Autograph Document, Signed ("E. A. Holyoke"), and Manuscript Medical Prescription

Salem, [MA], 1762. 2 pp. pen and ink on paper. 6-1/2 x 2-1/2 inches, 3-1/2 x 4-3/4 inches. Old fold, minor soiling, stains, very good. 2 pp. pen and ink on paper. 6-1/2 x 2-1/2 inches, 3-1/2 x 4-3/4 inches. AN EARLY PIONEER OF SMALL POX VACCINATION. These items offer a quaint glimpse of a beloved New England Physician. Edward Augustus Holyoke (1728-1829), the son of Rev. Edward Holyoke (1689-1769) and Margaret Appleton, was born in Marblehead, Massachusetts on August 1, 1728. Holyoke moved with his family to Cambridge, when his father was appointed president of Harvard, and graduated from the college in 1746. After a brief tenure as a school teacher, he apprenticed himself to a physician in Ipswich. He later opened his own practice in Salem where he gained his greatest notoriety as an early pioneer in small pox treatment and prevention during an outbreak in 1777. During his lifetime, he would serve as president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, was awarded the first M.D. degree given by Harvard Medical School, and spent six years as president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Holyoke continued to practice medicine in Salem until 1821, and was honored by the town during a tribute at the Essex House on his 100th birthday.

1. Autograph Document, Signed. To Capt. Thos. Dean. Reading: "Sir, please send by the bearer an hundred w. of your best white powder sugar, in two separate 1/2 hundreds: - and an hundred w. of your best & whitest Brown Sugar - to your humble sevt. E.A. Holyoke"

2. Prescription listing four ingredients, including "camomilla" and "gentian" with the directions: "Steep in one quart maderah & take a glass every noon.