Tilly Edinger

Tilly Edinger:

Female Scientist

By: Rosa Sanchez

Lyliana Lopez

June Chustz

Sources

Freidenreich, Harriet. (2009). "Tilly Edinger." In Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 4, 2008 from Jewish Women's Archive: http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/edinger-tilly.Lang, H. G., & Meath-Lang, B. (1995).

Tilly Edinger. In A Biographical Dictionary: Deaf Persons in the Arts and Sciences(pp.105-108). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Wolf, M. (2000). Tilly Edinger. Retrieved from Wellesley College: http://www.wellesley.edu/Anniversary/edinger.html

Gale Encyclopedia of Biography Gale Encyclopedia of Biography. 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc.

Freidenreich, Harriet. "Tilly Edinger." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 1 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on April 2, 2013) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/edinger-tilly>.

Scott, M. (2011, December 19). Tilly edinger. Retrieved April 2, 2013, from Strange Science website: http://www.strangescience.net/edinger.htm

Carl Drews. "Transitional Fossils of Hominid Skulls." Last update: March 9, 2012. Web. 30 March, 2013. http://www.theistic-evolution.com/transitional.html

The Path Continued

• After Nazi came into power in 1930's, difficult to continue doing research, until 1938 when museum dismissed her.
• In 1940, Edinger arrived in New York, with a secured job at Harvard for research, and became a citizen in 1945.
• At Harvard, Tilly continued her research on fossil brains.
• During her research in the States, she taught zoology at Wellesely University.
• Edinger was the first paleontologist to systematically study, compare, and summarize fossil brain data.
• She showed that evolution of the brain could be determined by studying the fossil record (using cranial casts)

Education

Tilly Edinger went to school at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Munich. University of Frankfurt is where she got her doctorate degree.

When she was in school she studied the skull of a Nothosaurus an old living reptile and compared it to the today’s living reptile.

She became a curator at a Museum in Senckenberg meaning she was responsible for taking care of the objects and interpreted the history of the objects.

http://palaeos.com/vertebrates/sauropterygia/nothosauridae.html

What can the study of fossils can help us understand about man?

The Rocky Path

• Tilly suffered from hereditary otosclerosis (an abnormal bone growth in the middle ear that causes hearing loss)
• loss of hearing in mid teens
• Hearing Aide, but rarely turned on
• Fear of passing on ailment
• Missed the sound of the bus that hit/killed her on her way to work
• Struck by vehicle and died of head injuries on May 22, 1967

http://femilogue.blogspot.com/2012/11/tilly-edinger.html

http://www.theistic-evolution.com/pages5455.jpg

Honors

Early life & Family

• Tilly Edinger was born in Frankfurt, Germany on November 13,1897.
• She is known for the field of paleoneurology, which is the study of the brain through fossil remains.

• She came from an upper class family.
• Both of her parents were Jewish.
• Her family was well known in the community.
• Her father Ludwig help discover the study of neurology.
• He was held high esteem that the city named a street after him in 1918.
• Her father did not like the idea of her being a scientist because he believed science was not a job for women.
• Her mother Anna Goldschmidt Edinger helped the poor. She was honored for that so they built a statue to honor her.

Honorary degree from Wellesley College

Honorary degree from Justus Liebig University

Honorary degree from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University

Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation

Notable Works

The Evolution of the Horse Brain in 1948 - continued to explore the importance of studying fossil skulls as a way to determine the varying rates of evolution in various species. The horse was used as an example for her argument.

Die fossilen gehirne (Fossil Brains) in 1929 - her first book that argued the importance of studying fossils to determine a species evolution

Bibliography of Fossil Vertebrates, Exclusive of North

America: 1509-1927. - compilation work of fossil records of North America