Robert Harris (238)
Election date: 1768 (Elected to the American Society when it absorbed the membership of the Medical Society.)Robert Harris (1731?–9 January 1815) was a physician and apothecary, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768 by way of his election to the Medical Society in 1766. The details of Harris’s early life sharpen with his graduation from the College of New Jersey in 1753, graduating alongside APS member Joseph Shippen, Jr. Afterwards, Harris returned to study medicine and received his master’s degree in 1759. After graduating, he married Hannah Gibb, the daughter of a wealthy ship captain, and it was her family fortune that supported Harris as he rotated through business partners at the Golden Pestle, his apothecary shop on Second Street. When not at work, Harris busied himself by joining institutions throughout the city including the Medical Society of Philadelphia, the Presbyterian Church, and serving as a trustee for his alma mater for 54 years. When the American Revolution began, Harris opened a powder mill outside of Philadelphia followed by opening a saltworks at Cape May, New Jersey: both met with minimal success. After the war, he returned to Philadelphia in 1782 where he attended to various intellectual and social interests such as following plans to launch a hot air balloon and joining the College of Physicians in 1787 as a fellow. He died in 1815 after a lingering illness.