The Many Faces of Thomas H. Buckler, M.D.

Thomas Hepburn Buckler, M.D. was a renaissance man in the mid-1860s. Although he was a physician, his biography in the Medical Annals of Maryland (1799-1899) doesn’t have the requisite date of achieving membership at the Faculty. 

Possibly, this is because he was living abroad for a significant amount of time, especially during the years of the Civil War. Dr. Buckler was the second husband of Eliza “Didy” Ridgely White (1828-1894), a member of the Ridgely family who owned more than 10,000 acres of land just north of Baltimore, as well as the spectacular Hampton Mansion. 

Dr. Buckler was said to be a man of “striking personal appearance and much sought after on account of his brilliant conversational powers and wit.” He and Didy had one son, William Hepburn Buckler, who is remembered as a scholar, lawyer, and diplomat. He was born while the Bucklers lived in Paris.