About Robert Abbe
Robert Abbe (April 13, 1851 – March 7, 1928) was an American surgeon and pioneer radiologist in New York City. He was born in New York City and educated at the College of the City of New York (S.B., 1871) and Columbia University (M.D., 1874). Abbe was most known as a plastic surgeon, and between 1877 and 1884 he served as a surgeon and professor of surgery at New York Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital, and New York Babies Hospital. During this time, he would spend summers travelling, and he amassed a large collection of Wabanaki artifacts and archeological materials, and in 1927 founded the Abbe Museum of Native American artifacts in Bar Harbor, Maine, where he maintained a summer residence. He is credited with the lip switch flap, which now bears his name. An Italian surgeon named Sabattini described the flap 60 years earlier. Although Sabattini published his technique, it was printed in a book with a limited circulation. He died of anemia, possibly due to his work handling radium. In later years, at his Bar Harbor, Maine, summer home, "Brook End," Abbe created a garden in whose pool floated two swans – Pierre and Marie. Opened in 1928, the Abbe was one of the first museums built in Maine. In 1904, he introduced the practice of using radiation to treat cancer and founded the science of radiation oncology.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.