Finding Aid for History of the Physiology Department, 1957-61 | University of Illinois Archives

Title: History of the Physiology Department, 1957-61

ID: 15/17/10

Primary Creator: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Department of Physiology and Biophysics

Extent: 0.3 cubic feet

Arrangement: Chronological

Subjects: History of Science, Physiology and Biophysics Department

Formats/Genres: Papers

Languages: English

A typescript history of the Physiology Department, 1861-1960, by Prof. Walter P. Elhardt (1891-1962), based on University publications and records, interviews, questionnaires and personal observation and covering the general history of the University and the development of instruction in physiology.  Prof. Elhardt includes anecdotes, photographs, statistical data and biographical sketches about faculty, assistants, secretaries, students, enrollment, courses and building.  For 1956-60, he includes minutes of departmental staff meetings.  Among the faculty members covered are Thomas Burrill, Don Taft, Benjamin Jillson, Charles Rolfe, George Kemp, William Burge, Frederic Steggerda, Carl Hartman, Clifford Prosser and Robert Johnson.

In 1870 the University Trustees requested the Faculty to provide instruction in anatomy, physiology, and hygiene.¹ By 1907 the University had accepted physiology as a major subject for a master's degree and as a minor subject for a doctoral degree,² but it did not establish a Department of Physiology until 1931.³ In 1934 the Trustees adopted a recommendation that the Departments of Bacteriology, Botany, Entomology, Physiology, and Zoology be organized into a Division of Biological Sciences.⁴ The Departments of Physiology and Zoology merged in 1943 as an administrative convenience.⁵ In 1950 the two were again separately established,⁶ and the graduate curriculum leading to the degrees of Master of Science and Doctor of Science in Physiology was reorganized and formally instituted.⁷ In 1961, contracts were awarded for the construction of a Physiology Research Laboratory on the south farm.⁸  The Trustees authorized changing the name of the Department of Physiology to the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in 1962.⁹

1. Board of Trustees Transactions, 3rd Report, March 9, 1870, p. 83.

2. Ibid., 24th Report, June 4, 1907, p. 133.

3. Ibid., 36th Report, June 26, 1931, p. 374.

4. Ibid., 37th Report, January 25, 1934, p. 432.

5. Ibid., 42nd Report, March 20, 1943, p. 310.

6. Graduate College Bulletin 1950-52, pp. 219-20, 258-59.

7. Board of Trustees Transactions, 45th Report, April 19, 1950, pp. 1072, 1097-98.

8. Ibid., 51st Report, May 17, 1961, p. 475.

9. Ibid., 52nd Report, July 18, 1962, p. 12. Record Group 15

History of Science
Physiology and Biophysics Department

Repository: University of Illinois Archives

Accruals: 9/3/1964

Other Note: 1 Pages

URL: https://files.archon.library.illinois.edu/uasfa/1517010.pdf

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