A man of his time: Joseph Leidy, racial science, and American anatomy

Abstract

Professor Joseph Leidy M.D. was arguably the most influential anatomist in the nineteenth‐century United States, having written over 500 publications and serving as the first President of the Association of American Anatomists. While many of Leidy's diverse contributions to American science and medicine are well‐known, scholars have said much less about the way that he supported racial science and its influence over anatomy curriculum. This article fills this gap, explaining how Leidy's immense reputation among his contemporaries and influence over his students helped legitimize racial thinking among anatomists. In order to make this case, the article rests on an evaluation of Leidy's correspondence, lecture notes, academic writing, textbooks, and the work of his students, establishing how Leidy supported the institutionalization of racial thinking. Critically, Leidy was not a trailblazer. Instead, he was deeply shaped by the political and scientific preoccupations of his time. Specifically, he was influenced by a political culture defined by the regional fracture over slavery leading to the US Civil War (1861–1865). Perhaps more important, the intellectual culture of the University of Pennsylvania's Medical Department, where he was educated and spent his entire teaching career, was the central node of both American medicine and the rise of racial science. Thus, this study analyzes how Leidy was shaped by this culture, the details of his scholarly development, and how he came to contribute to systemic and institutionalized racism in US anatomy and medicine still felt today.