George Frederick Shrady Sr.

George Frederick Shrady Sr. was an American physician and surgeon of the late nineteenth century, best known as the doctor who attended President Ulysses S. Grant in his last illness. Born in New York City on 13 January 1830, he graduated Doctor of Medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1858 and was resident surgeon at New York Hospital. In the Civil War he served as an assistant surgeon in the United States Army, first at Central Park Hospital and later on the operating corps in the field. After the war he built a prominent surgical practice, was consulted by cable by Sir Morell Mackenzie during Emperor Frederick illness, and took part in the autopsy after President Garfield was shot. He was visiting and consulting surgeon to many New York hospitals and was secretary and then president of the New York Pathological Society. He also edited the American Medical Times from 1860 to 1864, founded the Medical Record in 1866 and edited it for thirty-nine years, and argued for freer consultation between schools of medicine and for higher standards of medical education. He died in Manhattan on 30 November 1907.