Abstract
The Canadian–American biologist Edmund Vincent Cowdry played an important role in the birth and development of the science of aging, gerontology. In particular, he contributed to the growth of gerontology as a multidisciplinary scientific field in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. With the support of the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, he organized the first scientific conference on aging at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where scientists from various fields gathered to discuss aging as a scientific research topic. He also edited Problems of Ageing (1939), the first handbook on the current state of aging research, to which specialists from diverse disciplines contributed. The authors of this book eventually formed the Gerontological Society in 1945 as a multidisciplinary scientific organization, and some of its members, under Cowdry’s leadership, formed the International Association of Gerontology in 1950. This article historically traces this development by focusing on Cowdry’s ideas and activities. I argue that the social and economic turmoil during the Great Depression along with Cowdry’s training and experience as a biologist – cytologist in particular – and as a textbook editor became an important basis of his efforts to construct gerontology in this direction.
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The Alfred E. Cohn Papers, RG 450C661, Rockefeller University Archive, Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York. (Cited as AEC)
The Edmund Vincent Cowdry Papers, Washington University Medical College Archive, St. Louis, Missouri. (Cited as EVC)
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Acknowledgement
I am deeply grateful for Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, John M. Eyler, Mark E. Borrello, and Susan D. Jones for their thoughtful and constructive comments on this article. I also would like to thank Jane Maienschein, Paul Anderson, and the anonymous referees for their helpful criticism. I am particularly indebted to Anderson who organized the Edmund Vincent Cowdry Papers and assisted my research at the Bernard Becker Medical Library of Washington University in St. Louis. I also greatly appreciate Martha Riley and other archivists at the Becker Library, whose assistance was invaluable for my research using the Cowdry Collection. My study was supported by various grants and fellowships, including the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (History and Philosophy of Science of SET #0620408), the University of Minnesota Dissertation Research Grant, the Rockefeller Archive Center Grants-in-aid, and the Bentley Historical Library Resident Research Fellowship. Some parts of this article were presented at the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology in 2007 and the Midwest Junto for the History of Science in 2006.
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Park, H.W. Edmund Vincent Cowdry and the Making of Gerontology as a Multidisciplinary Scientific Field in the United States. J Hist Biol 41, 529–572 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-008-9152-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-008-9152-1