Oil painting by Jean McLane, 52" x 37" with frame.

 
Richard C. Cabot (1868-1939) was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and he received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1892. Dr. Cabot practiced at the MGH from 1898 to 1921. He favored socialized medicine, and he founded the Department of Medical Social Work at the MGH in 1905, the first in the nation. Dr. Cabot also created the teaching method known as the clinicopathological conference, and he remained a member of the MGH consulting staff until his death.

Dr. Cabot also served as a consultant to the New England Hospital for Women and Children, the Westboro School for Boys, and the Lancaster School for Girls. His teaching career spanned nearly four decades. At Harvard, he was Lecturer on Philosophy (1902-1903), Instructor in Clinical Medicine (1903-1908), Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine (1908-1913), Assistant Professor of Medicine (1913-1918), Professor of Clinical Medicine (1918-1933), and Professor of Social Ethics (1920-1934). From 1935 to 1939, he was the professor of natural theology at the Andover-Newton Theological School. During the Spanish-American War, Dr. Cabot was an army doctor on the hospital ship Bay State, and during World War I, he worked at a base hospital in France.

He belonged to many professional organizations, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , the Association of American Physicians , the American Medical Association , the Massachusetts Medical Society , Sigma Xi , and the National Conference of Social Work, of which he was president in 1930. Dr. Cabot also received various honors throughout his career, including the gold medal of the National Institute of Social Sciences in 1931 (see catalog # 1927).

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