The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the Eugene M. K. Geiling Papers 1891-1978
© 2012 University of Chicago Library
| Title: | Geiling, Eugene M. K. Papers |
|---|---|
| Dates: | 1891-1978 |
| Size: | 5.5 linear feet (9 boxes) |
| Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
| Abstract: | Eugene M.K. Geiling (1891-1971) Professor of Pharmacology, first chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Chicago. The collection contains biographical materials, correspondence, textbooks, articles and photographs. The papers primarily document Geiling’s work at John Hopkins and the University of Chicago in the field of animal endocrinology, his work with the Animal Care Panel Training Program, and his Hilltop House residence in New York. |
The collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Geiling, Eugene M. K., Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Eugene M.K. Geiling was born in the Orange Free State of South Africa on May 13, 1891 to Alexander W.H. Geiling and Theresa (Keller) Geiling. He received his B.A. from the University of South Africa in 1911. In 1914, he came to the U.S. as a fellow of the Union of the South African Government to study at the University of Illinois in the Department of Animal Husbandry and Nutrition, where he received an M.S. in 1915 and a Ph.D. in 1917 in physiological chemistry. He then returned to South Africa where he first became a lecturer in agricultural chemistry and nutrition at the Popchefstron Agricultural College and then in physiological chemistry at the College of Medicine in the University of Cape Town.
He returned to the U.S. in 1920 when he was awarded a Seesel Research Fellowship at Yale University. In 1921, he became a research assistant in the Department of Pharmacology at Johns Hopkins University, where also received his M.D. in 1923. He later became an associate professor and began to work under Dr. John Abel, who would become a close friend. Together they discovered the crystallization of insulin and the physiological effects of insulin. His later work centered around the pituitary gland and its pharmacology and anatomy, especially in that of whales.
In 1936, Geiling became the first Professor and Chairman for the newly established Department of Pharmacology at the University of Chicago .At the University of Chicago he continued his work on the pituitary gland, showing that the oxytocic, pressor and anti-diuretic hormones originated in the neural lobe of the pituitary gland and not by the intermediary lobe as previously thought.
Prior to the U.S. entering into World War II, the National Defense Research Committee asked the University of Chicago to set up a facility capable of evaluating the toxicity of chemical agents in an effort to avoid the neurological damage inflicted by the chemical warfare in World War I. When the Toxicity Laboratory was established by the University of Chicago’s Department of Pharmacology, Dr. Geiling was named the principle investigator. During the war, Geiling and his staff of 60 investigators studied the toxicity of more than 2,000 potential chemical warfare agents.
Following the war, Dr. Geiling turned his attention to a developing field, that of “isotope farming.” He developed the radioactive CO2 atmospheric technique and reported the production of radioactive digitalis to the International Congress of Cardiology in 1947. This was followed by a series of other radioactive organic drugs, which he discovered with Dr. Lloyd Roth, who was later to succeed him as the Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology.
When Geiling left the University of Chicago in 1956, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he served as a consultant to the United States Food and Drug Administration and was also a member of the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association. Throughout the later part of his life he was a member of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physiological Society, the American Society of Biological Chemistry, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, and the German Pharmacological Society.
Among the awards Geiling received for his work were the Mendel Medal from Villanova College in 1942 and the Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award of the American Therapeutic Society in 1956. Geiling died on January 12, 1971 at the age of 79.
The Eugene M.K. Geiling Papers are organized into seven series: Series I: Personal; Series II: Correspondence; Series III: Writing and Research; Series IV: Professional; Series V: Audio-Visual; Series VI: Oversize and Series VII: Restricted. The collection contains journals, diplomas, correspondence, rolodexes, text books, articles and photographs. The papers primarily document Eugene Geiling’s work at John Hopkins and the University of Chicago in the field of animal endocrinology, his work with the Animal Care Panel Training Program, and his Hilltop House residence in New York.
Series I, Personal, contains his Mendel Medal, his rolodex, newspaper clippings, his glasses, his Sunday Missal, his National Registration Identity Card, papers from the University of Cape Town and the University of Illinois, an application for a research grant from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and four notebooks.
Series II, Correspondence, contains both outgoing and incoming mail arranged chronologically, including holiday cards from family and friends, professional letters regarding his post at the University of Chicago and personal correspondence regarding his residence at Hilltop House.
Series III, Writing and Research, contains Geiling’s published scientific articles on toxicology and endocrinology, his papers, as well as the galley for his textbook on endocrinology and some books he used as research while writing his articles.
Series IV, Professional, contains Geiling’s University of Chicago course materials for the Animal Care Panel Training Program including lectures, schedules, syllabi, and booklets for the classes.
Series V, Audio-Visual, contains Geiling’s scientific photographs and diagrams of whales and porpoises, as well as animals, plants and humans. This series also contains Geiling’s collection of personal photographs, such as his family and friends, his home and travel, and his dogs.
Series VI, Oversize, contains a variety of oversized items, including charts, diagrams and photographs of whale biology, and his diploma from John Hopkins University.
Series I: Personal and Biographical, 1918-1964 |
| Box 1 | Pen holder from Geiling’s University of Chicago office, circa 1952 |
| Box 1 | Mendel medal, Villanova College, 1941 |
| Box 1 | Rolodex, undated |
| Box 1 | "My Sunday Missal," signed by Geiling, undated |
| Box 2 Folder 1 | Biographical documents, 1918-1964 |
| Box 2 Folder 2 | Articles about Geiling, 1936-1956 |
| Box 2 Folder 3-4 | Ledgers of expenses, circa 1960-1963 |
| Box 2 Folder 5 | Address book, undated |
Series II: Correspondence, 1891-1978 |
| Box 2 Folder 6 | Holiday Cards, 1956-1965 |
| Box 2 Folder 7 | Holiday Cards, 1966-1978 |
| Box 3 Folder 1 | Personal Correspondence, 1891-1941 |
| Box 3 Folder 2 | Personal Correspondence, 1942-1966 |
| Box 3 Folder 3 | Professional Correspondence, 1935-1936 |
| Box 3 Folder 4 | Hilltop House Correspondence, November 1940-February 1941 |
| Box 3 Folder 5 | Hilltop House Correspondence, September 1941-April 1942 |
Series III: Writing and Research, undated |
| Box 3 Folder 6-7 | Galley Print of Textbook, The Historical Development of Toxicology, undated |
| Box 3 Folder 8 | Miscellaneous Published Articles, undated |
| Box 3 Folder 9 | Books Used for Research, undated |
Series IV: Professional, 1960s |
| Box 4 Folder 1 | ACP (Animal Care Panel) Materials, 1963-1965 |
| Box 4 Folder 2 | ACP (Animal Care Panel) Materials, 1966 |
| Box 4 Folder 3 | AALAS (American Association for Laboratory Animal Science), [Formerly the ACP], 1967-1969 |
| Box 4 Folder 4-5 | ACP (Animal Care Panel) Materials, undated |
| Box 4 Folder 6 | Institutional Documents, such as Budgets, Blue Prints and Diagrams |
Series V: Audio-Visual, 1940s-1960s |
| Box 5 Folder 1 | Carnegie Institute Plates of Fossils 2-37, 1936 |
| Box 5 Folder 2 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 1, undated |
| Box 5 Folder 3 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 2, undated |
| Box 5 Folder 4 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 3, undated |
| Box 5 Folder 5 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 4, undated |
| Box 5 Folder 6 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 5, undated |
| Box 5 Folder 7 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 6, undated |
| Box 5 Folder 8 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 7, undated |
| Box 5 Folder 9 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 8, undated |
| Box 5 Folder 10 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 9, undated |
| Box 5 Folder 11 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 10, undated |
| Box 5 Folder 12 | Scientific Photographs of Whales, 11, undated |
| Box 6 Folder 1 | Scientific Photographs and Diagrams of Whales (Negatives), undated |
| Box 6 Folder 2 | Scientific Diagrams of Whales, 1, undated |
| Box 6 Folder 3 | Scientific Diagrams of Whales, 2, undated |
| Box 6 Folder 4 | Scientific Diagrams of Whales, 3, undated |
| Box 6 Folder 5 | Photographs of Whaling Village, undated |
| Box 6 Folder 6 | Photographs of Old Whaling Prints, undated |
| Box 6 Folder 7 | Scientific Photographs of Animals, undated |
| Box 6 Folder 8 | Scientific Photographs of Animals (Negatives), 1, undated |
| Box 6 Folder 9 | Scientific Photographs of Animals (Negatives), 2, undated |
| Box 6 Folder 10 | Scientific Photographs of Plants (Negatives), undated |
| Box 6 Folder 11 | Scientific Photographs of Human Conditions (Negatives), 1, undated |
| Box 6 Folder 12 | Scientific Photographs of Human Conditions (Negatives), 2, undated |
| Box 7 Folder 1 | Photographs of James A. Carberry, 1946-1964 |
| Box 7 Folder 2 | Photographs of the Abels, 1929-1943 |
| Box 7 Folder 3 | Portraits of Dr. Geiling (Underwood and Underwood), 1952 |
| Box 7 Folder 4 | Portraits of Dr. Geiling (Miscellaneous), 1, undated |
| Box 7 Folder 5 | Portraits of Dr. Geiling (Miscellaneous), 2, undated |
| Box 7 Folder 6 | Photographs of Major (Dr. Geiling’s Dog), undated |
| Box 7 Folder 7 | Photographs of Victor (Dr. Geiling’s Dog), undated |
| Box 7 Folder 8 | Photographs of Dogs (Miscellaneous), undated |
| Box 7 Folder 9 | Photographs of Dr. Geiling at Work and at Home, undated |
| Box 7 Folder 10 | Photographs of Dr. Geiling’s Family and Friends |
| Box 7 Folder 11 | Photographs of Travels, undated |
| Box 7 Folder 12 | Photographs of Hilltop House, 1940 |
| Box 7 Folder 13 | Photographs of Hilltop House, undated |
Series VI: Oversize |
| Box 8 Folder 1 | Diplomas from John Hopkins University, 1923 |
| Box 8 Folder 2 | Scientific Charts of Whales, undated |
| Box 8 Folder 3 | Scientific Cellophane Diagrams of Whales, undated |
| Box 8 Folder 4 | Scientific Photographs of Fish, undated |
| Box 8 Folder 5 | Scientific Diagrams of Animal Organs, undated |