"Dunster, Edward Swift, M. A., M. D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, is the third child of Samuel and Susan (Dow) Dunster, and a descendant of the first President of Harvard College. He was born at Springvale, Sanford, Maine, September 2, 1834. On the removal of his father's family to Providence, Rhode Island, he attended the public schools there, was admitted to the high school at twelve years of age; and there prepared for college. He entered Harvard University (collegiate course) in September, 1852, being admitted without conditions. He graduated with high honors in 1856; and had assigned as his subject for commencement, "The first President of Harvard College." In the fall of 1856, he became private tutor to a son of H. W. Sargent, Esq., of Fishkill, New York; and at the same time began the study of medicine with Dr. M Stephenson, across the river, at Newburg. In the summer of 1858 he became a pupil of Dr. E. R. Peaslee, of New York, and, with him, the same season, attended medical lectures at Dartmouth College. The succeeding winter, he attended lectures at the New York College of Medicine and Surgery, where he was graduated M. D. in March, 1859, receiving the highest prize awarded by the faculty for general proficiency in his studies. He entered St. Luke's Hospital as an interne on the day of his graduation, and remained until the August following, when he resigned to accept the situation of Demonstrator of Anatomy in Dartmouth College, Doctor Peaslee being, at that time, the professor in that department. Lectures over, Doctor Dunster returned to New York, and established himself as a physician. On the breaking out of the war, in 1861, he tendered his services to the State; and, and for a few days, acted as Surgeon of the "Mozart Regiment of Volunteers." This position he resigned to enter the regular army, to which he was admitted in June, 1861, after a severe competitive examination, standing second in a class of twenty-eight. August 5, 1861, he was commissioned as Assistant Surgeon; and was assigned to General McClellan's army, then in the field in Western Virginia. He reached the army soon after the engagement at Rich Mountain; established hospitals at Beverly, five miles distant, for the care of the wounded; and, on the transfer of the senior Surgeon, Doctor Wirtz, United States army, a few weeks later, received the supervision of all the hospitals. After remaining three months at Beverly, he was assigned to the duty of construction hospitals at Grafton and Parkersburg, and subsequently was appointed, by General Rosecrans, Medical Inspector for the southern half of the department. The following summer he was assigned to duty under his old commander, General McClellan, in the Peninsula, being made Medical Director of the hospital transports; and, in this capacity having charge of shipping the sick and wounded of the army. In the eight days prior to the evacuation of Harrison's Landing, on the James River, he shipped nearly thirteen hundred sick and wounded soldiers on the transports under his command. When General McClellan was relieved of his command, Doctor Dunster was ordered to Philadelphia, to take charge of the Turner's Lane Hospital; and, at the same time, to act as a member of the Board for the examination of candidates for the medical department of the army. His next army service was in Washington, as assistant to the Surgeon-General; thence he was transferred to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he remained until his resignation from the army, February 1, 1866. He was brevetted Captain and Major, United States army, and before his resignation, passed an examination for promotion to the rank of full Surgeon. On resigning, he went to New York, and resumed the practice of medicine. In July, 1866, he became editor of the New York Medical Journal, and held that position five years. He was, at the same time, appointed one of the attending physicians to the out-door department of Bellevue Hospital, in the class of diseases of children. In 1868 he was appointed Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, in the University of Burlington, Vermont. In 1869 he was called to the same chair, in the flourishing Medical College of Brooklyn, known as the Long Island College Hospital; and filled the chair until 1874, when he resigned. In July, 1869, he assumed charge, as resident physician, of the Infant's Hospital, on Randall's Island, New York; and also became physician-in-chief of all the other hospitals and institutions on the island, generally known as the "Nursery." Doctor Dunster had the satisfaction of reducing the mortality in this department, which had long been a scandal and reproach to the profession, to a point almost equal to the ordinary mortality of children not living in crowded institutions; and for this received repeated acknowledgements in reports of commissioners of charities and corrections. In 1871, he went to Dartmouth College, and gave a course of lectures for his former preceptor, Professor Peaslee, who generously divided his chair, giving Dr. Dunster that of Obstetrics, and retaining Diseases of Women and Children. In 1878 his colleague and preceptor, Doctor Peaslee, died; and, at the request of the faculty, Doctor Dunster assumed the duties of the chair thus made vacant, resigning, at the same time, his Professorship of Obstetrics, which he had meanwhile held, by making an annual summer visit to New Hampshire. In 1873 he was offered the Professorship of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, in the University of Michigan, which he decided to accept; and removed to Ann Arbor, where he now resides, engaged in teaching and in the practice of his profession. He has contributed many papers to medical journals, some of which have appeared in separate form—"Relations of the Medical Profession to Modern Education;" "The Logic of Medicine;" "The History of Anesthesia;" "Notes on Double Monsters;" "The History of Spontaneous Generation;" "The Use of the Forceps in Abbreviating Second Stages of Labor;" etc. He is a member of various learned societies, mostly medical; among them are the New York Academy of Medicine; the New York Historical Society; the American Geographical and Statistical Association; the Michigan State Medical Society; the American Medical Association; etc. He married November 4, 1863, Rebecca Morgan Sprole, daughter of Rev. Dr. Sprole, of Newburg, New York, formerly Chaplain and Professor of Ethics in the United States Military Academy, at West Point." – Excerpt from "American Biographical History of Eminent and Self-Made Men, Michigan Volume," published by Western Biographical Publishing Co., Cincinnati, O., 1878.