Krumbhaar, E. B. (Edward Bell), 1882-1966

Edward Bell Krumbhaar (1882-1966) was a distinguished pathologist and cardiac physician, as well as one of Philadelphia’s leading historians of medicine. A founder of both the Section on Medical History of the College of Physicians and the American Association of the History of Medicine (AAHM), Krumbhaar also served as president of the College and of the AAHM.

Krumbhaar was born on August 1, 1882 in Philadelphia. He graduated from the Groton School in Massachusetts; from Harvard University in 1904; and the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania, earning his MD in 1908 and his PhD in 1916. Immediately after obtaining his medical degree, Krumbhaar served as the resident pathologist at the Pennsylvania Hospital where he learned from Winfield T. Longscope, the Director of the Ayer Clinical Laboratory at Pennsylvania Hospital. It was because of Longscope that Krumbhaar began studying “the physiology and pathology of the heart, for which Krumbhaar became famous” (Long, page 121).

When the United States entered World War I, Krumbhaar served in the American Expeditionary Forces in France as a medical officer conducting autopsies on victims of mustard gas. His wife, Helen Dixon Krumbhaar, also served in World War I, and together they wrote Blood and Bone Marrow in Mustard Gas Poisoning .

From 1920 to 1927, he served as Director of Laboratories at the Philadelphia General Hospital. In 1927, Krumbhaar became a professor of pathology at the University of Pennsylvania and served in that capacity for twenty years, when he retired as emeritus professor. Krumbhaar was a member of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia for 42 years, founded the Section on Medical History of the College of Physicians, and served as its president from 1940 to 1943. He also served as editor of the American Journal of Medical Sciences . He founded the American Association for the History of Medicine and served as its president.

Krumbhaar’s “talent as a pathologist, editor and medical historian was equaled by his skill as an administrator [and he] published voluminously in the field of medical history,” (Long, page 123). Throughout his career he published English translations of works originally in French, German and Italian. He edited Clio’s Short History of Medicine . Beside his own work, he is best remembered by historians for his revised translation of Arturo Castiglioni’s History of Medicine (1941).

Krumbhaar died on March 6, 1966 at the age of eighty-four years. He was survived by his wife Helen and their two sons, Peter and David.

Bibliography:

Long, Esmund R., MD. “Memoir of Edward Bell Krumbhaar, 1882-1996,” College of Physicians.

From the guide to the E. B. Krumbhaar papers, Bulk, 1899-1992, 1825-1992, (College of Physicians Historical Medical Library)