Valentine Seaman (April 2, 1770 – July 3, 1817) was an American physician who introduced the smallpox vaccine to the United States and mapped yellow fever in New York City.

[2][3] Seaman began his studies in medicine in New York under Nicholas Romayne, one of the founders of Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons.

He is best known for mapping the spread of yellow fever in New York City and introducing the smallpox vaccination to the United States.

The city's Committee of Health asked for his advice regarding the disease's cause and prevention; Seaman recommended filling in areas that were below sea-level and wherever water tended to stagnate, cleaning and paving streets, covering sewers, and filling in the areas beneath granaries and docks.

[8] A fuller account and the maps he created were published in An Inquiry into the Cause of the Prevalence of the Yellow Fever in New-York in 1798.

[9] His first child, Betsy, died of smallpox in 1795, a tragedy that spurred Seaman to identify preventative measures.

[12][13] Seaman was the first American physician to teach a class of women in midwifery in the almshouse (charitable housing for the poor).