Item 0013 - Letter, 30 April 1897

George Edward Post was born on December 17, 1838, in New York, New York.

He was an American surgeon, educator, amateur naturalist, and author. He studied at the City College of the City University of New York (B.A., 1854; M.A., 1857; M.D., 1860). In 1861, he earned his diploma in theology from the Union Theological Seminary of the Presbyterians. In 1863, Dr. Post was sent to Syria by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Stationed in Tripoli, he started practicing medicine and took up the study of Arabic. In 1868, he joined the Syrian Protestant College, now the American University of Beirut, as a professor of surgery. He played an important role in the foundation of its School of Medicine, and would later become one of the pioneers of anesthesia in the Arab world. He served as an editor of the medical journals Medical News and the Physician. He published “Flora of the Middle East” (1884), “Flora of Syria, Palestine and Sinai” (1896), and many articles in the areas of natural history, medicine, theology, and architecture. He was also one of the contributors to Smith's Bible Dictionary in 1893. In 1896, he received an honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Aberdeen and from New York University. For his work as a surgeon and missionary, he received the Order of the Red Eagle and Knights of Jerusalem from the Kingdom of Prussia.

In 1863, he married Sarah Emilie Read (1839–1922). He died on September 30, 1909, in Beirut, Syria.