Storer, Horatio Robinson, 1830-1922

Horatio Robinson Storer (February 27, 1830 – September 18, 1922) was an American physician, numismatist, and anti-abortion activist. Storer was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and attended the Boston Latin School, Harvard College, and the Harvard Medical School. After obtaining his M.D. in 1853, he traveled to Europe and spent a year studying with James Young Simpson at Edinburgh.[1]

In 1855, Storer began medical practice in Boston with an emphasis on obstetrics and gynecology. In 1865, Storer won an American Medical Association (AMA) prize for his essay aimed at informing women about the moral and physical problems of induced abortion. Published as Why Not? A Book for Every Woman, it was widely sold and many physicians distributed it to patients who requested abortion. In 1869, Storer founded the Gynaecological Society of Boston, the first medical society devoted exclusively to gynecology, and published the first gynecology academic journal, the Journal of the Gynaecological Society of Boston. After his retirement from practice in 1872, he became an authority on, and a notable collector of, medallions of medical interest. In 1869, Storer, raised in a Unitarian family, became an Episcopalian. A decade later, he became a Roman Catholic.[2] In 1857, Storer started what NPR calls the "physicians' crusade against abortion".

Storer, a leading antiabortion advocate in Boston, was a staunch supporter of using chloroform rather than ether during obstetrical procedures. He helped establish gynecology as a legitimate medical profession. Simpson was a professor of midwifery in Edinburgh and an early experimenter with chloroform.

Horatio Robinson Storer (1830-1922) was a pioneer gynecologist, anti-abortion crusader, naturalist, and numismatist. The son of David Humphreys Storer, naturalist and medical doctor, Horatio Storer was born in Boston February 27, 1830. Storer attended the Chauncy-Hall School (1837-1840) in Boston, the (Boston) Public Latin School (1840-1846) and Harvard College (1846-1850). After his graduation from Harvard, Storer studied medicine at the Tremont Street Medical School in Boston and Harvard Medical School (M.D. 1853). He married Emily Elvira Gilmore (1833-1872) in 1853 and they traveled to Europe for his postgraduate training. While in Scotland, he studied with Sir James Y. Simpson, an early advocate of the use of chloroform in childbirth and surgery. Storer later edited Simpson's memoirs with William B. Priestley.

Horatio and Emily had three children that survived infancy. Frank Addison Storer (b. 1856) was a skilled botanist, and settled in Deland, Florida with his grandmother, Emily Spaulding (Patten) "Grandmother Gilmore" (1818-1899). John Humphreys Storer (b. 1859) graduated from Harvard College in 1882 and Harvard Law School in 1885. He married Edith Paine, daughter of Robert Treat Paine, in the same year and was a well-known real estate developer and philanthropist. Malcolm Storer (b. 1862) graduated from Harvard College in 1885 and Harvard Medical School in 1889. Malcolm married Grace Ayrault in 1899 and followed his father's specialization, becoming chief of gynecology at the Boston Dispensary. He also shared his father's interest in numismatics and was appointed Curator of Coins at Harvard and the Massachusetts Historical Society, along with several other prominent museums. Emily Elvira suffered from an unspecified mental illness later in life and spent her last years in an institution near Worcester, dying in 1872.

In 1857 Storer started a medical practice in Boston and, in 1862, undertook a specialization in gynecology. He was an early and well-known anti-abortion advocate. He published widely in medical journals and wrote several popular pamphlets against abortion, including Why Not? A Book for Every Woman (1866) and Is it I? A Book for Every Man (1867). From 1865-1867 he was professor of obstetrics and medical jurisprudence at Berkshire Medical Institution and received his LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1868. He was a proponent of chloroform anesthesia and the first to perform a caesarean-hysterectomy.

Storer suffered ill health throughout his life and sought to combat its effects through travel. In 1847 he traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia with his brother, Frank. Influenced by his father, he developed an interest in ichthyology, the study of fish. In 1849 he sailed to Labrador with Frank and Dr. Jeffries Wyman to study fish species. Storer was elected to the Boston Society of Natural History in 1851 and his monograph Observations on the fishes of Nova Scotia and Labrador with descriptions of new species was published by the Society in the same year 1851. Shortly after the death of his wife Emily in 1872, Storer became chronically ill from a surgery-related infection and retired from active medical practice. He removed his family to Europe and married his sister-in-law, Caroline "Aunt Carrie" Augusta Gilmore in ca. 1872. Caroline died in 1874 shortly after the birth of their only child, Agnes Caroline Storer (1874-1943.) Agnes lived with her father, participating in and carrying on his broad civic and philanthropic interests. She died a noted Newport philanthropist in her own right in 1943.

Storer traveled throughout Europe and the British Isles seeking to restore his health until 1876 when he settled into semi-retirement in Newport, Rhode. Horatio Storer married his third wife, Frances Sophia MacKenzie (d. 1910) the same year. Frances was founder and sister-superior of the Franciscan Hospital for Women in Somerville until 1872 when she left her position to care for Horatio Storer during his grave illness. She traveled to Europe with him and his extended family in 1872. After their marriage he converted to Roman Catholicism and became very involved in Catholic organizations. During his retirement, Horatio developed an interest in medical medals, amassing a collection of over 2,000 medals now curated by the Harvard Medical School. Storer was an active civic leader in Newport from 1876 until his death in 1922. He served on the boards of the Newport Medical Society, Newport Natural History Society, and the Newport Historical Society. He also received several appointments to city boards and commissions.