Moritz Ignaz Weber
Moritz Ignaz Weber was a German physician and anatomist, born on 19 July 1795 in Landshut, to father Anton Weber, a bookseller, and mother Joseph Phillipina Podowilz. He studied anatomy at the University of Würzburg, receiving his doctorate in 1823. Weber published a number of medical works in the 1820s, including in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Natural Science journal. He became a dissector at the University of Bonn, being appointed full professor in 1830. At the age of 80, Moritz Ignaz Weber died in Bonn.
Weber’s son Gustav was born in Bonn in 1828. At the age of 20, he departed for the United States, settling in Missouri and completing his medical degree at the University of St. Louis. He returned to Europe in the 1850s, and studied across countries, in Amsterdam and Paris. Shortly after, he returned to the US, this time to New York, starting a practice with his brother Edward, who was also a surgeon. Unfortunately, Edward died a few months later of consumption. Gustav continued the practice, and married wife Ruth Elizabeth Cheney. He travelled across the US, settling in Cleveland, and later founded the first medical journal in the city. He became Surgeon General of the state of Ohio in 1862, acting during the Civil War to care for injured troops.
j.h. beckers
A number of the anatomical drawings are labelled with the signature J. H. Beckers, a German artist who was based in Cologne. Little is known about Beckers, but his other projects included the drawing of Peter Paul Rubens’ famous painting ‘The Crucifixion of St. Peter’ for lithographic reproduction.