Palmer Findley Papers

Palmer Findley was born in Lewis, Iowa, on April 22, 1868. He was the son of Dr. David Findley (a western Iowa pioneer physician) and Martha Jane (Barr) Findley. Palmer Findley married Lyda M. Hanna on June 3, 1896. The couple had four children: Thomas, David, Charles, and Mary. Findley received a B.S. from the University of Iowa in 1890 and a medical degree from Northwestern University, Chicago (cum laude) in 1893. Following graduation, he entered a two-year service as a house physician at Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Illinois. From 1898 to 1899, he did postgraduate work in gynecology and obstetrics in Berlin, Vienna, and Paris. After returning to the United States in 1899, Findley was appointed assistant professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Rush Medical College in Chicago.

In 1906, Findley moved to Nebraska to accept the chair of the gynecology department at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine. From 1906 to 1914, he served as a professor of Didactic and Clinical Gynecology; from 1914 to 1916, he served as a Professor of Gynecology; and from 1916-1918, as Professor of Gynecology and Operative Obstetrics.

Findley was a member of the American Gynecological Society (Vice President, 1932), the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Medicine, the Chicago Gynecological Society, Chicago Pathological Society, the Nebraska State Medical Society (President, 1925-1929), the Douglas County Medical Society (President, 1922), and the Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (founding member and President). His additional positions included: 1933, State Chairman, American Society for the Control of Cancer; 1925, Vice President; 1927, President, American Association of Obstetricians, Gynecologists and Abdominal Surgeons; 1931-1932, Chairman, Obstetrics Teaching, White House Conference on Child Welfare and Protection; President, Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; 1925-1926, President, Nebraska State Medical Society; 1932, Vice President, American Gynecological Society; 1935, President, Nebraska Writers Guild; 1922, President, Omaha-Douglas County Medical Society; and Fellow, American College of Surgeons.

In addition to his practice in obstetrics and gynecology, Findley was a prolific writer, with publications dating from an article on arteriosclerosis of the uterus published in 1905 to a biography of Semmelweis in 1947. He contributed to Abt's Pediatrics (1924) and Sojar's Encyclopedia of Medicine, Obstetrics, and Gynecology (1933). He authored several books on the history of obstetrics and gynecology, as well as clinical subjects, and is the author of over a hundred papers. Among the medical topics he wrote about are puerperal thrombophlebitis, management of genital tuberculosis, pregnancy complications, prevention of venereal disease, psychotherapy and diseases of women, cesarean section, pelvic inflammation, and radium therapy in cancer.

Dr. Findley's books include Diagnosis of Disease of Women, 1903; Gonorrhea in Women, 1908; Priests of Lucina: The Story of Obstetrics, 1939; The Story of Childbirth, 1933; and A Treatise on the Diseases of Women, 1913.

Findley died on November 8, 1964, at 96; he was survived by his wife and four children.