John Staige Davis
- Name
- John Staige Davis
- Given Name
- John Staige
- Family Name
- Davis
- Birth Date
- 1824-10-01
- Death Date
- 1885-07-17
- Sex
- Male
- Description
- John Staige Davis (October 1, 1824 - July 17, 1885) was a professor of medicine at the University of Virginia from 1847-1885. He was the son of John A. G. Davis, a law professor who was shot and killed by a student in 1840. J. S. Davis preferred to provide practical anatomical instruction to his students and turned to grave robbing to source cadavers. He stole the bodies of African Americans, the poor, and executed convicts. In 1859, he requested the bodies of the men sentenced to be hanged after John Brown‘s raid on Harpers Ferry but was denied. During the Civil War, Davis served as a Confederate surgeon in Charlottesville. He died of pneumonia and is buried in the University of Virginia Cemetery.
- Source Resource
- https://omeka-s-dev.internal.lib.virginia.edu/api/items/145
- Child of
- John A. G. Davis
Linked resources
Part of John Staige Davis