Harrison Allen

{{Short description|American physician and anatomist (1841-1897)}}

{{for|the Union Army brevet brigadier general|Harrison Allen (general)}}

{{Infobox medical person

| image = Harrison Allen.jpg

| alt =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date |1841|4|17}}

| birth_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1897|11|14|1841|4|17}}

| death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.

| resting_place = West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, U.S.

|education=University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

| relations =

| profession = anatomist, surgeon, professor

| notable_works =

|work_institutions={{hlist|Blockley Hospital|Wills Eye Hospital}}

}}

Harrison Allen (April 17, 1841 – November 14, 1897) was an American surgeon, anatomist, zoologist, and educator. He served as a surgeon in the United States Army during the American Civil War and at several Philadelphia hospitals including Wills Eye Hospital, St. Joseph's Hospital, and Philadelphia Hospital.

He held multiple academic positions at the University of Pennsylvania including professor of comparative anatomy and zoölogy; chair of the institute of medicine; emeritus professor of the institute of medicine; and chair of comparative anatomy and zoology. He published almost 30 papers related to bats and many other papers on human anatomy and craniology. He served as president of the American Laryngological Association in 1886; the American Society of Naturalists from 1887 to 1888; and the Association of American Anatomists from 1891 to 1893

Early life

Allen was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 1841 to Elizabeth Justice Thomas and Samuel Allen. He was educated at local grammar schools and Central High School in Philadelphia. He studied dentistry and graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1861. After graduation he worked as a resident physician at Blockley Hospital in Philadelphia. In 1862, he served as a surgeon in the United States Army during the Civil War. He was deployed to Washington D.C. hospitals which allowed him to visit the Smithsonian Institution in his spare time where he became acquainted with Joseph Henry and Spencer Fullerton Baird.{{Cite AMB1920|wstitle= Allen, Harrison |pages= 15-17 |last=Bardeen |first=Charles Russell |author-link= Charles Russell Bardeen |year=|short=1}} He resigned from the United States Army on December 8, 1865 at the rank of brevet major.{{sfn|Wilder|1898|p=263}}

Career

He began the practice of medicine in Philadelphia, and due to his dentistry background, he focused on surgery of the air passages. He was greatly influenced by his instructor Joseph Leidy and joined other scientists at the Philadelphia School of Anatomy and the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences..

In 1865 he was made professor of comparative anatomy and zoölogy in the auxiliary medical department at the University of Pennsylvania. He was made chair of the institute of medicine in 1878; emeritus professor of the institute of medicine in 1885; and chair of comparative anatomy and zoology from 1891 to 1895.

He worked as an assistant surgeon at Wills Eye Hospital from 1868 to 1870 and at St. Joseph's Hospital from 1870 to 1878. He worked as a visiting surgeon at Philadelphia Hospital from 1874 to 1878.

He published almost 30 papers related to bats, including his Monograph on the Bats of North America published by the Smithsonian Institution in 1864 and revised in 1893. He published multiple other articles on human anatomy including the joints and muscles. He published several papers on craniology including Crania from the Florida Mounds and Hawaiian Skulls which attempted to correlate race with skull shape. He was the first to use the term pedomorphism to describe the retention of childish features in adults.

In 1867, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1867&year-max=1867&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-21|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}

Allen served as president of the American Laryngological Association in 1886 and of the American Society of Naturalists from 1887 to 1888.{{cite web|title=Past Officers of the ASN|date=January 2, 2024|publisher=American Society of Naturalists|url=https://www.amnat.org/about/history/past-ec.html|access-date=May 31, 2025}} He served as president of the Association of American Anatomists from 1891 to 1893. He was the curator of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy.{{sfn|Wilder|1898|p=264}}

Death and legacy

He died on November 14, 1897, and was buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Lansdowne Section, Lot 205, in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.{{cite web |title=Dr. Harrison Allen |url=https://remembermyjourney.com/memorials/harrison-allen?id=pNRZ874N |website=remembermyjourney.com |publisher=webCemeteries |access-date=11 June 2025}} After his death, his brain was donated to the American Anthropometric Society. In 1907, Edward Anthony Spitzka published a paper of his analysis of six brains at the American Anthropometric Society, including Allen's.{{cite journal |last1=Spitzka |first1=Edward Anthony |title=A Study of the Brains of Six Eminent Scientists and Scholars Belonging to the American Anthropometric Society, together with a Description of the Skull of Professor E. D. Cope |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |series=New Series |date=1907 |volume=1 |issue=4 |page=176 |doi=10.2307/1005434 |jstor=1005434 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1005434 |access-date=3 January 2024|url-access=subscription }}

His personal collection of bats and other specimens was donated to the Academy of Natural Sciences.{{sfn|Wilder|1898|p=264}}

Personal life

In December 29, 1869,{{sfn|Wilder|1898|p=264}} he married Julia A. Colton and together they had two children.

Publications

In addition to many papers contributed to medical journals, he authored a number of books:{{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Allen, Harrison |volume= 1 |pages= 83-84 |short=1}}

Outlines of Comparative Anatomy and Medical Zoölogy (1867)
Studies in the Facial Region (1874)
An Analysis of the Life Form in Art (1875)
System of Human Anatomy (1880)
[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular%20Science%20Monthly/Volume%2050/November%201896/Two%20Scientific%20Worthies Two Scientific Worthies], Popular Science Monthly, Volume 50, November 1896

References

Citations

Sources

{{cite journal

|last=Wilder

|first=Burt G.

|date=25 February 1898

|title=Biographical Notices of Harrison Allen and George Henry Horn

|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/1622669

|journal=Science

|volume=7

|issue=165

|pages=262-265

|access-date=11 June 2025

}}

External links

{{BHL author}}
{{OL author}}
{{Internet Archive author}}
[https://as.amphilsoc.org/agents/people/368 Harrison Allen papers at the American Philosophical Society]

Category:1841 births

Category:1897 deaths

Category:19th-century American physicians

Category:19th-century anatomists

Category:American male non-fiction writers

Category:American medical writers

Category:American surgeons

Category:American zoologists

Category:Burials at West Laurel Hill Cemetery

Category:Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni

Category:Members of the American Anthropometric Society

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society