The father of American pediatrics, Abraham Jacobi championed children's care in both academic and medical spheres. During his life, every medical school in the United States established a department of pediatrics.

Jacobi earned his medical degree at the University of Bonn in 1851. When he traveled to Berlin to take his state medical exams, he was arrested and held in prison for nearly two years on a charge of promoting political and social reform in the German revolution of 1848. Though he viewed his imprisonment as a badge of honor, he left Germany in 1853 to avoid being arrested again.

Jacobi arrived in New York later in 1853, where he practiced general medicine, surgery, and obstetrics, as was the custom of most of his contemporaries. Medical specialization was frowned on as being degrading, making physicians too much like tradesmen.

Jacobi wrote prolifically, publishing 200 articles and books during his career. His early contributions...