Oliver Wendell Holmes (Sr.)

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809–1894) was an American physician, poet, essayist, and lecturer. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he studied at Harvard College and later earned a medical degree in Paris before building a long career in Boston. Holmes served as a professor at Harvard Medical School and became a prominent public voice on medicine and culture. In literature he is associated with the Fireside Poets, known for verse that reached a wide nineteenth-century audience. His writings include poems such as “Old Ironsides” and the essay series *The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table*. He was the father of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.