Otolaryngology in Our Nation’s Capital: A History
Kenneth M. Grundfast, MD, Jacob B. Kahane The Otolaryngology History Society The history of otolaryngology in our nation’s capital is unique. Otolaryngology in Washington, DC, has encompassed care provided to United States presidents, members of Congress, military personnel, government workers, and ordinary citizens. In 1799, General George Washington was treated for acute epiglottitis in his Mount Vernon home. President Grover Cleveland underwent a partial maxillectomy, secretly performed as treatment for a verrucous carcinoma of the palate. Prior to World War II, Washington was a relatively small city, but after World War II, it became the downtown hub of a metropolis comprising Maryland and Virginia suburbs. Today, metropolitan Washington, DC, has three civilian medical schools with associated teaching hospitals, the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center including a military medical school, and the National Institutes of Health. The Episcopal Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital, founded in 1897, evaluated soldiers for combat readiness in World War I. This hospital eventually merged with others to form the Washington Hospital Center, now a teaching hospital for Georgetown University. The earliest known chairman of otolaryngology at Georgetown University School of Medicine was Walter A. Wells, MD, who wrote a medical thesaurus. In 1914, Ulysses Houston, MD, founded the department of otolaryngology at Howard University Medical School and Freedmen’s Hospital, now named Howard University Hospital. Clarence Hinton, MD, chair of otolaryngology at Howard from 1963–1979, was the first African American to become chair of the DC Medical Society’s otolaryngology division. The Children’s Hospital, founded in 1870, has become the Children’s National Medical Center with a large and well-respected otolaryngology department. Interestingly, Washington, DC, is home to both the Gallaudet University, the nation’s only university for the deaf, and the Food and Drug Administration, which gave approval for the cochlear implant that has diminished the size of the deaf population.

Kenneth M. Grundfast, MD,
Jacob B. Kahane
The Otolaryngology History Society
The history of otolaryngology in our nation’s capital is unique. Otolaryngology in Washington, DC, has encompassed care provided to United States presidents, members of Congress, military personnel, government workers, and ordinary citizens.
In 1799, General George Washington was treated for acute epiglottitis in his Mount Vernon home. President Grover Cleveland underwent a partial maxillectomy, secretly performed as treatment for a verrucous carcinoma of the palate.
Prior to World War II, Washington was a relatively small city, but after World War II, it became the downtown hub of a metropolis comprising Maryland and Virginia suburbs. Today, metropolitan Washington, DC, has three civilian medical schools with associated teaching hospitals, the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center including a military medical school, and the National Institutes of Health.
The Episcopal Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital, founded in 1897, evaluated soldiers for combat readiness in World War I. This hospital eventually merged with others to form the Washington Hospital Center, now a teaching hospital for Georgetown University. The earliest known chairman of otolaryngology at Georgetown University School of Medicine was Walter A. Wells, MD, who wrote a medical thesaurus.
In 1914, Ulysses Houston, MD, founded the department of otolaryngology at Howard University Medical School and Freedmen’s Hospital, now named Howard University Hospital. Clarence Hinton, MD, chair of otolaryngology at Howard from 1963–1979, was the first African American to become chair of the DC Medical Society’s otolaryngology division.
The Children’s Hospital, founded in 1870, has become the Children’s National Medical Center with a large and well-respected otolaryngology department. Interestingly, Washington, DC, is home to both the Gallaudet University, the nation’s only university for the deaf, and the Food and Drug Administration, which gave approval for the cochlear implant that has diminished the size of the deaf population.