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Spitzka, Edward Anthony; Edward Leaming, photog.

[Medical Photos and Annotated Drawings by a Leading Brain Anatomist.]

New York, 1900–1904. 29 annotated drawings, pencil and ink (5” x 5.5” to 8.5” x 11”); 7 photographs (4.5” x 3.75” to 4.8” x 8”), mounted on grey paperboard (8” x 10”); 1 pamphlet (9” x 6”), 22 pp.; 1 letter (11” x 8.25”), 1 p. of typescript; 3 pp. of manuscript.

An archive consisting of twenty-six annotated pencil drawings by brain anatomist Edward A. Spitzka, and seven original photographs by Dr. Edward Leaming; the drawings and photos relate to Spitzka’s study of the brains of two distinguished physicians, Dr. Edouard Seguin and Dr. Constant Seguin (father and son, respectively).

Edward Anthony Spitzka (1876–1922) was an American anatomist who explored the possible connection between brain morphology and human behavior, and attained national prominence in 1901 when—prior to earning his M.D.—he performed the autopsy on Leon Czolgosz, President William McKinley’s assassin. The present archive relates to the period when Spitzka’s career was on the ascent, while he was studying for his M.D. at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, which he earned in 1902. (Spitzka’s father Edward Charles Spitzka was also a prominent neurologist and a specialist in mental illness, who in 1881 testified to the insanity of Charles Guiteau—the assassin of President James A. Garfield—at Guiteau’s murder trial.) Publishing much material resulting from the brain autopsies he conducted, Edward A. Spitzka authored some forty papers on brain anatomy and went on to perform post mortem examinations of the brains of many notable American men, including Prof. Edward D. Cope, Prof. Joseph Leidy, Dr. William Pepper, and Maj. John W. Powell. In 1922, Spitzka—like his father—died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Spitzka was especially vocal about the poor treatment of mentally ill patients in America.

This archive consists mainly of twenty-nine drawings and six photographs that relate to a pamphlet published by Spitzka in 1901 entitled, A Preliminary Communication of a Study of the Brains of Two Distinguished Physicians [Father and Son, Dr. Edward Seguin and Dr. Constant Seguin].” French-born American psychiatrist Edouard Seguin was a physician and educator (1812–1880) who pioneered modern educational methods for teaching children with severe cognitive impairments. Seguin’s son, Edward Constant Seguin (1843–1898), was an American neurologist who founded the American Neurological Association in 1875. Edward Constant served as both a practitioner and a professor at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

Spitzka’s annotated drawings depict both Seguin brains from a number of angles and bear many notations, some of which read as follows: “Supercell”; “There is no appreciable radum (shallow place)”; “actual size Edouard Seguin,” and so on. Some drawings feature measurements along a horizontal axis. A handful of illustrations depict small portions of a brain. Some of the drawings are unlabeled or simply bear the annotation “Brain No. 2”—leaving it unclear whose brain is depicted.

Also included in this lot is a single letter to Spitzka by American psychologist James G. Kiernan (1852–1923) relating to Spitzka’s Seguin paper. Kiernan is credited with the earliest-known uses of the terms “heterosexual” and “homosexual” in the U.S., in an 1892 article published in a Chicago medical journal.

Photographer Dr. Edward Leaming (1861–1916), was a noted professional who taught photo-micrography at the College of Physicians in New York. Regarded as a pioneer in the field of scientific photography, he served as Director of Forensic Pathology at Columbia University. In addition to working as a scientific photographer, Leaming produced fine art photographs in the pictorialist style, submitting works to competitions that included the likes of Alfred Steiglitz, and won a number of awards.

Contents:

29 drawings of the brains of Edouard Seguin and Constant Seguin, with annotations. CONDITION: Some drawings moderately damp-stained, light foxing and creasing, toned, tears at margins, no losses to images.

[with]

6 photographs mounted on grey paperboards depicting both Seguin brains next to a ruler. Approx. 4.8” x 8”. CONDITION: Good.

[with]

1 photograph mounted on grey paperboard of Edouard Seguin’s brain, with several annotations and two small printed labels. 4.5” x 3.75”. Includes an attached manuscript note reading in full: “Fig. 2. Occipital portion of left hemicerebrum of Edward Sequin (father). Showing the remarkably distinct exoccipital fissure, as well as the paroccipital isthmus marked by the cross (X). OC marks the occipital fissure.” CONDITION: Good.

[with]

Stereographs & Measurements. Brain of E.C. Seguin. Nov.–Dec. 1904. 3 pp. of typescript and manuscript, plus manuscript cover-page. These pp. record “principal measurements of cerebrum” (“cerebral index,” “horizont. circumf.,” etc.); “horizontal distances”; “new measurement,” etc. CONDITION: Moderate wear.

[with]

Letter from James G. Kiernan to Spitzka. Chicago, 20 July 1901. 1 p. of typescript on Chicago Academy of Medicine letterhead. Bears the note “Seguin.” The letter reads in full:

My Dear Boy:— I must thank you for the reprints sent from time to time. Some of them would have been more widely quoted but for the rigidity of the journals in which they appeared as to loaning outs. The New York Journal has been to my surprise very rigorous in this particular. While I read the Seguin paper with much interest still the scientific value so far as mentality was concerned was minimized because certain features indicating degeneracy especially in the son could not be discussed. Not to speak of more glaring instances the conduct of the latter in the New York Neurological Society indicated a morally morbid egotism.

CONDITION: Light foxing, old folds.

[with]

Spitzka, Edward A. “A Preliminary Communication of a Study of the Brains of Two Distinguished Physicians, Father and Son [Dr. Edward Seguin and Dr. Constant Seguin].” The Philadelphia Medical Journal (1901): pp. 70-92. Illus., and 1 plate. CONDITION: Good.

A fascinating and focused little archive, documenting Spitzka’s studies early in his celebrated career.

REFERENCES: Edward Anthony Spitzka and Edward Charles Spitzka papers at oac.cdlib.org; Constructing the Hetero, Homo, Bi System at outhistory.org

Item #5481

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