William W. Keen,
M.D.
WILLIAM WILLIAMS KEEN was born in Philadelphia, January
19, 1837, his parents being William Williams and Susan (Budd) Keen. His American
ancestry dates back to 1642, when Joran Kyn came over from Sweden with Governor
Printz. He was the founder of the town of Chester, Pennsylvania, then called
Upland. The name Kyn was first "Dutched" into Kien, and later "Englished" into
Keen. Many landmarks still survive as monuments to the memory of the early
American Keens. Doctor Keen's father was born near Tacony, opposite Keen's Lane,
in an old stone house which was built by his grandfather about the middle of the
Eighteenth Century, and which is still standing. Doctor Keen was educated in the
Newton Grammar School, Thirty-sixth and Chestnut streets, and in the Central
High School from 1849 to 1853, after which he entered Brown University, at
Providence, Rhode Island, graduating in 1859. After remaining a year as a
resident graduate, he entered the Jefferson Medical College, in 1860, and
graduated as M.D. in 1862. In 1861, Doctor Keen was sworn into the service of
the United States as Assistant Surgeon of the Fifth Regiment, Massachusetts
Volunteers. In 1862, after passing the examining Board for the regular army, he
entered the service as Acting Assistant Surgeon, serving until 1864.
As he progressed in the practice of his profession, at
the close of the war, Doctor Keen began to take a sincere interest in the
affairs of various educational institutions and semi-religious organizations. In
1873, he was made Trustee of Brown University, and, in 1895, was made a Fellow
of the University. He has served as President of the Philadelphia County
Medical Society, in which office he attained considerable distinction for his
thorough progressiveness. Doctor Keen has received several degrees, including
that of LL.D. from Brown University in 1891.
In 1866 he assumed charge of the Philadelphia School of
Anatomy, which he managed until 1875, when the Government took possession of the
building for the new post-office. In 1876 Doctor Keen became Professor of
Artistic Anatomy in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and he entirely
re-organized the teaching in this department. In I889 he was called from the
chair of Surgery in the Women's Medical College to the chair of Surgery in the
Jefferson Medical College as successor to the late Prof. Samuel W. Gross, a
position still held by him. As an author he has contributed largely to medical
journals, and has both edited and written a number of valuable text-books, many
of which are quoted as pre-eminent authority. He has edited "Heath's Practical
Anatomy;" "American Health Primers;" "Holden's Landmarks;" "Gray's Anatomy;" and
has written with colleagues, "Reflex Paralysis from Gunshot Wounds;" "Gunshot
Wounds and other Injuries of Nerves;" "The American Text Book of Surgery," and
papers on a large number of other subjects. These include some of the best known
works in medical literature.
