To all who practise the art and science of plastic surgery, the name of Robert Abbe will need no introduction. There are many who may have imagined, quite understandably, that Abbe was a Frenchman (a disciple perhaps of the great Victor Veau) and that the family name had once been spelt with an e-acute at the end of his name. However, he was a seventh-generation American, and the e-acute had been dropped long before Robert Abbe was born in New York, the fifth of seven children.

His father was a businessman and lived in Dutch Street, New York. His mother was the daughter of William Colgate who ran a business manufacturing soap and candles also situated in Dutch Street. Later toothpaste production was added to his business, and the company was ultimately fused with Palmolive to form the famous Colgate-Palmolive Company. The family circumstances, though simple, were not altogether uncomfortable. Abbe’s father was a serious and religious man who devoted much of his time and money to the sick and destitute and amongst other things founded the American Bible Union and became Governor of the New York Hospital.

Robert Abbe grew up in New York City where he attended school and later the College of the City of New York from which he graduated in 1870. For a short while, he remained on the college staff as an instructor in Geometry, English and Drawing until enrolling at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he obtained his MD degree in 1874. Medical training was universally shorter in the nineteenth century, but it seemed not to the detriment of the profession.

Between 1874 and 1876, he served his internship at St. Luke’s Hospital which occupied the site on the corner of 5th Avenue and 54th Street. In 1877, he was appointed Attending Surgeon to the outpatient department at New York Hospital and Attending Surgeon at St. Luke’s Hospital. He next opened his surgical office on 4th Avenue, but soon after his father died, and in order to reduce his expenses, he moved his office to the family home where his sister Harriet kept house and managed his practice for him until he married. Abbe’s marriage must have been a carefully calculated undertaking, for he waited until his fortieth year before stepping to the altar with a wealthy widow. Mrs Abbe possessed children from her first marriage and no more were born to the couple.

It could be said that Abbe was a true New Yorker for he lived all his life in that great city. At first after his marriage, he lived on 50th Street, where he also had his office, and for the last 8 years of his life, following his wife’s death, he lived on 59th Street.

At the age of 26, Abbe wisely decided to spend some of his $1,000 savings on a trip to Europe. He had planned the venture with care and without the help of ‘Europe on $5 a day (now $10 and soon perhaps $20) and hoped to spend no more than $500. His sister became ill with bronchitis shortly before he was due to sail for Liverpool and he took her with him at the last moment. So much for budgeting! Most of their time was spent in England where the kindness and introductions of Sir William McCormack made a deep impression upon him as will be seen later.