Name Thomas E. and Eleanor Abrams Hunt Papers

Dates 1861-1983

Extent 2 cubic feet

Historical Note Eleanor L. Abrams was born in Ilion, New York, on June 4, 1902, the youngest of two children of Alfred Willis Abrams and Margaret Seeber (Mills) Abrams.  Eleanor received a bachelor's degree in 1925, graduating magna cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts.   She then enrolled in the Department of Histology and Embryology of Cornell's Medical School in Ithaca where she received a master's degree in 1925.  From 1925 until 1927, she was an instructor at Adelphi College in Brooklyn where she taught physiology, histology, and embryology courses.  In the fall of 1927 Abrams went to the University of Chicago to work on a doctoral degree.  She enrolled in the Department of Zoology, worked as a laboratory assistant, and would eventually earn her doctoral degree in 1931.   Abrams met her future husband, Thomas E. Hunt, while at the University of Chicago.  They were married August 26, 1929, in the New York home of Eleanor's parents.  In 1929 the Hunts were hired by Dr. Edgar Allen Boyden, incoming chair of the Department of Anatomy at the two-year Medical College of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  Eleanor was hired as a research associate and assistant in microscopic anatomy, and Thomas as an instructor in histology and embryology.  Dr. Eleanor L. Abrams Hunt remained with the Medical College, rising to the status of assistant professor of Histology and Embryology, until August 1936, when she resigned her position in order to devote her time and energy to two young sons.  After the Medical College of Alabama was transferred to Birmingham in 1945, she rejoined the faculty of the Department of Anatomy as an instructor.  In addition to her teaching duties, she continued to conduct research and published numerous articles with her husband in the 1950s and 1960s.  Dr. Eleanor L. Abrams Hunt served as an instructor in the anatomy department until 1967.  She died on November 25, 1987.

Thomas Elwood Hunt was born in Blue Island, Illinois, on December 15, 1902, the youngest of three sons of Thomas Hunt and Adella Celestia Gates.  In the fall of 1921 he began studies at Earlham College where he earned a Bachelor's of Arts degree in June 1925.  That fall Hunt enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Chicago.  He became the "curator in zoology" in 1927 and an instructor in Zoology in 1928.  He received his Ph.D. degree from Chicago in August 1929.   Dr. Hunt met his future wife, Eleanor L. Abrams, in 1927 when she joined the zoology department at Chicago.  They were married on August 26, 1929, just days prior to his receipt of his Ph.D. degree.  In 1929 the Hunts were hired by Dr. Edgar Allen Boyden, incoming chair of the Department of Anatomy at the two-year Medical College of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.  Thomas was hired as an instructor in histology and embryology, Eleanor as a research associate and assistant in microscopic anatomy.  Dr. Hunt became an assistant professor in 1930 and an associate professor in 1933.  In 1945 the Medical College of Alabama became a four-year program and was moved from the Tuscaloosa campus to Birmingham.   Transferring to Birmingham with the Medical College in 1945, Dr. Thomas Hunt remained on the faculty of the anatomy department and was one of the first full-time faculty members at the new Medical Center.  Hunt became a professor in 1947 and served as acting chair of the Department of Anatomy in 1959.  In 1967 he was selected as the Medical Center's Distinguished Faculty Lecturer.  His lecture, "The Tricky Business of Teaching," was presented on March 25, 1967.  After 38-years of service to the Medical College of Alabama, Dr. Hunt retired April 1, 1967, and was made emeritus professor of anatomy by the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama.  Thomas E. Hunt died in Birmingham on July 31, 1983.

Scope & Contents Includes correspondence, diplomas and certificates, daily diaries, news clippings, reprints of research papers, ledgers, postcards, resolutions, and programs.

Arrangement Organized into three series: 1. Abrams-Mills Family Correspondence, 1861-1913; 2. Eleanor Abrams Hunt Papers, 1921-1977; 3. Thomas E. Hunt Papers, 1925-1983.

Accession Number M96-04

Provenance These materials were donated to the UAB Archives in 1996 by the son of Thomas and Eleanor Hunt.

Finding aid Printed descriptive guide by Tim L. Pennycuff available in repository.

Access Points Abrams, Margaret,  q  (Margaret Seeber Mills),  d  b. 1869.

Abrams family.

Anatomists  z  Alabama.

Embryologists  z  Alabama.

Hall, Agnes Elizabeth.

Hunt family.

Hunt, Eleanor Abrams,  d  1902-1987.

Hunt, Robert Leigh,  d  b. 1932.

Hunt, Thomas E.,  d  1902-1983.

Mills family.

Mills, Charles Johnson,  d  b. 1832.

Mills, Mary,  q  (Mary Elizabeth Seeber),  d  b. 1836.

New York  x  History  x  1865-1898  x  Personal narratives.

United States  x  History  x  Civil War, 1861-1865  x  Personal narratives.

University of Alabama.  b  Department of Anatomy.

University of Alabama.  b  Medical College of Alabama.

University of Alabama in Birmingham.

Women  z  Alabama  z  Birmingham  x  Interviews.

Women  z  New York  x  Correspondence.

Women  z  Vermont  x  Correspondence.

Document Types Certificates.

Clippings.

Correspondence.

Diaries.

Diplomas.

Ledgers.

Postcards.

Programs.

Resolutions.

Location Manuscript Stacks

Related Series PMC41, Thomas E. and Eleanor Abrams Hunt Photographs

P6 (Accession M99-11P), Thomas E. Hunt's Slides of the Medical Center, 1958-1961

Physical Condition Acid free folders and acid free boxes


This page created 1999 and last updated on 27 November 2007.

Copyright:  The University of Alabama Board of Trustees.