Walter Reed Base Guide

Walter Reed Army Medical Center memorializes one of the most famous American physicians in history — Maj. Walter Reed.

Born in Virginia to a church minister’s family in 1851, Reed earned two medical degrees by his 20th birthday, the first from the University of Virginia, and the second from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York.

In 1875, Reed applied for a commission in the Army as an assistant surgeon. After passing the acceptance examinations, he served nearly 20 years at several remote posts on the American frontier and also on the east coast and the southern states.

Reed treated the Native American leader of the Chiricahua Apache-Geronimo, and other Apache internees while stationed in Alabama. Reed, according to his commanding officer, provided the Native Americans with the same treatment and care as all his other patients.

Reed also delivered his own children, one of whom, Walter Lawrence Reed, became an Army major general and inspector general of the Army from 1935 to 1939.

In 1893, the Army transferred Reed to Washington Barracks in Washington, D.C., and promoted him to major. He also became curator of the Army Medical Museum, (established in 1862 and the predecessor to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, now located on the Walter Reed campus). Reed was a founding faculty member of the new Army Medical School, also established in 1893. He taught at Columbian College medical school (now George Washington University), attended lectures at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Md., and established a reputation as a leading physician and bacteriologist in the nation. He served on several important research teams, including the Army’s typhoid board.

In 1900, Reed served as head of the Yellow Fever Board in Cuba. Through this research effort, it was proved the transmission of yellow fever was caused by the mosquito, which led to the control and eradication of the disease. For this work, Reed became a world-renowned Army physician.

In 1902, Reed developed appendicitis and later died from its effects. (Sherman Fleek, WRAMC Historian)