George McClellan

Who was George McClellan?

George McClellan was a 19th-century American medical doctor. Born in Woodstock, Connecticut, he is best known for founding the Jefferson Medical College and the Medical Department of Pennsylvania College. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1819.

In 1815, at age 18, he obtained his baccalaureate at Yale. He took up the study of medicine, first with Dr. Thomas Hubbard of Pomfret, Connecticut, later Professor of Surgery of the Medical College of New Haven, with whom he remained one year. In 1817, he came to Philadelphia to attend medical lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, and to become the private pupil of Dr. John Syng Dorsey, Professor of Materia Medica. In 1819, he received his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

McClellan's famous family includes his son, General George Brinton McClellan who was a major general during the American Civil War, and his grandson, George McClellan who became the Chair of Anatomy at Jefferson Medical College and authored the famous medical text, Regional Anatomy.