Franklin P. Mall Collection

Biography

Franklin P. Mall was born in Belle Plain, Iowa. He received his M.D. from the University of Michigan in 1883 and for the next three years was involved in postgraduate study in embryology and physiology in Germany. He came to Baltimore in 1886 as one of William H. Welch’s first fellows in pathology. Mall left Johns Hopkins in 1889 to become an adjunct professor of vertebrate anatomy at Clark University. From there he went to the University of Chicago for a year as professor of anatomy before returning to Johns Hopkins in 1893 as the first professor of anatomy at the school of medicine. His research included embryology and the relationship between structure and function in adult organs, particularly the spleen, liver, and heart. Mall, together with Welch, conceived the idea of a full-time faculty in medicine with salary support sufficient to allow time for research. From 1914 until his death in 1917, Mall was the first director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Embryology, which was affiliated with the anatomy department at Johns Hopkins.

Scope and Content

The Franklin P. Mall Collection spans his entire medical career. It contains correspondence with some of his colleagues as well as with his wife, Mabel Glover, a member of the first class of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Included are letters from Charles S. Minot and Wilhelm His, as well as correspondence regarding Mall’s participation in the American Medical Association’s Council on Medical Education. The collection also includes Mall’s reprints. Mall’s professional papers are in the records of the Carnegie Institute.

Catalog Record

Additional Links

Records of the Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Embryology

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