Courtesy of Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire: Gift of Edmund Randolph Peaslee, class of 1836.

The year 2013 marks the 200th anniversary of Joseph Smith’s life-threatening typhoid fever and the experimental and successful surgery performed by Dr. Nathan Smith, founder of Dartmouth Medical School (1811). The 1813 surgery blesses millions yet today. As a thank you, the Joseph Smith Sr. Family Association is working to establish a scholarship of gratitude on behalf of Dr. Nathan Smith to the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth Medical College.

Dr. Nathan Smith was the only physician in the United States who had the skill and ability to successfully treat Joseph’s infection. His personal preparation, life’s work, timing, and placement converged to allow Dr. Smith to operate on Joseph, saving his leg and his life, fully 100 years before this life-saving surgery became accepted as standard procedure.

Dr. Smith was one of the great men of the 19th century, who worked tirelessly to improve medical education. He helped establish 4 medical institutions, including Dartmouth and Yale. At the 200th commemoration of the founding of Yale, Dr. William Henry Welch stated that Dr. Smith, “did more for the general advancement of medical and surgical practice than any of his predecessors or contemporaries in the country.”

To honor Dr. Nathan Smith, the Joseph Smith Sr. Family Association is hosting the Joseph’s Miracle run to create a scholarship endowment in behalf of Joseph. This annual scholarship will be granted to a deserving surgical student at Dartmouth, and will be a reminder of the great good that charitable contributions like Dr. Smith’s can be in the community. To join with us, or to learn more, please visit: www.JosephsMiracleRun.com.