Nathaniel Chapman was a prominent Philadelphia physician and medical leader in the United States during the early 1800s. As professor of Materia Medica and then professor of the theory and practice of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Chapman held what were then the most prestigious medical posts in the country. He authored several important early medical works and was the first president of the American Medical Association.

Chapman was born at Summer Hill in Virginia to George and Amelia Chapman, who had six sons and one daughter. Growing up in a comfortable upper class life, Chapman was a clever child who dabbled in poetry. After graduating from the Alexandria Academy, he began his medical apprenticeship in Maryland at the age of 15. He eventually studied under Benjamin Rush at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and graduated with honors in 1801. Chapman then went on an academic tour of...