John Clarence Webster
Encyclopedia
John Clarence Webster was a Canadian
-born physician pioneering in Obstetrics and gynaecology
who in retirement had a second career as an historian, specializing in the history of his native New Brunswick
. He was born in Shediac, New Brunswick on 21 October 1862 and he died there at the age of 86 on 16 March 1950.
where he matriculated in 1878 and obtained with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1882. After graduating, he travelled to Scotland and in 1883 he began medical studies at the University of Edinburgh
, graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Masters in Surgery in 1888. During this time, he also went to Leipzig and Berlin to further his medical training. He worked at the University of Edinburgh as an assistant in the Department of Midwifery and Diseases of Women. After thirteen years abroad, he returned to Canada in 1896 and settled in Montreal where he was appointed Lecturer in Gynecology at McGill University
and Assistant Gynecologist to the Royal Victoria Hospital. In Montreal, Webster assisted with the formation of the Jubilee Nursing Scheme, which later become the Victorian Order of Nurses
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:FvNQvOA5V78J:www.billhamiltonflashback.ca/articleFull.tpl%3Fa_id%3D54%26c_sku%3D1%26startat%3D1+%22william+webster%22+%22manhattan+project%22&hl=en.
Three years later, in 1899, he moved to Chicago
where he had accepted the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rush Medical College
when it was affiliated with the University of Chicago
. He also worked at various hospitals in Chicago, including Presbyterian Hospital, the Central Free Dispensary, and St Anthony’s hospital. He also contributed to various medical journals and was one of the Editors-in-Chief of Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics. He was married to Alice Kussler Lusk, (1880-1953) of New York the same year he moved to Chicago. She was the daughter of a well known New York physician named Dr. William Lusk. The couple would have three children.
Webster became well known for his pioneering work in obstetrics and gynecology in Chicago, and soon rose to the position of Head of the Department. The Baldy-Webster Operation is named after him: Webster first described the method of treating retrodisplacement of the uterus
in 1901 and James Montgomery Baldy http://www.libraries.psu.edu/do/digitalbookshelf/30629788/30629788_part_062.pdf modified it in 1903 http://www.whonamedit.com/synd.cfm/599.html. The operation involved shortening the round ligaments, or Ligamenta rotunda. He also published an important text on women's diseases in 1907.
Webster retired from medicine in 1919 and returned to Shediac. There, he began work to record and popularize the history of New Brunswick. History had been a life-long interest, and he was now able to devote his entire energies to the task. As a doctor, he had obtained the wealth and resources that enabled him to acquire important historical documents which had not yet been deposited in museums. Most of these documents would later be donated to the New Brunswick Museum
, Saint John, but before then, he would use them to produce an important body of literature on the history of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia
, and early Acadia
(see list below). He was assisted by his wife in his work. For example, she translated various French language documents from the Acadian period, a difficult task given the archaic form of the language. A remarkable woman in her own right, Alice Webster was an important collector of art. She founded the Fine Arts Department of the New Brunswick Museum
, created an endowment for the collection, and donated her own collection of regional and Asian art. She and Webster also acquired one of the most important artwork treasures in Canada, The Death of General Wolfe, which portrays the death of James Wolfe
in 1759 and is on exhibition at the New Brunswick Museum.
Webster became a Trustee of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, a Member of the Historic and Monuments Board of Canada, and the Honorary Curator of Fort Beausejour Museum, for which he was responsible. Apart from his writings which remain definitive sources on many subjects, it was with the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada that he perhaps had his most lasting influence. Working with other members of the board, he surveyed the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
and made recommendations for the commemoration of dozens of sites throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with important historical relevance. Among these were:
Webster was instrumental is preserving Fort Beausejour, even going so far as to purchase the land underlying the fort, which he subsequently donated to the nation. He died in Shediac in 1950. The Webster Mansion is now a restored country inn.
. He was Secretary to the Manhattan Project
.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
-born physician pioneering in Obstetrics and gynaecology
Obstetrics and gynaecology
Obstetrics and gynaecology are the two surgical–medical specialties dealing with the female reproductive organs in their pregnant and non-pregnant state, respectively, and as such are often combined to form a single medical specialty and postgraduate training programme...
who in retirement had a second career as an historian, specializing in the history of his native New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
. He was born in Shediac, New Brunswick on 21 October 1862 and he died there at the age of 86 on 16 March 1950.
Medical career
He attended Mount Allison UniversityMount Allison University
Mount Allison University is a primarily undergraduate Canadian liberal arts and science university situated in Sackville, New Brunswick. It is located about a half hour from the regional city of Moncton and 20 minutes from the Greater Moncton International Airport...
where he matriculated in 1878 and obtained with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1882. After graduating, he travelled to Scotland and in 1883 he began medical studies at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Masters in Surgery in 1888. During this time, he also went to Leipzig and Berlin to further his medical training. He worked at the University of Edinburgh as an assistant in the Department of Midwifery and Diseases of Women. After thirteen years abroad, he returned to Canada in 1896 and settled in Montreal where he was appointed Lecturer in Gynecology at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
and Assistant Gynecologist to the Royal Victoria Hospital. In Montreal, Webster assisted with the formation of the Jubilee Nursing Scheme, which later become the Victorian Order of Nurses
Victorian Order of Nurses
The Victorian Order of Nurses is a non-profit charitable organization founded in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on January 29, 1897 created as a gift for Queen Victoria for the purposes of home care and social services. It is registered as a charity the Canada Revenue Agency, charity number...
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:FvNQvOA5V78J:www.billhamiltonflashback.ca/articleFull.tpl%3Fa_id%3D54%26c_sku%3D1%26startat%3D1+%22william+webster%22+%22manhattan+project%22&hl=en.
Three years later, in 1899, he moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
where he had accepted the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Rush Medical College
Rush Medical College
Rush Medical College is the medical school of Rush University, a private university in Chicago, Illinois. Rush Medical College was one of the first medical colleges in the state of Illinois and was chartered in 1837, two days before the city of Chicago was chartered, and opened with 22 students on...
when it was affiliated with the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. He also worked at various hospitals in Chicago, including Presbyterian Hospital, the Central Free Dispensary, and St Anthony’s hospital. He also contributed to various medical journals and was one of the Editors-in-Chief of Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics. He was married to Alice Kussler Lusk, (1880-1953) of New York the same year he moved to Chicago. She was the daughter of a well known New York physician named Dr. William Lusk. The couple would have three children.
Webster became well known for his pioneering work in obstetrics and gynecology in Chicago, and soon rose to the position of Head of the Department. The Baldy-Webster Operation is named after him: Webster first described the method of treating retrodisplacement of the uterus
Uterus
The uterus or womb is a major female hormone-responsive reproductive sex organ of most mammals including humans. One end, the cervix, opens into the vagina, while the other is connected to one or both fallopian tubes, depending on the species...
in 1901 and James Montgomery Baldy http://www.libraries.psu.edu/do/digitalbookshelf/30629788/30629788_part_062.pdf modified it in 1903 http://www.whonamedit.com/synd.cfm/599.html. The operation involved shortening the round ligaments, or Ligamenta rotunda. He also published an important text on women's diseases in 1907.
Second career
New Brunswick Museum
The New Brunswick Museum, located in Saint John, New Brunswick is Canada's oldest continuing museum. The New Brunswick Museum was officially incorporated as the "Provincial Museum" in 1929 and received its current name in 1930, but its history goes back much further. Its lineage can be traced back...
, Saint John, but before then, he would use them to produce an important body of literature on the history of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, and early Acadia
Acadia
Acadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...
(see list below). He was assisted by his wife in his work. For example, she translated various French language documents from the Acadian period, a difficult task given the archaic form of the language. A remarkable woman in her own right, Alice Webster was an important collector of art. She founded the Fine Arts Department of the New Brunswick Museum
New Brunswick Museum
The New Brunswick Museum, located in Saint John, New Brunswick is Canada's oldest continuing museum. The New Brunswick Museum was officially incorporated as the "Provincial Museum" in 1929 and received its current name in 1930, but its history goes back much further. Its lineage can be traced back...
, created an endowment for the collection, and donated her own collection of regional and Asian art. She and Webster also acquired one of the most important artwork treasures in Canada, The Death of General Wolfe, which portrays the death of James Wolfe
James Wolfe
Major General James P. Wolfe was a British Army officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French in Canada...
in 1759 and is on exhibition at the New Brunswick Museum.
Webster became a Trustee of the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, a Member of the Historic and Monuments Board of Canada, and the Honorary Curator of Fort Beausejour Museum, for which he was responsible. Apart from his writings which remain definitive sources on many subjects, it was with the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada that he perhaps had his most lasting influence. Working with other members of the board, he surveyed the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
and made recommendations for the commemoration of dozens of sites throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with important historical relevance. Among these were:
- Fort GaspareauxFort GaspareauxFort Gaspareaux was a French fort at the head of Baie Verte near the mouth of the Gaspareaux River and just southeast of the modern village of Port Elgin, New Brunswick, Canada, on the Isthmus of Chignecto...
- Fort BeauséjourFort BeauséjourFort Beauséjour, was built during Father Le Loutre's War from 1751-1755; it is located at the Isthmus of Chignecto in present-day Aulac, New Brunswick, Canada...
- Fort AnneFort AnneFor a similarly named fort in New York City see: Fort AmsterdamFort Anne is a typical star fort built to protect the harbour of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. The fort repelled all French attacks during the early stages of King George's War....
- Fort Louisbourghttp://www.unbf.ca/womenandmuseum/cweb_claren_txt.htm
Webster was instrumental is preserving Fort Beausejour, even going so far as to purchase the land underlying the fort, which he subsequently donated to the nation. He died in Shediac in 1950. The Webster Mansion is now a restored country inn.
Children
The Webster children were in many ways as remarkable as their parents. The eldest son, J. C. Webster, Jr. (1901-1931), contributed to Canadian aviation history before dying at an early age. Daughter Janet married the French artist Camille Roche and lived in Europe. She was incarcerated under the Nazi regime and died in captivity in 1945. Her letters were published by her father in 1945. The youngest son, Dr. William L. Webster (1903-1975), was a physicist and mathematician who worked under Ernest Rutherford and Sir James ChadwickJames Chadwick
Sir James Chadwick CH FRS was an English Nobel laureate in physics awarded for his discovery of the neutron....
. He was Secretary to the Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
.
Honours include
- Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George
- Awarded the Order of MeritOrder of MeritThe Order of Merit is a British dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture...
by King George V. - Fellow of the Royal Society of CanadaRoyal Society of CanadaThe Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
- Five honorary degrees including an LLD from Mount Allison University.
- Mount Webster in Northumberland County, New Brunswick, was named for him
- Governor of Dalhousie University (1934).http://www.unbf.ca/womenandmuseum/cweb_claren_txt.htm
Medicine
- Barbour, A. H. F (Freeland) & J. C. Webster, Anatomy of Advanced Pregnancy and of Labour as Studied by Means of Frozen Sections and Casts, Volume II, Laboratory Reports Issued by the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh, 1890. *Researches in Female Pelvic Anatomy, Edinburgh 1892
- Ectopic Pregnancy. Its Etiology, Classification, Embryology, Diagnosis, and Treatment, New York: Macmillan, 1895
- Human Placentation: An Account of the Changes in the Uterine Mucosa and in the Attracted Fetal Structures During Pregnancy, Chicago: W.T. Keener & Co., 1901
- "Satisfactory operation for certain cases of retroversion of the uterus" in Journal of the American Medical Association, Chicago, 1901, 37: 913.
- Text-book of diseases of women, 1907
History
- Life of John MontresorJohn MontresorCaptain John Montresor was a British military engineer in North America.-Early life:Born in Gibraltar 22 April 1736 to British military engineer James Gabriel Montresor and his first wife, Mary Haswell, John Montresor spent his early life there...
(Royal Society of Canada, Ottawa, 1928. Reprint of 1894 Edition) - History in a Government House (Shediac, N.B.: Privately printed, 1933). Paper read before the N.S. Historical Society on April 1st, 1926.
- Joseph Frederick Wallet Desbarres and the Atlantic Neptune, Royal Society of Canada, Ottawa, 1927.
- Wolfiana: A Potpourri of Facts and Fantasies, Culled From Literature Relating to the Life of James Wolfe (Privately Printed, 1927)
- Samuel Vetch: An Address by Dr. J. Clarence Webster given on the occasion of the dedication of the monument to Vetch at Annapolis Royal, September 22nd, 1928 (Privately printed, 1929)
- Cornelis Steenwyck: Dutch Governor of Acadie(Privately printed, 1929).
- The Forts of Chignecto (Shediac, N.B.: Privately printed, 1930).
- Wolfe and the Artists: A Study of His Portraiture (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1930).
- The Life of Joseph Frederick Wallet Desbarres (Shediac, N.B.: Privately printed, 1933).
- The Career of the Abbe Le Loutre with his translated autobiography (Shediac, N.B.: Privately printed, 1933).
- Acadia at the End of the Seventeenth Century: Letters Journals and Memoirs of Joseph Robineau de Villebon, Commandant in Acadia, 1690-1700 and Other Contemporary Documents (Saint John: Monographic Series No. I, The New Brunswick Museum, 1934)
- The Siege of Beausejour in 1755: A Journal of the Attack on Beausejour written by Jacau De Fiedmont, Artillery Officer and Acting Engineer at the Fort (Saint John: Historical Studies No.1, Publications of the New Brunswick Museum, 1936). Translated by Alice Webster.
- Journals of Beausejour: Diary of John Thomas (Apr. 1755 to Dec 1755) and Journal of Louis de Courville (1755) edited by J. C. Webster (Halifax: Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1937).
- The Life of Thomas Pichon, "The Spy of Beausejour" (Halifax: PANS, 1937).
- Historical Guide to New Brunswick (New Brunswick Government Bureau of Information and tourist Travel, 1940) There are also earlier editions of this book.
- Memorial on Behalf of Sieur de Boishebert (Saint John: Historical Studies No. 4, Publications of the New Brunswick Museum, 1942). Translated by Louise MannyLouise MannyLouise Elizabeth Manny was a New Brunswick folklorist and historian. She was born in Gilead, Maine but her family moved to New Brunswick when she was three...
; edited with introduction by Webster. - The Catalogue of the John Clarence Webster Canadian Collection in three volumes (Saint John: catalogues No. 1, 2 & 3, New Brunswick Museum, 1939, 1946 & 1949)
Other
- The Distressed Maritimes : A Study of Educational and Cultural Conditions in Canada (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1926)
- Those Crowded Years(Autobiography) (Shediac, N.B.: Privately printed, 1944)
- Wolfe and the Artists: A Study of His Portraiture (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1930)
- The River St. John its Physical Features
- "Historical Renaissance in the Maritime Provinces and in British Columbia" with W. N. Sage (in Canadian Historical Review, 1936)
- Edinburgh Memories. And Robert Louis Stevenson
- A History of Shediac, New Brunswick
Sources
- McGill University Biographical Sketch
- Anonymous, 'Maison Webster Country Inn' (brochure outlining the life of Dr Webster and his family)
- John Clarence Webster Fonds at the Osler Library Archives, McGill University
- Biographical material relating to his second career and a list of publications
- Dr. Alfred Goldsworthy, The John Clarence Webster Collection (Saint John: Special Publication No. 1 of the New Brunswick Museum, 1936)
- Webster Memorial Trophy - about Webster's aviator son
- Memories of War Linger On - Ruby Cusack on the Janet Webster Roche letters
- New Brunswick Museum
- 1921 biographical sketch