CPP 2/012-02: Alfred Stengel papers, 1934-1936

Series — Box: 1, Folder: 2

Scope and Contents

This small collection of Alfred Stengel’s presidential papers consists of one letter, recommending three Fellows for the By-Laws Committee, dated February 1, 1936; and a typescript copy of Stengel’s presidential address, delivered on January 6, 1936.

Dates

1934-1936

Biographical / Historical

Alfred Stengel was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 3, 1868. He received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1889. After his graduation, Stengel worked in several capacities for a number of institutions. He interned for 18 months at Philadelphia General Hospital. In 1891, at the close of his residency, Stengel first served as quiz master in pathology at the Penn Medical School; the following year he was elected a pathologist at the German Hospital (now Lankenau). In 1893 he became laboratory assistant to William Pepper, professor of medicine and provost of the University of Pennsylvania; in this position he also served as a lecturer in clinical medicine at Penn. From 1896 to 1898 Stengel also held the position of clinical professor of medicine with Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

In 1898, he succeeded Pepper as director of Penn's William Pepper Laboratory; the following year, he was named a professor of clinical medicine at Penn. In 1911 Stengel became a full professor, accepting the chair of clinical medicine. Stengel was named the University's vice president in charge of medical affairs in 1931. He held this position for the rest of his life.

Outside of the University of Pennsylvania, Stengel was affiliated with other medical schools and various medical and scientific organizations. From 1896 to 1898 Stengel held the position of clinical professor of medicine with Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Later in his career he was a consulting physician to Philadelphia General Hospital, Children's Hospital, Jewish Hospital (later merged into Einstein), Abington Memorial Hospital, and Norristown State Hospital. He was named as president of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1934. Stengel also served as president of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology and was a member of the American Philosophical Society, the Association of American Physicians, the Philadelphia Pathological Society, and the National Advisory Health Council.

During World War I he served as a major in the U.S. Army Reserve Corps in charge of the U.S. Public Health Services. His most important national post was as president of the American College of Physicians from 1925 to 1927. He also served as a major in the Medical Reserve Corps, with service during World War I with the Public Health Service in Pennsylvania.

He was elected a Fellow to The College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1895, and serves as its President from 1934 until 1937.

Stengel married Martha Otis Pepper, a niece of Provost William Pepper, in February 1909; they raised two sons and a daughter. Stengel died at his Philadelphia home on April 10, 1939.

Adapted from “Alfred Stengel (1868-1939),” from the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biographies: http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1800s/stengel_alfred.html