City Readers Digital Historic Collections at the New York Society Library

Wright Post (1766–1828) was an American surgeon, born at North Hempstead, Long Island. He studied medicine for six years in New York and London, and began to practice in New York in 1786. In 1792 he became a professor of surgery, and afterward of anatomy and physiology, in Columbia College. He visited the celebrated schools of Europe, and returned in 1793 with a splendid anatomical cabinet. In 1813 he became a professor of anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and was its president from 1821 to 1826. Post was one of the pioneers among American surgeons, and was long remembered as a successful operator, especially in the ligation of vital arteries.