Carl A. Hamann (1868 -1930)

Carl Hamann was born in Davenport, Iowa. Inspired by an uncle, he chose medicine as his career entering the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1887.

While he was finishing his degree, he taught a quiz course in anatomy for first-year medical students to make cash. Sir William Osler, a great supporter of medical museums and the study of medical history, was on the faculty during Hamann’s first and second year of medical school and Hamann was inspired by Osler’s penchant for collecting.

Hamann obtained his medical degree from University of Pennsylvania in May of 1890. After graduation he was an Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School for three years. Doing this work further exposed him to the medical teaching specimens and museum collections at the Wistar Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Mutter Museum.

In 1893, he came to the Western Reserve University in Cleveland as a professor of anatomy. After surveying the extant teaching specimens, he decided to expand the medical specimen teaching collection at the university and worked in his spare time with the help of colleagues to do so. In 1912, he was made dean of the Western Reserve University Medical School. From this position he actively supported the efforts of professor of anatomy Thomas W. Todd to further enlarge the teaching collection.

Bibliography

Brown, K.L. ed. 1977. Medicine in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County: 1810-1976. Academy of Medicine of Cleveland: Cleveland , Ohio
Todd, T.W. 1930. The Chief. Bulletin of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine 14: 11.
Waite, F.C. 1946. Western Reserve University Centennial History of the School of Medicine. Cleveland: Western Reserve University Press