Walter Bauer, Marian Wilkins Ropes, and the Massachusetts General Hospital

Walter Bauer was one of the most influential figures in the development of rheumatology as a medical subspecialty. He approached the study of rheumatic diseases both by careful clinical observation and description and by bringing basic scientists and clinicians together to study the "anatomy, chemical composition, and metabolism of connective tissue" in the laboratory.(8) Marian Wilkins Ropes was a pioneering woman in medicine; she was the first female medical resident at the MGH, the first woman appointed as an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Harvard Medical School, the first woman elected to membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the first woman elected president of the American Rheumatism Association. Both Bauer and Ropes were 'giants in rheumatology' who made significant contributions to clinical medicine and scientific research and were great mentors and leaders of American rheumatology.