Bayard Taylor Holmes, 1852-1924, was born to a large farming family near Lawrenceville in St. Lawrence County, NY. He began his education after the family moved to Northfield, MN. He entered Chicago University in 1871 but left shortly after the Chicago fire and taught school near Sycamore, IL for eleven years. Holmes then studied medicine, graduating from Northwestern University in 1888. He interned as a surgeon at Cook County hospital and remained in Chicago with a private practice. Active in his community and profession, Dr. Holmes helped organize the Chicago Medical Library Association, served as professor of surgery at the University of Illinois medical college, worked with Hull House, and ran for mayor of Chicago in 1897 on the Socialist ticket. He retired from active practice in 1919. Dr. Holmes died at his winter home in Fairhope, AL.
From the guide to the Bayard T. Holmes Papers, 1921-1929, (History of Medicine Division. National Library of Medicine)
