths, New York
Paul Smiths, New York
Paul Smiths is a hamlet in the Town of Brighton in Franklin County, New York, on Lower Saint Regis Lake, in the Adirondacks, 10 miles north of Saranac Lake, located at 44°26' North 74°15' West....
, where he is interred.
Trudeau had two sons, Edward Livingston Trudeau Jr., who died of tuberculosis, and Francis B. Trudeau, who succeeded his father at the sanatorium as director until 1954. Francis B. Trudeau's son, Francis Trudeau, Jr. is the father of cartoonist Garry Trudeau
Garry Trudeau
Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.-Background and education:...
. Edward Livingston Trudeau died in 1915.
Legacy
The Trudeau InstituteTrudeau Institute
The Trudeau Institute is an independent, not-for-profit, biomedical research center located in the Village of Saranac Lake, New York, whose scientific mission is to make breakthrough discoveries that lead to improved human health....
, a not-for-profit, biomedical research center, is a direct descendant of the Saranac Laboratory that Trudeau founded.
On May 12, 2008, the United States Postal Service issued a 76 cent stamp picturing Trudeau, part of the Distinguished Americans series
Distinguished Americans series
The Distinguished Americans series is a set of definitive stamps issued by the United States Postal Service which was started in 2000 with a 10¢ stamp depicting Joseph Stilwell...
. An inscription identifies him as a "phthisiologist" (an obsolete term for a tuberculosis specialist).
