{"id":11571728,"date":"2025-07-23T05:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T09:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/?p=11571728"},"modified":"2025-07-23T09:05:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T13:05:37","slug":"john-beale-davidge-portrait-medical-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/2025\/07\/23\/john-beale-davidge-portrait-medical-school\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Our Mona Lisa’: Portrait of medical school founder discovered in former Baltimore eatery"},"content":{"rendered":"

A previously unknown 19th-century portrait<\/a> of the founder of the University of Maryland School of Medicine was recently discovered in \u2014 of all places \u2014 the storage closet of a defunct Baltimore seafood restaurant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Exactly how an 1844 oil painting of John Beale Davidge found its way to the former Bertha’s Mussels in Fells Point isn\u2019t entirely clear from the medical school news release last week announcing the discovery.<\/p>\n

But the portrait has been donated to the medical school and is already hanging in historic Davidge Hall<\/a>, the building bearing the name of a founder of the nation\u2019s first public medical school.<\/p>\n

Larry Pitrof, executive director of the Medical Alumni Association of the University of Maryland on Tuesday described the finding as “extraordinary.\u201d He added:<\/p>\n

“This is the only portrait of Davidge that we’re aware of that exists. It is certainly the oldest. Until another one shows up, this is our Mona Lisa.”<\/p>\n

The painting was discovered May 29 as workers at Bertha\u2019s were preparing the once-iconic Baltimore property for auction. The portrait bears a plaque with Davidge\u2019s name, and the woman who found it, a friend of the medical historian Meg Fairfax Fielding, sent her a text message saying she might want to take a look at it.<\/p>\n

Fielding found an oil painting that is roughly 2 feet square. It was in need of a good cleaning, she said, but otherwise was in remarkably good shape given its age and storage conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is such a Baltimore story,\u201d said Fielding, director of the History of Maryland Medicine at MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society. \u201cI knew who it was right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davidge, who died in 1829 at age 61, was a remarkable if flawed human being.<\/p>\n

As a young man, his single mother attempted to apprentice him to a cabinetmaker. But Davidge yearned to become a physician \u2014 and financed his education by \u201cobtaining aid from friends and coming into possession of some slaves through the death of a relative,\u201d according to mdhistoryonline<\/a>.net, a website that chronicles the history of medicine in Maryland from 1752 to 1920.<\/p>\n

\"Meg
Meg Fairfax Fielding, director of the History of Maryland Medicine for MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society, holds a portrait of the founder of the University of Maryland Medical School, John Beale Davidge, that was found in the former Bertha's Mussels. (Courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Additional research concluded that at some point in his life, Davidge owned eight enslaved people, according to the University of Maryland, Baltimore\u2019s 1807 Commission on Slavery and Racism.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what happened to his slaves or whether he eventually freed them,\u201d Pitrof said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t find evidence in his last will and testament that he owned any slaves at the time of his death.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fates of those eight people apparently were never documented. What was recorded for posterity is Davidge\u2019s extraordinary medical career.<\/p>\n

Three yellow fever epidemics decimated Baltimore in the late 1700s. One wiped out 10% of the population. Davidge became the 19th-century equivalent of the heroic doctors and nurses who treated patients during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201dNo one knew where yellow fever came from,\u201d Pitrof said. \u201cDoctors like everyone else died from yellow fever, and doctors like everyone else fled for the hills. But not John Davidge.<\/p>\n

\u201dHe had a theory that yellow fever wasn\u2019t contagious, which turned out to be true. The common mosquito was the culprit. He stayed in Baltimore and treated patients with yellow fever and was a calming presence in the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, aspiring physicians learned their craft through a series of apprenticeships. As the founder of Baltimore\u2019s first School of Anatomy, Davidge dissected corpses at his home at Liberty and Saratoga streets \u2014 a practice that enraged the populace because of its associations with grave robbing.<\/p>\n