John Blair Deaver, M.D., and his marvelous retractor.

John Blair Deaver was born near Buck, Pennsylvania, in Lancaster County on July 25, 1855, to Dr. Joshua Montgomery Deaver and Elizabeth Clair Moore. The elder Deaver was a reputable country physician, educated at the University of Maryland, who fathered three physicians and a college president. John Blair Deaver (Fig. 1) went to boarding school at West Nottingham Academy in Maryland. After boarding school he taught in Lancaster County country schools to raise funds to attend the nation’s first medical school, the University of Pennsylvania. On receiving his M.D. degree in 1878, Dr. Deaver completed 1-year internships at both Germantown Hospital and Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, after which he embarked into clinical practice. Alongside his brother, Dr. Harry Clay Deaver, he made home visits to patients to perform surgeries as well as managed a busy 16th Street and Vine Street Philadelphia office.