COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS (Keokuk, Iowa)

Medical Lecture Ticket “DISEASES of the NERVOUS SYSTEM”

SIGNED by Civil War COLONEL D. B. Hillis (17th Iowa Infantry)

SCARCE College of Physicians & Surgeons (Keokuk, Iowa) MEDICAL Admittance TICKET for STUDENT William A. Packard to a course of LECTURES on the “Diseases of the Nervous System” by Professor D.B. HILLIS M.D., during the SESSION of 1880 – 81. The back of the ticket is boldly SIGNED / autographed in ink by Professor Hillis.

The College of Physicians & Surgeons (Keokuk) was affiliated with the University of Iowa and founded in 1850, only FOUR YEARS after Iowa achieved statehood. This is the EARLIEST lecture ticket I have owned from this rarely seen western medical school.

DAVID BURK HILLIS (1825 – 1900) graduated from the St. Louis Medical College in 1847. He relocated to Iowa in 1858 and moved to Keokuk in 1860, where he was engaged in business. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Hillis was appointed aide-de-camp to Iowa Governor Kirkwood in August of 1861 and served until March of 1862, when he was appointed Lieutenant Colonel of the 17th Iowa Infantry. In August of 1862, Hillis was promoted to Colonel and resigned the following year during the siege of Vicksburg, after having distinguished himself at the battles of Jackson and Champion’s Hill. Following the war, he returned to Keokuk to pursue his medical practice. From 1890 to 1899, Hillis was President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons.