Louis Agassiz Shaw
Encyclopedia
Louis Agassiz Shaw Junior (September 25, 1886August 27, 1940) was an instructor
of physiology
at the School of Public Health
of Harvard University
, where he is credited in 1928 along with Philip Drinker
for inventing the Drinker respirator, the first widely used iron lung
.
Shaw's parents were Louis Agassiz Shaw and Mary Elizabeth Saltonstall
. Both parents came from wealthy and politically influential Boston Brahmin
families with roots extending back to the Mayflower
.
Shaw's father was born at 26 Mount Vernon Street in Beacon Hill in 1861, and the following year the family moved to Jamaica Plain. He attended George Washington Copp Noble School
in Boston
, and graduated from Harvard University in 1884. He married Mary Elizabeth Saltonstall on June 30, 1884 in Newton
, right after the graduation ceremony. The couple moved to Chestnut Hill
and had two children, Quincy Adams Shaw II (born May 21, 1885) and Louis Agassiz Shaw Junior (born on September 25, 1886). Shaw's father died at home in Chestnut Hill from tuberculosis
when Louis Junior was only four years old.
Shaw had two uncles named Robert Gould Shaw. The elder uncle, Robert Gould Shaw
, was a colonel
in the Union Army
during the American Civil War
and commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
, one of the first black
Army units in the United States. He was killed in 1863 during the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina
. The younger uncle, Robert Gould Shaw II
, was married to Nancy Witcher Langhorne (who later became Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor
). Robert Gould Shaw II had a son named Louis Agassiz Shaw II (ca. 1910ca. 1986), a socialite
who became infamous after he strangled
his maid to death on April 7, 1964.
Shaw's paternal grandparents were Quincy Adams Shaw
(one of the richest men in Massachusetts
through his investment in the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company
) and Pauline Agassiz. Shaw's great grandfather, for whom he was named, was Louis Agassiz
, noted professor of zoology
at Harvard University. Another of Shaw's great grandfathers was Leverett Saltonstall I
, a member of the United States House of Representatives
.
Shaw married Joanne Bird of East Walpole
on June 14, 1910. The couple had two children, Joanne Bird Shaw (born March 31, 1911) and Pauline Agassiz Shaw (born on November 4, 1915, died on October 30, 1992).
in 1892) and later attending Harvard University, graduating in 1909. Shaw's younger cousins, future murderer Louis Agassiz Shaw II and future 55th Governor of Massachusetts and United States Senator, Leverett Saltonstall
, also pursued the same academic path. Shaw continued to study for a couple of years after graduation, taking classes in botany
, geology
, and zoology. He contracted tuberculosis in the summer of 1911, and was consequently unable to work until the spring of 1913.
Beginning in 1914, his research focused exclusively on physiology. Shaw and his family moved into the brownstone
building located at 6 Marlborough Street in the Back Bay in 1917, having acquired the property upon the death of his grandmother, Pauline Agassiz Shaw. The building had a long history, having served as a private day school (18851893), later as headquarters of the Massachusetts Woman's Suffrage Association (19041915), and then as headquarters of the Women's Municipal League of Boston (19151917).
From late 1917 until early 1919, Shaw and his research team conducted investigations in his home laboratory on the physiological effects of poisonous gases and other problems related to the ongoing war
in Europe. In the spring of 1919, he joined the faculty at the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers in the department of industrial hygiene
. The Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers was a joint venture between Harvard Medical School
and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) that began in 1913. The joint venture ended in 1922, when the Harvard School of Public Health
was formally established.
Shaw and his family continued to live at 6 Marlborough Street at least until 1927. Shaw was a member of the Tennis and Racquet Club
, located on Boylston Street
not far from his house. In that year, Shaw was arrested for the distillation
of alcohol
, which was illegal in the United States during Prohibition
, in effect from 1920 to 1933. Shortly after that event, the house was demolished and replaced by a five-story, 21-unit apartment house.
Shaw was an instructor in physiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he is credited in 1928 along with Philip Drinker (18941972, associate professor of industrial hygiene) and his brother Cecil K. Drinker (18871956, later dean
of the Harvard School of Public Health) for inventing the first widely used iron lung. The machine was powered by an electric motor with air pumps from two vacuum cleaners. The air pumps changed the pressure inside a rectangular, airtight metal box, pulling air in and out of the lungs.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
at the School of Public Health
Harvard School of Public Health
The Harvard School of Public Health is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, which is next to Harvard Medical School. HSPH is considered a significant school focusing on health in the...
of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where he is credited in 1928 along with Philip Drinker
Philip Drinker
Philip Drinker was an industrial hygienist. With Louis Agassiz Shaw, he invented the first widely used iron lung in 1928.-Family and early life:...
for inventing the Drinker respirator, the first widely used iron lung
Iron lung
A negative pressure ventilator is a form of medical ventilator that enables a person to breathe when normal muscle control has been lost or the work of breathing exceeds the person's ability....
.
Family and early life
Saltonstall family
The Saltonstall family is a Boston Brahmin family from the U.S. state of Massachusetts, notable for having had a family member attend Harvard University from every generation since Nathaniel Saltonstall—later one of the more principled judges at the Salem Witch Trials—graduated in 1659...
. Both parents came from wealthy and politically influential Boston Brahmin
Boston Brahmin
Boston Brahmins are wealthy Yankee families characterized by a highly discreet and inconspicuous life style. Based in and around Boston, they form an integral part of the historic core of the East Coast establishment...
families with roots extending back to the Mayflower
Mayflower
The Mayflower was the ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, , in 1620...
.
Shaw's father was born at 26 Mount Vernon Street in Beacon Hill in 1861, and the following year the family moved to Jamaica Plain. He attended George Washington Copp Noble School
Noble and Greenough School
The Noble and Greenough School, commonly known as Nobles, is a coeducational, nonsectarian day and boarding school for students in grades seven through twelve. It is located on a campus in Dedham, Massachusetts. The current enrollment of 550 students includes a balance of boys and girls, of whom...
in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, and graduated from Harvard University in 1884. He married Mary Elizabeth Saltonstall on June 30, 1884 in Newton
Newton, Massachusetts
Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States bordered to the east by Boston. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Newton was 85,146, making it the eleventh largest city in the state.-Villages:...
, right after the graduation ceremony. The couple moved to Chestnut Hill
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
Chestnut Hill is a wealthy New England village located six miles west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity, but unlike most of them, it encompasses parts of three separate municipalities, each of...
and had two children, Quincy Adams Shaw II (born May 21, 1885) and Louis Agassiz Shaw Junior (born on September 25, 1886). Shaw's father died at home in Chestnut Hill from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
when Louis Junior was only four years old.
Shaw had two uncles named Robert Gould Shaw. The elder uncle, Robert Gould Shaw
Robert Gould Shaw
Robert Gould Shaw was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. As colonel, he commanded the all-black 54th Regiment, which entered the war in 1863. He was killed in the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina...
, was a colonel
Colonel (United States)
In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, colonel is a senior field grade military officer rank just above the rank of lieutenant colonel and just below the rank of brigadier general...
in the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
and commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that saw extensive service in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was one of the first official black units in the United States during the Civil War...
, one of the first black
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
Army units in the United States. He was killed in 1863 during the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
. The younger uncle, Robert Gould Shaw II
Robert Gould Shaw II
Robert Gould Shaw II was a wealthy landowner and socialite of the leisure class in the greater Boston area of Massachusetts during the late 19th century, in an era of rapid economic and population growth in the United States referred to as the Gilded Age.Born in 1872 into one of the wealthiest and...
, was married to Nancy Witcher Langhorne (who later became Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor
Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor
Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor, CH, was the first woman to sit as a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons.Constance Markievicz was the first woman elected to the House of Commons in December 1918 after running for the Sinn Féin party in 1918 General Election, but in line...
). Robert Gould Shaw II had a son named Louis Agassiz Shaw II (ca. 1910ca. 1986), a socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
who became infamous after he strangled
Strangling
Strangling is compression of the neck that may lead to unconsciousness or death by causing an increasingly hypoxic state in the brain. Fatal strangling typically occurs in cases of violence, accidents, and as the auxiliary lethal mechanism in hangings in the event the neck does not break...
his maid to death on April 7, 1964.
Shaw's paternal grandparents were Quincy Adams Shaw
Quincy Adams Shaw
Quincy Adams Shaw was a Boston Brahmin investor and business magnate whowas the first president of Calumet and Hecla Mining Company.-Family and early life:...
(one of the richest men in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
through his investment in the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company
Calumet and Hecla Mining Company
The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company was a major copper-mining company based in the Michigan Copper Country. In the 19th century, the company paid out more than $72 million in shareholder dividends, more than any other mining company in the United States during that period.-History:In 1864, Edwin J...
) and Pauline Agassiz. Shaw's great grandfather, for whom he was named, was Louis Agassiz
Louis Agassiz
Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was a Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a prominent innovator in the study of the Earth's natural history. He grew up in Switzerland and became a professor of natural history at University of Neuchâtel...
, noted professor of zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
at Harvard University. Another of Shaw's great grandfathers was Leverett Saltonstall I
Leverett Saltonstall I
Leverett Saltonstall , was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts who also served as Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, President of the Massachusetts Senate, the first Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts and a Member of the Board of Overseers of...
, a member of the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
.
Shaw married Joanne Bird of East Walpole
Walpole, Massachusetts
Walpole is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located about south of Boston and north of Providence, Rhode Island. The population was 24,070 at the 2010 census. Walpole was first settled in 1659 and was considered a part of Dedham until officially incorporated in 1724...
on June 14, 1910. The couple had two children, Joanne Bird Shaw (born March 31, 1911) and Pauline Agassiz Shaw (born on November 4, 1915, died on October 30, 1992).
Education
Shaw followed his father's educational footsteps, first attending the George Washington Copp Noble School (which had been renamed the Noble and Greenough SchoolNoble and Greenough School
The Noble and Greenough School, commonly known as Nobles, is a coeducational, nonsectarian day and boarding school for students in grades seven through twelve. It is located on a campus in Dedham, Massachusetts. The current enrollment of 550 students includes a balance of boys and girls, of whom...
in 1892) and later attending Harvard University, graduating in 1909. Shaw's younger cousins, future murderer Louis Agassiz Shaw II and future 55th Governor of Massachusetts and United States Senator, Leverett Saltonstall
Leverett Saltonstall
Leverett A. Saltonstall was an American Republican politician who served as the 55th Governor of Massachusetts and as a United States Senator .-Biography:...
, also pursued the same academic path. Shaw continued to study for a couple of years after graduation, taking classes in botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, and zoology. He contracted tuberculosis in the summer of 1911, and was consequently unable to work until the spring of 1913.
Career
Brownstone
Brownstone is a brown Triassic or Jurassic sandstone which was once a popular building material. The term is also used in the United States to refer to a terraced house clad in this material.-Types:-Apostle Island brownstone:...
building located at 6 Marlborough Street in the Back Bay in 1917, having acquired the property upon the death of his grandmother, Pauline Agassiz Shaw. The building had a long history, having served as a private day school (18851893), later as headquarters of the Massachusetts Woman's Suffrage Association (19041915), and then as headquarters of the Women's Municipal League of Boston (19151917).
From late 1917 until early 1919, Shaw and his research team conducted investigations in his home laboratory on the physiological effects of poisonous gases and other problems related to the ongoing war
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in Europe. In the spring of 1919, he joined the faculty at the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers in the department of industrial hygiene
Occupational hygiene
Occupational hygiene is generally defined as the art and science dedicated to the anticipation, recognition, evaluation, communication and control of environmental stressors in, or arising from, the workplace that may result in injury, illness, impairment, or affect the well being of workers and...
. The Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers was a joint venture between Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(MIT) that began in 1913. The joint venture ended in 1922, when the Harvard School of Public Health
Harvard School of Public Health
The Harvard School of Public Health is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill, which is next to Harvard Medical School. HSPH is considered a significant school focusing on health in the...
was formally established.
Shaw and his family continued to live at 6 Marlborough Street at least until 1927. Shaw was a member of the Tennis and Racquet Club
Tennis and Racquet Club
The Tennis and Racquet Club is a private social club and athletic club located at 939 Boylston Street, in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is a contributing structure in the National Register Historic District....
, located on Boylston Street
Boylston Street
Boylston Street is the name of a major east-west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Another Boylston Street runs through Boston's western suburbs....
not far from his house. In that year, Shaw was arrested for the distillation
Distillation
Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....
of alcohol
Ethanol
Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...
, which was illegal in the United States during Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
, in effect from 1920 to 1933. Shortly after that event, the house was demolished and replaced by a five-story, 21-unit apartment house.
Shaw was an instructor in physiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, where he is credited in 1928 along with Philip Drinker (18941972, associate professor of industrial hygiene) and his brother Cecil K. Drinker (18871956, later dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
of the Harvard School of Public Health) for inventing the first widely used iron lung. The machine was powered by an electric motor with air pumps from two vacuum cleaners. The air pumps changed the pressure inside a rectangular, airtight metal box, pulling air in and out of the lungs.