Cornelius Rea Agnew

Agnew was born in New York City, the son of William Agnew and Elizabeth Thompson Agnew; his ancestors, Huguenot, Irish and Scotch, came to America from time to time during the 18th century.^[1] He entered the Columbia College in 1845 and graduated from there in 1849 with the degree of A.B.^[1] He then received the degree of M.D. from the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1852.^[2] In 1856, he married Mary Nash, daughter of Lora Nash, a New York merchant.^[1]

Agnew began to practice medicine in 1854^[1] and became house surgeon, and later curator, at the New York Hospital.^[2] He went to Europe for special study in his profession, and on his return was appointed surgeon to the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary,^[2] from 1855 through 1864.

 

He was appointed surgeon-general of the State of New York in 1858;^[2] during the American Civil War, he was medical director of the New York Volunteer Hospital,^[1] treating wounded soldiers from the Union Army. He was prominent in the United States Sanitary Commission,^[2] which administered supplies and medical assistance to the field armies.

After the war, he assisted in establishing the Columbia School of Mines in 1864.^[1] In the same year, he was also one of the founders of the New York Ophthalmological Society.^[1] He was instrumental, in 1868, in the founding of an ophthalmic clinic in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of which he was in 1869 appointed professor and lecturer.^[2] He then founded the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital in 1868 and the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital in 1869.^[2]

He served as a public school trustee and was president of the board, he was also one of the managers of the New York State Hospital for the Insane at Poughkeepsie, New York.^[2] The New York County Medical Society elected him president in 1872.^[2]

In 1869 he was elected to the clinical professorship of diseases of the eye and ear in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, a position which he held till his death on April 18, 1888, in New York City.^[1]

A part of the success of the United States Sanitary Commission must be attributed to Dr. Agnew's labors.^[1] He prepared many papers relating to the eye and ear, and published in the current medical journals, also, a Series of American Clinical Lectures (1875), edited by E. C. Sequin (M.D.), besides numerous brief monographs.^[2]

Agnew's papers were donated to the National Library of Medicine in the late 1980s.^[3]

•   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Johnson, Rossiter, ed. (1906). "Agnew, Corenlius Rea". The Biographical Dictionary of America. Vol. 1. Boston: American Biographical Society. p. 64.

• Kelly, Howard A.; Burrage, Walter L., eds. (1920). "Agnew, Cornelius Rea" . American Medical Biographies . Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Company.
• "Cornelius Rea Agnew Papers". History of Medicine Division: National Library of Medicine. 1857–1888. Retrieved November 3, 2020.
• Who Was Who in America: Historical Volume, 1607-1896. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1963.

• Works by or about Cornelius Rea Agnew at the Internet Archive
• Finding aid to the Cornelius Rea Agnew papers at Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library