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Charles Denison, M.D. (1845-1909) was a prominent Denver physician and leader in the study and treatment of tuberculosis. He was an early Colorado physician and Professor of Diseases of the Chest and Climatology at the University of Denver, 1881-1885. Dension came to Colorado in 1873 with tuberculosis and was so impressed with the therapeutic effect of the Colorado climate he developed a strong interest in the effect of climate on health and disease. He published several classic articles and books on this subject." He is the namesake for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center's Charles Denison Memorial Library.
Charles Denison played a very important role in the history of medical topography and disease due to his work as a physician focused on tuberculosis or consumption patients. During the 1870s, Denison moved to the Denver, Colorado area and opened up a treatment facility where he promoted the Denver area for people afflicted with the deadlier forms of tuberculosis. About this same time, a Jewish group initiated a similar facility serving the same population of individuals back east. In 1877 Denison produced a map of the Rocky Mountains area, focusing on the region within and just east of the Rockies. This was part of his book, Rocky Mountain Health Resorts, the first edition of which came out that same year. A few years later, in 1881, Denison published the second edition of his book, with a detailed map of a band of the United States located on and just east of the Rocky Mountains, extending from Wyoming on down to southern Texas. This map provides some fairly detailed depictions of the places frequented for health related reasons. These places were not only devoted to clean air for the purposes of treating tuberculosis, but also places where the many mineral springs, cold and hot, of the Rocky Mountains could be found in this part of the country.
