Ackerly (S. Spafford), M.D. (1895-1981) papers, 1910s-1981

Author

Processed by: Archives Staff; machine-readable finding aid created by:Eric Weig

Title

Ackerly (S. Spafford), M.D. (1895-1981) papers

Date

1910s-1981

Repository

University of Louisville Kornhauser Health Sciences LibraryLouisville, Kentucky 40292

Conditions Governing Access note

Open to researchers

Preferred Citation Note

[Identification of item], S. Spafford Ackerly, M.D. (1895-1981) papers, 1910s-1981, Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, University of Louisville, Louisville.

Extent

10 linear ft.

Scope and Content

Psychiatrist S. Spafford Ackerly studied under Alfred Adler at Yale before coming to the University of Louisville in 1932 to be the first full-time faculty member in psychiatry and to head a mental health clinic. He began programs to educate medical students in psychiatry and to extend services to the greater Louisville community. At the medical school, he expanded the psychiatry curriculum and added innovative features so that by 1936, the department was named one of the eleven best. In the late 1940s, only University of Louisville and Harvard University offered a clinical program in psychiatry for medical students for all four years.

In addition to the papers an extensive oral history project conducted by Ackerly between 1960 and 1981 includes interviews with Alfred Adler's daughter Alexandra Adler, Columbia University professor of psychiatry Viola Bernard, M.D., Leon Eisenberg, M.D. of Harvard, and Lucille Jessner of Georgetown University. The collection also includes Ackerly's interviews with Leo Kanner, Karl Menninger, and George Stevenson, all pioneers in the field of child psychiatry.

Subjects

• Health Sciences