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How did Garfield Die? [Part 5]

Friday: (Harper’s Magazine, Volume 25, 673) On September 26, 1881, President Garfield’s body arrived in Cleveland, Ohio, (not far from his home in Mentor). The engraving above shows Garfield’s catafalque, solemnly escorted by honor guards and mourning citizens. Many felt they had lost more than a man; they had lost the promise of equity he represented. At the autopsy after Garfield’s death, people found that the bullet did not strike any major organs, arteries or veins. Today, historians of medicine generally agree that Garfield’s wound was not lethal, but caused by infection introduced, sadly, by his own physician. In the...

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How Did President Garfield Die? [Part 4]

Continuing our series on Garfield's death - join us for the talk Thursday. Thursday: (Harper's Weekly) On September 19, 1881, President Garfield died in a New Jersey seashore cottage. He only survived 79 days after the shooting, with his weight falling from 225 pounds to only 130 pounds from July to September. Over a dozen doctors had participated in Garfield’s treatment, including many distinguished surgeons like David Hayes Agnew of the University of Pennsylvania, and Frank Hamilton of Bellevue Hospital Medical College. However, Dr. Bliss would  not allow any others to provide their input. His lack of understanding on the antiseptic methods...

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How Did President Garfield Die? [part 3]

Continuing our series on Garfield's death--join us for the talk Thursday, and read more at the Plain Dealer, cleveland.com! Wednesday: (Harper’s Magazine, Volume 25, 628) On September 17, 1881, Harper’s Weekly published these scenes with the following titles: “Removing the President from the White House” and “Removing the president from the Express Wagon to the Railway car.” He had already been bedridden some time and through the hottest months. When September arrived, the President demanded to be removed from to the seaside; Dr. Bliss tried to forbid it, but Garfield insisted that he was not asking permission. Carefully removed to a...

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How Did Garfield Die? (part 2)

Continuing our series from Monday--come hear more at Thursday's EVENT! Tuesday: (Picture source: Kouwenhoven, John Atlee. Adventures of America, 1857-1900: A Pictorial Record from Harper's Weekly. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938. Print.) In this wood engraving published on August 13, 1881, President Garfield appears lying on the bed while Alexander Bell, the father of the telephone, looks for the bullet with an electronic detector. Bell’s device failed to find the bullet, but in part this was due to Dr. Bliss, who prevented Bell from being more thorough. Other industrial inventions were also applied to relieve the pain felt by Garfield....

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