Varaztad Kazanjian, surgeon and scientist

The photograph shows Varaztad Hovhannes Kazanjian, an Armenian-American surgeon and scientist who is regarded as the founder of modern plastic surgery. The elderly man with white hair and glasses is seated, wearing a dark pinstriped suit, a waistcoat and a striped tie. There is a signature in the lower right corner.

He was born on 18 March 1879 and received his professional training at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. Kazanjian was the first to develop scientific methods of facial reconstructive surgery and became the first professor of plastic surgery at Harvard Medical School. His work laid the foundations of modern reconstructive medicine.