Walter Reed

Walter Reed
Major
Medical Corps
September 15, 1851 – November 23, 1902

Maj. Walter Reed, a United States frontier surgeon and epidemiologist, is best known today for the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, which bears his name. However, his tireless experimentation during the early 1900s proved that mosquitoes transmitted the yellow fever that had plagued his fellow Soldiers and communities worldwide. Reed’s study of yellow fever has been called “the great American medical discovery.” The inscription on Reed’s burial marker at Arlington National Cemetery sums up his legacy: “He gave to man control of that dreadful scourge yellow fever.”

Reed was born in Gloucester County, Virginia, in 1851. He was the youngest child of Methodist pastor Reverend Lemuel Sutton Reed and Pharaba White Reed. Reed’s father taught his children at home, focusing on literature, Latin, mathematics, and observations of nature. When he noticed his youngest son’s academic skills, he requested a transfer to a Charlotteville church so that his sons could attend the University of Virginia. Just after the move to the new church, Reed’s mother died. The family was devastated.

At age 15, Reed enrolled in the university, determined to help his family have a more comfortable life. He finished his medical degree in 1869, becoming the youngest student to obtain a medical degree in such a short time. The 17-year-old doctor then moved to New York City, where he earned a second medical degree from Bellevue Hospital Medical College (now New York University Grossman School of Medicine). In 1873, he was appointed to the prestigious Brooklyn Board of Health as one of only five inspectors. In 1876, after marriage to Emily Lawrence, Reed joined the Medical Department of the U.S. Army. The Army offered financial security and opportunities to travel around the expanding nation. First Lt. Reed and his wife departed for Camp Lowell in the Arizona Territory, where he was the only physician for 200 miles. Life was difficult for Reed and his wife. He provided health care for Soldiers, Native Americans, and civilians on the post, treating typhoid, dysentery, and other highly contagious diseases common to military service.

In 1880, Reed was reassigned to Fort McHenry in Baltimore as captain. There, he attended classes at Johns Hopkins University, a hotbed of revolutionary changes in science and medicine due to the school’s research-focused ways of teaching and learning. Little more than a decade later, newly elected surgeon general and microbiologist George Sternberg invited Reed to join the faculty of the new Army Medical School in Washington, D.C. where he was given a life-changing assignment — studying infectious disease among Soldiers.

To do so, Reed traveled to Cuba. His first visit was in 1898, during the War with Spain when an epidemic of typhoid and yellow fever broke out. He returned in 1900 when Sternberg appointed him to head a four-person Yellow Fever Commission. Reed had two paths of investigation. Did yellow fever come from a specific germ? Or did the disease originate from a mosquito bite, as Cuban researcher Dr. Carlos Finlay first hypothesized? Reed worked against two decades of established medical practice on the spread of yellow fever. Other diseases had been shown to originate in living organisms too small to be seen by the naked eye. These scientists argued that germs caused yellow fever. Finlay, however, had observed that yellow fever was uncommon at higher elevations. There were even different mosquitos in mountainous regions than in warm, swampy areas. It had also been noted that yellow fever decreased during the winter.

To study the disease in a controlled environment, Reed and his Yellow Fever Commission colleagues, James Carroll and Jesse Lazear, agreed to limited human experimentation. Volunteers would be exposed to mosquito bites and doctors would monitor their symptoms. According to Caroll, the researchers “would themselves be bitten and subject themselves to the same risk that necessity compelled them to impose on others.” Unfortunately, while Carroll survived his brush with death, Lazear died during these early trials. After performing dozens of additional experiments and analyzing the results, Reed ordered mosquito eradication methods to control larvae and treat water-breeding locations. Cases of yellow fever declined rapidly. Reed’s actions made significant and critical contributions to conquering yellow fever. Though yellow fever is still a recurring problem in tropical regions, Reed’s solutions reduced the number of fatalities across the globe. His procedures were later used to control the disease while laborers worked on the Panama Canal. Without eradicating mosquito-borne diseases, the Canal could not have been completed.

Walter Reed died from appendicitis complications on Nov. 23, 1902, in Washington, D.C. His fame grew when his name was placed on the military hospital in Washington, and his work was hailed as “the U.S. Army’s greatest contribution to the nation’s health.” In celebration of his legacy of service, military medical services were consolidated into the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on the 100th anniversary of his birth. In addition, Congress established the Walter Reed Medal in 1923, awarded every three years to achievements in tropical diseases. In the 21st century, yellow fever still threatens humans; scientists still research cures, and doctors follow in Reed’s footsteps by continuing to experiment with techniques and drugs to help humanity.

Caitlin Healy
Education Specialist

Eugene Ramsey Hardin IV
Graduate Historic Research Intern

Sources

Bean, William Bennett. Walter Reed: A Biography, 1st ed. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia,1982.

Bosch, Adriana. “American Experience: The Great Fever.” Episode. Walter Reed 2006. New York, NY: Public Broadcasting System, October 30, 2006.

Espinosa, Mariola. Epidemic Invasions: Yellow Fever and the Limits of Cuban Independence, 1878-1930. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Humphreys, Margaret. Yellow Fever and the South. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

Kelly, Howard A. Walter Reed and Yellow Fever (version 2nd Edition). Internet Archive. 2nd ed. Baltimore, MD: Medical Standard Book Company, 1906. https://archive.org/details/walterreedyellow00kelluoft/page/n9/mode/2up.

Markel, Howard. Broadcast. PBS NewsHour: How Walter Reed Earned His Status as a Legend and Hospital Namesake. New York, NY: Public Broadcasting System, September 13, 2017. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/walter-reed-earned-status-legend-hospital-namesake.

Pierce, John R., and James V. Writer. Yellow Jack: How Yellow Fever Ravaged America and Walter Reed Discovered Its Deadly Secrets. 1st ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005.

Additional Resources

Lange, Katie. “Walter Reed: Get to Know the Man behind the Medical Center.” United States. Department of Defense, February 5, 2021. https://www.defense.gov/News/Inside-DOD/Blog/Article/2494459/walter-reed-get-to-know-the-man-behind-the-medical-center/.

Smith, Kiona N. “The Young Soldiers Who Fought Yellow Fever and Won.” Forbes Magazine, Inc., August 31, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2019/08/31/the-young-soldiers-who-fought-yellow-fever-and-won/?sh=3a2ecf7e6735.

National Library of Medicine. https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2013/09/13/celebrating-walter-reed/.

National Museum of Health and Medicine. https://medicalmuseum.health.mil/micrograph/index.cfm/posts/2022/walter_reed_a_name_for_the_ages.

Palais, Rudy. “Walter Reed, The Man Who Conquered Yellow Fever.” Comic strip. Atomic Kommie Comics. Ace’s Science Comics #2, March, 1946, July 2, 2020. https://atocom.blogspot.com/2020/07/coronavirus-comics-science-comics.html.

Jurmain, Suzanne. The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

Lamberti-Sanchez, Medea E. “A Turn of the Century Reading of Yellow Death: A Story of Medical Sleuthing.” Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. https://teachersinstitute.yale.edu/curriculum/units/2015/2/15.02.07.x.html.