Artist: Othmar J. Hoffler (1893–1954)
Leonard Pearson
PEARSON, LEONARD (1868–1909), inducted 1918
The first veterinarian in America to use tuberculin to diagnose tuberculosis in cattle was born in Evanston, Illinois. Leonard Pearson graduated from Cornell University before pursuing his veterinary degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He studied tuberculosis in cattle in the Berlin laboratory of Robert Koch, returning to the US to accept a teaching position at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pearson was appointed state veterinarian in 1896, and he established the Live Stock Sanitary Board of Pennsylvania. Elected dean of the Penn veterinary school in 1897, he reorganized the institution, created a farm for experimental work in infectious diseases, and founded the monthly publication Veterinary Magazine. Dr. Pearson served as secretary and president of the American Veterinary Medical Association and was chosen to be one of the first men of his field to be inducted into the Saddle & Sirloin Club in 1918. He died unexpectedly, at age forty-one, in 1909.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 155