A group of three (3) CDVs of the pioneering surgeon Dr. Saumel Gross and his family. Views include: 

1. Studio albumen CDV bust portrait of Dr. Samuel Gross. Philadelphia: F. Gutekunst, [1863]. Period pen inscription reads “Dr Gross. / June 1863” to mount recto lower margin. Photographer’s imprint to mount verso.

2. Studio albumen CDV bust portrait of Louisa Ann Weissel. Philadelphia: Wenderoth, Taylor, & Brown, [1863]. Period pen inscription reads “Mrs. Dr. Gross. / June 1863” to mount recto lower margin. Photographer’s imprint to mount verso.

3. Half-length studio albumen CDV portrait of A. Haller Gross. Philadelphia: Gibon & Rixon, [1869]. Period pen inscription reads “Haller Gross - / October 1869” to mount recto. Photographer’s imprint to mount verso.

These CDV studio portraits, taken at three different Philadelphia photography studios, captured a shared confidence and air of sophistication that appears in the Gross family. 

Dr. Samuel Gross was born on 8 July 1805 in Easton, Pennsylvania. Following a medical apprenticeship and formal education, Gross enrolled in Philadelphia’s Jefferson Medical College. After his graduation in 1828, Gross began practicing medicine in Philadelphia; he married Louisa Ann Weissel that same year, and together they had four children.

In 1833, Gross and his family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to teach anatomy at the Medical College of Ohio; a position as the chief of pathological anatomy with the Medical Department of the Cincinnati College soon followed. In 1839, the family moved once again for Gross to accept a job with the Louisville Medical Institute in Louisville, Kentucky. Gross was hired as the chair of pathological anatomy and clinical medicine. He remained at the institute for 16 years, until he was offered a professorship of surgery at Jefferson Medical College, his alma mater. After his return to Philadelphia, Gross joined several medical organizations and served as president of the American Medical Association.

Known as a trauma surgeon and anatomy professor, Gross worked with the United States Surgeon General during the Civil War. In 1861, Gross published the Manual of Military Surgery, which was provided to Union Army surgeons and reproduced for their own use by the Confederate Army.

In 1876, during the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Gross was depicted in The Gross Clinic, a realistic portrayal of surgery by artist Thomas Eakins. According to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, “The Gross Clinic is recognized as one of the greatest American paintings ever made.” [a photograph of the painting is included in the listing as a reference] The art judges determined The Gross Clinic was too graphic for their section, and it was moved to a display of a U.S. Army field hospital. The 4 May 1876 issue of The Philadelphia Times stated, “It seems scarcely credible to the management of the Academy of Fine Arts that while half of its new galleries are filled with rubbish, we must go to a private gallery to see so notable a work as Mr. Thomas Eakins’ picture of Dr. Gross at his clinic.”

Gross resigned from his position at Jefferson College in March 1882. He died on 6 May 1884 and is buried in Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia. His wife, Louisa; son, Haller; and two other Gross children were also buried in Woodlands Cemetery upon their deaths.  

[Civil War, Union, Confederate] [Photography, Early Photography, Historic Photography, Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, Tintypes, Cased Images, Union Cases, Albumen Photographs, CDVs, Carte de Visites, Cartes de Visite, Carte-de-visite, Cartes-de-visite, CDV, Cabinet Cards, Stereoviews, Stereocards] [Medical History, Medical Photography]