Daniel G. Brinton

Daniel Garrison Brinton (May 13, 1837 to July 31, 1899) was an American surgeon, archaeologist, historian, and ethnologist who was born in Thornbury Township, Chester County, Pa. He graduated from Yale University in 1858 and then studied at Jefferson Medical College for two years, spending the following year travelling through Europe, where he continued his studies at Paris and Heidelberg. During the American Civil War he was a surgeon in the Union army, and in 1864–1865 was chief surgeon at the U.S. Army general hospital at Quincy, Illinois. Sun-stroked at Missionary Ridge during the Third Battle of Chattanooga, Briton was never again able to travel about in very hot weather, which affected his career as an ethnologist. Brinton practiced medicine in West Chester, Pa for several years after the war, was the editor of the "Medical and Surgical Reporter", in Philadelphia from 1874 to 1887, and in 1884 became professor of ethnology and archaeology in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in 1884. From 1886 up to his death Brinton was professor of American linguistics and archaeology in the University of Pennsylvania.