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Leidy family papers

 Collection
Identifier: MSS 2/155

Scope and Contents

The Leidy family papers consist of two discrete collections, including lecture and admission cards, correspondence, and newsclippings.

The first collection of Leidy family material, MSS 2/155-01, contains lecture admission cards and related material, 1830-1866, from the medical educations of Napoleon B. Leidy and Philip Leidy at the University of Pennsylvania and the pharmaceutical education of Thomas Leidy at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. The series includes several cards for postgraduate courses taken by Philip Leidy at the University.

Lecturers at the University of Pennsylvania include: Joseph Carson, Nathaniel Chapman, John Redman Coxe, William Gibson, Robert Hare, Hugh L. Hodge, William E. Horner, Samuel Jackson, Thomas C. James, Joseph Leidy, Philip Syng Physick, Robert E. Rogers, Henry H. Smith, and George Bacon Wood.

Lecturers at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy are Joseph Carson and Robert Bridges.

The second collection of Leidy family papers, MSS 2/155-02, contains correspondence and newsclippings concerning Joseph Leidy, Joseph Leidy II, and other members of the family.

The first series in this collection contains letters received, primarily 1881-1886, of naturalist Joseph Leidy. Major correspondents are: Albert Fricke, S. H. Linn, H. G. Tombler, H. D. Walker, and Joseph Willcox. The letters concern anatomy, fossils, mineralogy, natural history and Leidy's financial affairs; many items describe and convey specimens to Leidy for his examination, identification, and consideration.

Items collected by or relating to Joseph Leidy II are preserved in Series 2. The series includes an anonymous statement defending Leidy from accusations of neglectful conduct while in residence at Pennsylvania Hospital, circa 1888, two letters, and photocopies of Leidy's personal scrapbook, 1891-1917, and his files of newsclippings concerning the Leidy family, 1890-1933, and items of interest, primarily relating to Darwin's theory of evolution, World War I, gas warfare, and military training for young men, 1877-1932.

Dates

  • 1830 - 1933

Creator

Biographical / Historical

Napoleon Bonaparte Leidy, who was a cousin of Joseph Leidy (1823-1891), received an M.D. from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1833. He was a physician and druggist in Philadelphia.

Thomas Leidy, the younger brother of Joseph Leidy, was born in 1825. He received a Ph.G. from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1845. Thomas Leidy died on 27 April 1870.

Philip Leidy, born in 1839, was a half brother of Joseph Leidy. Leidy received an M.D. from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1859. From 1885 to 1890, he was a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Philip Leidy died on 1 May 1891.

Joseph Leidy, Philadelphia anatomist and naturalist, was born on 9 September 1823. He married Anna Harden in 1864; they had one adoptive daughter, Alwinia. Leidy died on 29 April 1891.

Joseph Leidy received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1844. From 1846 to 1853, he was a lecturer at the Franklin Medical College in Philadelphia. In 1853, he succeeded William E. Horner as professor of anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania. Leidy held this post until his death.

During the Civil War, he served as a surgeon at the Satterlee General Hospital in Philadelphia. From 1870 to 1885, Leidy was professor of natural history at Swarthmore College. From 1881 to 1891, he was president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; he was also president of the Wagner Free Institute of Science. He made many contributions to anatomy, vertebrate paleontology, and parasitology.

Joseph Leidy became a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1851.

Joseph Leidy II, neurologist and son of physician Philip Leidy, the half brother of naturalist Joseph Leidy, was born in Philadelphia on 11 April 1866. He married Helen Redington Carter; the Leidys had four children: Cornelia Carter Cheston, Philip Ludwell, Carter Randolph, and Joseph. Leidy died in Penllyn, Pennsylvania, on 7 July 1932.

Leidy attended the University of Pennsylvania and received an A.M. in 1884 and an M.D. in 1887. From 1887 to 1889, he was a resident physician at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and from 1889 to 1891, at Philadelphia General Hospital. He was also on the staff of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane. Leidy was assistant demonstrator of pathology, anatomy, and morbid histology at the University of Pennsylvania. During World War I, he was instructor and medical director of gas defense, 30th Division and later served as a lieutenant colonel in the Medical Corps.

Joseph Leidy II became a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1892.

Extent

4 boxes (MSS 2/155-01: 1 box MSS 2/155-02: 3 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Custodial History

MSS 2/155-01 (Leidy family lecture admission cards) was donated to the Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia as part of a larger gift by Joseph Leidy IV through George D. Gammon in September 1946. The collection of Leidy manuscript material was removed from Rosehill, the home of Philip Leidy, in Penllyn, Pennsylvania. The collection was processed and catalogued in 1990.

MSS 2/155-02 (Leidy family correspondence) was donated to the College of Physicians of Philadelphia as part of a larger gift by Joseph Leidy IV in September 1946. Previously, the material had been in the possession of Philip L. Leidy and kept at his home, Rosehill, in Penllyn, Pennsylvania.

The collection was processed and catalogued in 1990.

Creator

Title
Leidy family papers
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Repository Details

Part of the Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Repository

Contact:
19 S. 22nd Street
Philadelphia PA 19103 United States