Robert Lowry Sibbet, a physician of Carlisle in the last third of the nineteenth century, once described himself, somewhat deprecatingly, as not associated with any medical school or connected with any medical journal, not a military or naval surgeon, not a specialist. "We are not even a gentleman of leisure," he continued; "but a general practitioner in one of the rich agricultural districts of Pennsylvania." This was true enough, but Sibbet was no ordinary country doctor. Within three years of Lister's announcement of antisepsis in surgery, for example, this "general practitioner" visited Edinburgh's Royal Infirmary and became a firm supporter of "Listerism" thereafter. During two years in Europe, he observed hospital practice in London, Paris and Berlin, and attended the lectures of the famous clinicians of Vienna. He was in Paris during the German seige in the winter of 1870-71, and later wrote a history of that event and its aftermath. Returned home in 1872, Sibbet played a part in the movement to raise educational requirements for medical students and physicians. Near the end of his life he enjoyed a modest national reputation.
Our story begins at eleven o'clock in the morning on July 17, 1866, when 24 Cumberland County physicians arrived at the Court House in Carlisle. This was the largest gathering of physicians in the county up to that time and, in addition to seven doctors from Carlisle, included practitioners from Shippensburg, Newville, Mechanicsburg, New Cumberland, West Fairview, and a number of other smaller points in the county.
Born in Chicago on September 18, 1902, Helen Stevens was a long-time and very active member of the Carlisle community, whose life work was associated with finding assistance for individuals needing mental health services.