Name Robert Tomes Role Writer | Books Panama in 1855 | |
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Robert Tomes (March 27, 1817 – 1882), American physician, diplomat and writer.
Contents
Biography
Robert Tomes was born in New York City to Francis and Maria Tomes. He attended Columbia College Grammar School in New York, and Washington College (now Trinity College) in Hartford, Connecticut. After one year at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School he continued his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1840. After studying further in Paris, he moved back to New York to start his medical practice. Beginning to write around 1853, Tomes gradually relinquished his medical business and became an author. Dr. Tomes married Katherine Fasnet of Wiesbaden, Germany, and had one daughter and two sons. The family lived in New York City, Wiesbaden, Germany, and Rheims, France.
He graduated at Washington (now Trinity) college, Connecticut in 1835, and, after spending some time in the medical schools of Philadelphia, went to the University of Edinburgh, where he received the degree of M. D. in 1840. He then studied in Paris.
On his return to the United States Tomes settled in the practice of his profession in New York, but after a few years was appointed surgeon on a vessel belonging to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and made several voyages between Panama and San Francisco.
In 1865 Tomes was appointed U. S. consul at Rheims, France, which office he filled until 1867. Returning to the United States, he spent most of his life in literary occupation. He died in Brooklyn, New York, on August 28, 1882.
Works
Tomes wrote for journals and magazines (his series of papers in Harper's Magazine on American manners and society were widely popular), and he also translated works from French and German. He published: