Medical Museum Science Café, featuring author Matthew Algeo July 12, 2011

In "The President Is a Sick Man," author and journalist Matthew Algeo offers the first full account of a monumental political scandal that shook the Gilded Age. In July 1893, President Grover Cleveland boarded a yacht somewhere off Long Island Sound and seemingly vanished for five days. What the American public did not know was that a dream team of surgeons had been assembled on the boat to remove a cancerous growth from Cleveland’s jaw (the Museum has histological slides with samples of the tumor). When a reporter attempted to expose the truth behind the president’s disappearance, he was immediately discredited by White House staff who had decided Americans could not know the truth.

Join this discussion about public perception and presidential health. Copies of the book will be available for purchase; a book signing will follow. Presented by the National Museum of Health and Medicine

Official Website: http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum