Leopold Saverio Vaccaro was a noted Italian-born American surgeon and scientist[ citation needed ] who was decorated for assisting with the reconstruction of Italy in the aftermath of World War I.
Born February 2, 1887, in Rionero in Vulture, Italy, to Giovanni Battista Vaccaro, a tailor, and Maria Rachele Laus. Vaccaro immigrated to the United States from his native country as a child, in 1902. He took his medical training at the Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia, graduating in 1916. In the first years of his career, he worked as a staff surgeon at munitions plants run by E.I. DuPont de Numours Co., served in the Delaware National Guard, and made trips to Chile to do medical research.
In 1921 he was made Chevalier of the Crown of Italy for his efforts raising one quarter million dollars for rehabilitation of that country after World War I. His medical career was taking off at the same time, as he joined the staff of Pennsylvania Hospital and was appointed to the medical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. He published on a range of topics, both medical and historical. He had an academic interest in Leonardo da Vinci.
Further decorations earned by Vaccaro include the title Commander of the Crown of Italy and an honorary medical degree from the University of Rome La Sapienza. Vaccaro was married to Pierina Chiera, who was the sister of the archaeologist and writer Edward Chiera, discoverer of the famed clay tablets of Nuzi.
Vaccaro has been described as a "community spokesman" by Historian Richard A. Varbero in Allen Freeman Davis and Mark H. Haller's book The Peoples of Philadelphia: A History of Ethnic Groups and Lower-class Life: 1790-1940. Varbero reprinted a quote of Vaccaro's that originally appeared in January 1929 in the Italian-American newspaper, La Libera Parola, concerning 'Americanization.' In that article, Vaccaro stated "The ideals preached by the Americanization teacher do not coincide with the attitude of the gang boss, the native union man, the fellow workingman, who, although compelled economically to work with the alien, would not voluntarily have him as a neighbor. Theory and practice are not synonymous." [1]
Thomas Jefferson University is a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Established in its earliest form in 1824, the university officially combined with Philadelphia University in 2017. The university is named for U.S. Founding Father and president Thomas Jefferson. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Benjamin Rush was an American revolutionary, a Founding Father of the United States and signatory to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, social reformer, humanitarian, educator, and the founder of Dickinson College. Rush was a Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress. He later described his efforts in support of the American Revolution, saying: "He aimed right." He served as surgeon general of the Continental Army and became a professor of chemistry, medical theory, and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
William Allen was a wealthy merchant, attorney and chief justice of the Province of Pennsylvania, and mayor of Philadelphia during the colonial era. At the time of the American Revolution, Allen was one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Philadelphia. A Loyalist, Allen agreed that the colonies should seek to redress their grievances with British Parliament through constitutional means, and he disapproved of the movement toward independence.
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David DiChiera was an American composer and founding general director of Michigan Opera Theatre.
Edward Chiera was an Italian-American archaeologist, Assyriologist, and scholar of religions and linguistics.
Washington Medical College was a medical school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1827, incorporated in March 1833 as TheWashington Medical College of Baltimore, renamed to Washington University of Baltimore in 1839, closed in 1851, revived in 1867 as Washington University of Baltimore, and disbanded in 1878. The remains were absorbed into the College of Physicians and Surgeons, later merged with the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) was a Philadelphia medical college founded for women in 1850. It was the second medical institution in the world established to train women in medicine to earn the M.D. degrees after the New England Female Medical College in Boston, which was established two years earlier in 1848.
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James Forten School (1822–?), originally known as Mary Steet School then Lombard Street Colored School and later Bird School or Mr. Bird's School, was the first public school for African Americans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.