As we celebrate the 250th birthday of the Perelman School of Medicine, it’s natural to look back at the doctors and students who wandered its halls. All have their own unique stories which brought them here, the nation’s oldest medical school, but perhaps no one’s story is steeped in as much Penn pedigree as Dr. Ann F. Corson’s.
Ann graduated from Penn in 1982 and went into family medicine, and her family tree has roots which run several generations deep into the school’s history, almost as far back as the school’s very founding. She says that she is the 18th Corson in six generations to graduate from Penn.
The first of her ancestors to receive an MD from Penn’s school of medicine is Richard D. Corson, Ann Corson’s great-great-great-great uncle (yes, four “greats”) and graduate of the class of 1812.
The next generation of Penn grads includes Richard D. Corson’s two nephews, William Corson, MD, and Hiram Corson, MD. Ann said Hiram, her great-great grandfather, was particularly good at thinking outside of the box, especially for his time. Later in life, he revamped the Norristown Mental State Hospital, discouraging workers from restraining patients and believed that bright, sunny rooms were beneficial to patient care, she said.
Toward the beginning of 1861, Hiram’s son, Joseph K. Corson, answered President Abraham Lincoln’s call for volunteers and served in the Union Army for several months. That fall, he followed in his father’s footsteps and enrolled in Penn, ultimately earning his MD in 1863.
As the Civil War raged on, threatening to permanently tear the nation in two, Joseph joined the Union Army once again, this time using his new skills to serve as a surgeon. His actions during battle just months later earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest honor that can be awarded to members of America’s military.
Ann said that in his Civil War journal, Joseph wrote that there might be something to the germ theory—which wasn’t widely accept by doctors at the time—as he noticed that wounded soldiers left outside were healing with less 'festering' than those housed in tents.
Continuing down the line, Ann’s grandfather, Edward, and father, Joseph, both received their MDs from Penn as well. Both ended up in the field of dermatology, though Edward first worked as a primary care doctor in Bala Cynwyd.
Outside of Penn, Hiram’s niece, Sarah R.A. Dolley, received her MD from Central Medical College in Rochester, New York, in 1851, just two years after Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive a medical degree from an American medical school.
As for Ann, she said she didn’t think she was going to wind up in medicine despite her family’s history and her love of science. After graduating from Springside School in Northwest Philadelphia, she received her BA in biology from Franklin and Marshall College. Corson then studied neuroanatomy at the Milton S. Hershey Medical School of the Pennsylvania State University before leaving to earn her MD from Penn.
Ann now works out of Kennett Square, PA using integrative medicine to treat patients with complex diseases, including Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. As a member of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, she volunteers her time to bring attention to organ transplant abuses in China.
When asked about her family, Dr. Corson speaks quickly, rattling off names and dates as if it’s never far from the front of her mind. She speaks highly of her ancestors’ willingness to break the mold and look past the limitations of the knowledge of their times.
Many artifacts from their lives are still intact, including her father’s World War I medical kit and all of the alumni’s original diplomas. In fact, Hiram Corson’s Plymouth Meeting office is still standing.
Next time you walk past Medical Alumni Hall, take a minute to scan the plaque on the wall outside. Ponder the work done by those who have come before and be sure to note the name near the upper left, the near the beginning of the plaque under the year 1828, Ann's great-great grandfather Hiram Corson.