Today in Wheeling History: August 19—Dr. Raymond A. Tomassene, future Wheeling ear, nose, and throat specialist, departs New York City aboard the ocean liner "La Touraine" to serve at the American Ambulance Hospital in France during World War I (1916).
Dr. Raymond A. Tomassene, a pioneering ear, nose, and throat specialist in Wheeling, West Virginia, was born on November 3, 1891, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Charles F. Tomassene and Elizabeth Anderson Tomassene. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1912 and completed his M.D. at Jefferson Medical College in 1916. That same year, while interning at New York City’s Post-Graduate Hospital, he volunteered with a Pennsylvania medical unit and sailed to France aboard the ocean liner "La Touraine" on August 19, 1916. He served at the American Ambulance Hospital in Neuilly, a Paris suburb, treating wounded soldiers in the Lycée Pasteur building.
Tomassene documented his wartime experience through vivid photography, capturing scenes of trench warfare, facial injuries, and hospital life. Within a few years of returning to the U.S., he married Lucy Shaw, and in 1921 the couple moved to Wheeling, where they lived for the rest of their lives. He established his ENT practice in the Laconia Building and became a respected figure in the city’s medical community. Dr. Tomassene died in 1976 and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Wheeling. His WWI scrapbook, preserved by the Ohio County Public Library, remains a rare visual archive of wartime medicine and Wheeling’s connection to global history.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library – WWI Scrapbook (https://tinyurl.com/47kupaeh), Weelunk – The Young Wheeling Doctor Who Captured WWI Through Photography (https://tinyurl.com/7p4yrkym), Find a Grave – Dr. Raymond A. Tomassene (https://tinyurl.com/t6k7tnww), ArchiveGrid – WWI Scrapbook Collection (https://tinyurl.com/5dj2kzvk)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Weelunk, Find a Grave
Dr. Raymond A. Tomassene, a pioneering ear, nose, and throat specialist in Wheeling, West Virginia, was born on November 3, 1891, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Charles F. Tomassene and Elizabeth Anderson Tomassene. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1912 and completed his M.D. at Jefferson Medical College in 1916. That same year, while interning at New York City’s Post-Graduate Hospital, he volunteered with a Pennsylvania medical unit and sailed to France aboard the ocean liner "La Touraine" on August 19, 1916. He served at the American Ambulance Hospital in Neuilly, a Paris suburb, treating wounded soldiers in the Lycée Pasteur building.
Tomassene documented his wartime experience through vivid photography, capturing scenes of trench warfare, facial injuries, and hospital life. Within a few years of returning to the U.S., he married Lucy Shaw, and in 1921 the couple moved to Wheeling, where they lived for the rest of their lives. He established his ENT practice in the Laconia Building and became a respected figure in the city’s medical community. Dr. Tomassene died in 1976 and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Wheeling. His WWI scrapbook, preserved by the Ohio County Public Library, remains a rare visual archive of wartime medicine and Wheeling’s connection to global history.
To learn more: Ohio County Public Library – WWI Scrapbook (https://tinyurl.com/47kupaeh), Weelunk – The Young Wheeling Doctor Who Captured WWI Through Photography (https://tinyurl.com/7p4yrkym), Find a Grave – Dr. Raymond A. Tomassene (https://tinyurl.com/t6k7tnww), ArchiveGrid – WWI Scrapbook Collection (https://tinyurl.com/5dj2kzvk)
Photo credits: Ohio County Public Library Archives, Wheeling WV; Weelunk, Find a Grave
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