Simon Flexner Papers 1891-1946

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Simon Flexner Papers 1891-1946

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Simon Flexner, born in 1863, one of the nation's leading experts in pathology and bacteriology, was most renowned for his research on cerebrospinal meningitis, polio and infantile paralysis. Arguably though, Flexner's stewardship of the Rockefeller Institute was his greatest contribution to medical and scientific research. His rise in the medical community began in the late nineteenth century in Louisville, Kentucky, where despite not having completed even the seventh grade, Flexner taught himself basic bacteriology by conducting experiments at home using a microscope borrowed from the pharmacy where he served as an apprentice. Granted a medical degree from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1889, he went on to a pathology fellowship at the newly opened John Hopkins School of Medicine. Within two short years of leaving Louisville, Flexner received an assistant of pathology appointment at Johns Hopkins. It was a quick ascent and the beginning of a long and brilliant career that included a prestigious appointment at the University of Pennsylvania and then a directorship at the new Rockefeller Institute where he realized his lifelong dream of creating a dynamic and productive research laboratory. The Rockefeller Institute became instantly famous worldwide as the preeminent research facility for virology and under Flexner's direction produced invaluable contributions in pathology, bacteriology, and immunology. This collection does not reflect the early phases of Flexner's career at Johns Hopkins but does document an early interest in meningitis and other infectious diseases with science-related correspondence, laboratory notebooks, and administrative correspondence with the New York City and State Departments of Health. There is abundant material on Flexner's directorship of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, including Flexner's search for staff, an involved process which is detailed in correspondence with the scientists, many of whom became quite famous. Also included is material relating to the other institutions and Rockefeller philanthropies with which Flexner was involved. (Among the most significant correspondence, however, may be that which documents the support of the General Education Board and the Rockefeller Foundation in the development and subsequent reorganization of medical schools following brother Abraham Flexner's scathing report on medical education in the United States and Canada). This collection would be of great interest to anyone interested in the history of bacteriology, histology, and immunology or the general history of modern medicine and philanthropy.

115.5 Linear feet

American Philosophical Society

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SNAC Resource ID: 6631525

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Councilman (University of Maryland, M.D., 1878) was a pathologist and taught at Harvard from 1892 to 1923. From the description of Papers of William Thomas Councilman, 1914-1951 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 281427949 ...

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Flexner, Simon, 1863-1946

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Edwin Grant Conklin was an American biologist. In addition to his work in embryology, he also wrote on the subject of evolution, of which he was a strong proponent. He was a professor of zoology at University of Pennsylvania (1896-1908) and of biology at Princeton (1908-1933). From the description of Reminiscences, 1952 Nov. 19. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 122523431 Historian Edward Potts Cheyney taught at the University of Pennsylvania. ...

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