John Dix Fisher

Who was John Dix Fisher?

John Dix Fisher, physician and founder of Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts, was born in Needham, Massachusetts, the youngest of the six sons of Aaron and Lucy Fisher. The Fisher family was descended from Anthony Fisher, one of the signers of the Dedham Covenant in 1636. All six sons were self made men who became successful merchants, traders and professional men in Dedham and Boston, Massachusetts.

With the support of his older brothers, John Dix Fisher entered Brown University, graduating in 1820. After receiving his M.D. degree in 1825 from what was then called Massachusetts Medical College of Harvard University, he immediately accompanied his brother, the artist Alvan Fisher, on a trip to Europe. In Paris, he pursued his professional studies with such eminent physicians of the period as René Laennec, inventor of the stethoscope; Gabriel Andral, distinguished pathologist; and Alfred Velpeau, renowned for his knowledge of surgical anatomy. In medical school, Dr. Fisher had studied with Dr. James Jackson, Harvard's first professor of clinical medicine and one of the "fathers" of Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Jackson had touched on the difficulties of distinguishing smallpox from other eruptive diseases and the need for a series of colored pictures which would illustrate the progress of the disease. Dr. Fisher undertook such a project while in Paris and wrote Description of the Distinct, Confluent, and Inoculated Small Pox, Varioloid Disease, Cow Pox, and Chicken Pox which included thirteen colored plates. The paintings from which the plates were made were executed under Dr. Fisher's direction by a French artist working at the bedside of the patients during 1825 and 1826 when smallpox was an epidemic in Paris.