I love learning new things from your research! I didn’t know Barnett was the dr at the asylum after mccune smith or that he was a surgeon in the army! Thank you for he work you are doing. So excited to learn more!
So glad you found this interesting, Greta! By 1865, Dr William Frothingham had been appointed head physician at the Asylum, with McCune Smith listed as consulting physician, according to that years’s annual report. No doubt McCune Smith had stepped down because of his increasing inability to leave home - his heart disease became really bad by that year and often rendered him an invalid. Dr Barnett was assisting McCune Smith informally at the time of the Draft Riots - he’s not listed among the staff of the Asylum in its records, even as a consulting physician. I’m guessing he offered his services at the Asylum at least in part to help his ailing brother-in-law keep his cherished post at the Asylum in hopes that he’d recover sufficiently to continue.
I love learning new things from your research! I didn’t know Barnett was the dr at the asylum after mccune smith or that he was a surgeon in the army! Thank you for he work you are doing. So excited to learn more!
So glad you found this interesting, Greta! By 1865, Dr William Frothingham had been appointed head physician at the Asylum, with McCune Smith listed as consulting physician, according to that years’s annual report. No doubt McCune Smith had stepped down because of his increasing inability to leave home - his heart disease became really bad by that year and often rendered him an invalid. Dr Barnett was assisting McCune Smith informally at the time of the Draft Riots - he’s not listed among the staff of the Asylum in its records, even as a consulting physician. I’m guessing he offered his services at the Asylum at least in part to help his ailing brother-in-law keep his cherished post at the Asylum in hopes that he’d recover sufficiently to continue.