[2] Harvey, the fourth generation of a line of physicians founded by his great-grandfather Dr. David Cushing (1768–1814), was the youngest of ten children.

The school's emphasis on experimental training and a "physics-focused" approach to education played an important role in influencing Cushing toward a career in medical surgery.

He subsequently trained in neurological surgery abroad under Emil Theodor Kocher at Bern and Charles Scott Sherrington at Liverpool.

[7] In 1915, before the Clinical Congress of Surgeons in Boston, he showed the possibility of influencing stature by operating on the pituitary gland.

Shortly after the entry of the United States into the World War I, Cushing was commissioned as a major in the U.S. Army Medical Corps on May 5, 1917.

During his time at the French military hospital, Cushing experimented with the use of electromagnets to extract metallic shrapnel fragments that were lodged within the brain.

[9][10] On June 6, 1918, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and was assigned as senior consultant in neurological surgery for the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe.

[14] Cushing authored the Pulitzer prize-winning biography, Life of Sir William Osler (London: Oxford University Press, 1925).

They had five children, including three daughters famed for their beauty and collectively known as the 'Cushing sisters': Cushing died on October 7, 1939, in New Haven, Connecticut, from complications of a myocardial infarction.

The use of the Riva-Rocci sphygmomanometer as a diagnostic tool rapidly spread across the US and Western world, a direct contribution by Harvey Cushing.

[25] Cushing was also awarded the 1926 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for a book recounting the life of one of the fathers of modern medicine, Sir William Osler.

As part of the award, he delivered the Lister Memorial Lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons of England in July 1930.

In 1988, the United States Postal Service issued a 45-cent postage stamp in his honor, as part of the Great Americans series.

The forceps instrument is used to grasp the thick tissues of the scalp during cranial surgery and the cannula is used to enter the brain ventricles for CSF drainage.

He also developed a surgical magnet while working with the Harvard Medical Unit in France during World War I to extract shrapnel from the heads of wounded soldiers.

Cushing's long-time personal secretary, Madeline Stanton, played a major role in organizing his rare book donations, along with those from John F. Fulton and Arnold C. Klebs, to form the library.