Personal and professional papers and research material related to the life and career of anatomist and brain morphologist Edward Anthony Spitzka. There is also some material related to his father, notable neurologist Edward Charles Spitzka.

Edward Anthony Spitzka, anatomist and brain morphologist, was born in New York City, the only child of Edward Charles Spitzka, a neurologist, and Catherine Wacek. He graduated in 1898 from the College of the City of New York. After that, Spitzka entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and graduated with his M.D. in 1902. In 1901, while still a student, Spitzka autopsied the brain of Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin of U.S. President William McKinley. The autopsy propelled Spitzka to the national limelight and reinforced his earlier studies on the anatomy of the human brain, forming the basis for his later studies on the potential link between brain morphology and behaviour. After receiving his degree in 1902, Spitzka remained at Columbia University for four years. In 1906, at the age of twenty-nine, Spitzka was appointed professor and chair of general and descriptive anatomy at Thomas Jefferson University. In 1913, after the death of George McClellan, who had been the chair of applied and topographic anatomy at Jefferson, both chairs were consolidated under Spitzka's leadership.

52 boxes (21.7 linear feet)

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