Robert King Stone


Robert King Stone was a 19th-century professor at Columbian College Medical School and was considered "the dean of the Washington medical community".
Stone served U.S. President Abraham Lincoln during the years of the American Civil War, frequently treating maladies from the Lincoln family. Stone was present at Lincoln's deathbed and at his autopsy in 1865. Stone was one of 14 doctors to attend President Lincoln at his death bed. Stone was the only witness to his condition at the military tribunal, and his testimony has been shared by the National Archive of the United States.

Personal life and education

The son of engraver William J. Stone and his wife Elizabeth Jane Lenthall, Robert King Stone was born in Washington, D.C. Lenthall was the daughter of John Lenthall one of the architects of the United States Capitol.
He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1845 and visited major hospitals of London, Paris and Vienna before starting his own medical practice in the United States in 1847. At the time of his death, from apoplexy, he was one of the most prominent physicians in Washington, D.C. He was survived by his wife, Elizabeth J. Stone, who died in 1892.

Legacy

A collection of his papers is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.