CULTURETECHLENSJames McCune Smith
PROVISIONAL evidence grade of this record
James McCune Smith (1813–1865) was the first African American to earn a medical degree, taking his MD at the University of Glasgow in 1837 after American medical schools refused him admission. He returned to New York City, where he ran a pharmacy and a general medical practice for more than two decades. A leading Black intellectual of his generation, he wrote and lectured against slavery and used statistics to demolish the fraudulent 1840 census claims about Black insanity.
Notes
Merged 2026-11-02 from the staged health pioneers packet (website/.build-work/scratch-v114/health/) under the GOV-006 founder gate opened 2026-11-02; the staged record is carried verbatim — no claim upgraded in transit (GOV-004). · Roles as staged: Physician — physician, abolitionist, writer (New York) · Staged encyclopedia cross-reference: CTL-ENC-000279 — CTL-ENC-JAMES-MCCUNE-SMITH-2026-10-29.md (ctl-encyclopedia-black-medicine-2026-10-29 (staged, unpublished)). A staged Black Medicine encyclopedia entry already covers this person; this graph record is staged to pair with it at the merge gate. The staged entry itself is NOT published by this merge. · Photo: Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain · Source: Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_McCune_Smith.jpg) · staged for CultureTechLens Full per-asset record in this package's photo-records.json, keyed to CTL-E-6720. · Photo size note (as staged): Largest original available on Wikimedia Commons is 291x450; below the 1200px long-edge preference — used as-is, never upscaled.
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'James McCune Smith' — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_McCune_Smith
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Record CTL-E-6720 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: PROVISIONAL · 1 source · CTL research: PPL-001.
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Chicago: CultureTechLens. “James McCune Smith (CTL-E-6720).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6720/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). James McCune Smith (CTL-E-6720) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6720/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “James McCune Smith (CTL-E-6720).” CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6720/
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