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One hundred and sixty-four years after his death, Army Surgeon General Joseph Lovell has gone home. His portrait, that is, owned by the National Library of Medicine, has been returned to Blair House, the home he built and lived in with his wife and children from 1824 until his death in 1836. Blair House, just across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House, is the beautifully appointed residence where visiting heads of state stay during official visits.

When Congress voted in 1818 to create the first permanent medical department for the U.S. Army, Lovell was appointed by President James Madison to serve as its first surgeon general. He is known to have spent part of his annual budget to acquire books both for the army surgeons in the field and for his own office. This small collection of medical books housed in his office is considered the genesis of the Surgeon General's Library from which the National Library of Medicine grew.

Lovell was a strong and effective head of the newly-established Army medical department. During the period of his tenure, 1818-1836, the United States was rapidly extending its reach into the western territories. While he was never able to increase the department to a size that could provide adequate medical care to the far-flung army posts, Lovell created an organization with the flexibility to make the most effective use of the numbers he had and rapidly organize larger hospitals should they become necessary during military campaigns. To raise the caliber of military surgeons, he instituted professional examinations for all new recruits. Lovell encouraged scientific research and data gathering among his subordinates, particularly on weather and climate and their effects on disease. Army surgeon William Beaumont, while stationed at a fort on Mackinac Island, began a series of pioneering experiments on the digestive processes. In gratitude for Lovell's support and encouragement of his research, Beaumont dedicated his book, Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion, to the Surgeon General, "whose zeal in the cause of Medical Science is equalled only by his ability to promote it."

Lovell's connection with Blair House came to the attention of a staff member of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine through an article by Sarah Booth Conroy in the Washington Post. The article described the Blair House portraits of the Blair and Lee families. Francis Preston Blair, newspaper editor, friend of Andrew Jackson, and founder of a politically prominent family, bought the house after Lovell's death. His daughter married a cousin of Robert E. Lee and they lived in an adjoining house. The article, however, made no mention of a Lovell portrait. Since the NLM held a fine portrait of Lovell and had not found a suitable place to hang it, the suggestion was made that Blair House might like to display it. The Blair House curator responded enthusiastically and the loan was arranged.

The portrait, painted by an unknown artist, depicts a man in early middle age. Doctor Lovell is resplendent in his uniform, with oak leaves on his collar and gold braid on his shoulder and draped across his chest. He has a handsome face with a serious expression, an intense, dark-eyed gaze, and a curly head of hair in Romantic disarray. The picture is set off by a fine contemporary gilded frame. It hangs in the entrance corridor of Blair House, almost the first thing visitors see when they arrive.

Blair House has welcomed distinguished visitors since its beginning. The Blair family's political involvement and personal friendships with several Presidents brought a steady stream of visitors across their threshold. In 1942 Blair House was purchased for use as the official Presidential guest house, after Eleanor Roosevelt found the visiting Winston Churchill wandering the White House corridors in his nightshirt in the early morning hours, hoping to rouse the President for breakfast. Since then it has housed an almost continuous succession of royalty and heads of state. In recent years, Queen Elizabeth II, the Emperor of Japan, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the President of South Africa are among those who have enjoyed the hospitality of Blair House. In January, the President-elect will stay at Blair House the night before his inauguration. Now Surgeon General Joseph Lovell will be there to greet such guests, and welcome them to his home.

Thanks to Carol Clausen, librarian, History of Medicine Division, for contributing this article.

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