Dodd (Walter) is born in London.

Walter Dodd emigrates with his family to the U.S., grows up in Cambridge, and at 13 becomes a janitor at Harvard Medical School laboratory, then an apothecary at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1892. Inspired by Wilhelm Roentgen in Germany, Dodd produces the first x-ray image in the U.S. in 1896,* prompting Prof. C.L. Jackson to notes, “He was by far the best janitor we ever had. The only disadvantage being that he was much too good for the place that we knew we must lose him soon.” Dodd goes on to study at Harvard Medical School, graduate from Vermont Medical School, and returns to MGH. But he contracts skin cancer, probably due to overexposure to the x-rays, and dies at age 48 on December 18, 1916.