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Lot 2082
OSLER, WILLIAM. 1849-1919.
Amended
11 June 2008, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$1,440 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistOSLER, WILLIAM. 1849-1919.
Inscription initialed (“W.O.”), on verso of silhouette of young boy, n.p., November 18, 1902, additionally inscribed by Osler’s widow and Nobel laureate George R. Minot; together with Autograph Letter Signed of Grace Osler, 2 pp, 12mo, Oxford, August, 1922, to George R. Minot on black bordered mourning stationery, leaf creased horizontally, very light smudging of ink to p 1.
This lovely silhouette of a young boy is identified by Osler as ”James Jackson Jr / The only known portrait sent to me by J.J. Paluiac[?].” James Jackson, Jr. [1810-1834] was the son of physician James Jackson [1777-1867], the latter the first in America to investigate vaccination in a scientific spirit and one of the founders of Massachusetts General. His son was also a remarkable medical scholar, graduating from Harvard and publishing an important treatise on cholera in Paris before his untimely death from tuberculosis.
Osler, a Canadian physician who revolutionized the teaching of medicine, introducing the residency program among other innovations, was also a world-class bibliophile. His collection forms the core of MacGill University’s Osler Library of the History of Medicine, and the catalogue of his donation is the medical reference classic, Biblioteca Osleriana.
Osler would likely have acquired the portrait of Jackson, Jr. during his collecting years. His widow, Grace, made a present of the silhouette to Nobel laureate George R. Minot, a descendent of Jackson, in 1922 (indicated by an inscription on the verso and the attending note), and Minot himself additionally annotates the piece identifying Osler’s initials and detailing the line of descent from James Jackson to himself.
Provenance: From the library of Nobel laureate George R. Minot.
This lovely silhouette of a young boy is identified by Osler as ”James Jackson Jr / The only known portrait sent to me by J.J. Paluiac[?].” James Jackson, Jr. [1810-1834] was the son of physician James Jackson [1777-1867], the latter the first in America to investigate vaccination in a scientific spirit and one of the founders of Massachusetts General. His son was also a remarkable medical scholar, graduating from Harvard and publishing an important treatise on cholera in Paris before his untimely death from tuberculosis.
Osler, a Canadian physician who revolutionized the teaching of medicine, introducing the residency program among other innovations, was also a world-class bibliophile. His collection forms the core of MacGill University’s Osler Library of the History of Medicine, and the catalogue of his donation is the medical reference classic, Biblioteca Osleriana.
Osler would likely have acquired the portrait of Jackson, Jr. during his collecting years. His widow, Grace, made a present of the silhouette to Nobel laureate George R. Minot, a descendent of Jackson, in 1922 (indicated by an inscription on the verso and the attending note), and Minot himself additionally annotates the piece identifying Osler’s initials and detailing the line of descent from James Jackson to himself.
Provenance: From the library of Nobel laureate George R. Minot.
Saleroom notices
Osler's inscription identifies the giver as J.J. Putnam. James Jackson Putnam was the son of James Jackson, Jr. and a prominent neurologist.





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