Side Table of Dr Philip Knapp (1916-1991)

The owner of this small table, Philip Knapp (1916-1991), was, like his father (Arnold) and grandfather (Herman Knapp) a renowned Eye Institute ophthalmologist. The table was very likely handed down from either (or both) of them. Knapp attended Harvard prior to obtaining his MD at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1941. He interned at Bellevue Hospital before serving in the Navy during WWII. Knapp completed his residency training at the University of Iowa, where he was a Heed Fellow, studying strabismus and ocular motility. He joined the Eye Institute in 1951 and was made director of the Children’s Clinic upon its opening in 1961. He was a member of the Eye Institute staff until his death in 1991. Knapp is remembered for the eponymous “Knapp Procedure,” which involves transposing the horizontal rectus eye muscle upwards to relieve double vision in the condition known as monocular elevation deficiency.