Description:: The Haymaker Collection consists of the personal and business papers of Dr. Webb Edward Haymaker (1902-1984). Haymaker served as Chief of the Neuropathology Branch of the Army Institute of Pathology (AIP) which later evolved into the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), from 1942 until 1961. Included in the collection are papers documenting Haymaker’s time in the Army Reserves and his career at the AFIP.

Dr. Haymaker was a world renowned neuropathologist whose career spanned six decades and included a research position at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). There he studied the effects of “cosmic rays” on mice that traveled into space on the Apollo 11 mission. The collection contains correspondence related to this experiment and drafts of the final report to NASA.

Dr. Haymaker was also a prolific author and lecturer. He edited two seminal works in the neuroscience field, Histology and Histopathology of the Nervous System, and Bing’s Local Diagnosis in Neurological Diseases. He also contributed chapters to these texts. In addition, he co-edited multiple editions of The Founders of Neurology, one of his most popular books, as well as The Hypothalamus, and Peripheral Nerve Injuries. The collection includes Haymaker’s correspondence with the many contributors to these texts, as well as with the various publishers. Haymaker was writing and editing up to the time of his death in 1984 from complications of pre-leukemia.

Haymaker traveled the world, lecturing at conferences and performing research, both professional and personal. The collection includes correspondence from his trips to the South Pacific, Europe, Canada, and Utah, where he investigated rumors that Marie Curie obtained uranium for her radiation experiments from mines in the state.

The collection also contains general correspondence and photographs of family, friends and colleagues, as well as other oversized materials related to Haymaker’s life and career.

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