Felix Pinkus family collection 1861-1982, 2011 Bulk dates: 1900-1960

The Felix Pinkus Family Collection documents the professional and personal lives of the dermatologists Felix Pinkus and his son Hermann Pinkus, as well as of other members of their family. Prominent subjects include their work in dermatology, their artistic interests, Felix Pinkus' travels, and the family in general. Text-based items in this collection consist of correspondence, unpublished writings, notes and research, newspaper clippings and journal articles, educational and professional certificates and documentation, official documents and various kinds of memorabilia. Visual media include photographs, photograph albums, small sketches, drawings and paintings and various types of scrapbooks.Felix Pinkus was born April 4, 1868 in Berlin, the son of the businessman Benjamin ("Benno") Pinkus and his wife Rosalie, née Franckel. He had three brothers: Paul, Georg and Eugen. In Berlin he attended the Friedrich Werder Gymnasium, from which he graduated in 1885. Thereafter he studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin and Freiburg/Breisgau, with special interests in comparative anatomy and dermatology; at Freiburg he wrote his doctoral dissertation about the olfactory nerve. In Freiburg he also met his future wife Elise Etzdorf, to whom he became engaged in 1890. After a ten-year engagement they married and went on to have two children: Luise (born in 1902) and Hermann (born in 1905); both of their children became physicians. After receiving his degree, Felix Pinkus worked at the Freiburg Anatomical Institute and in the laboratory of Paul Ehrlich at the Koch Institute. He then went on to Breslau and Berlin, where he did most of his medical work at the University of Berlin; at the Berlin Dermatological Society; and at other institutes. In addition to his medical work, Felix Pinkus collected insects, often for the purpose of sketching them, which was a hobby. He also illustrated his own anatomical writings as well as sketching artwork, people – including his patients – and animals.In 1933 Felix Pinkus lost his position as director of the Women's Hospital in Berlin. The following year his wife Elise died, and his son Hermann left Germany for the United States. Hermann Pinkus eventually settled in Michigan and was later that year joined by his fiancée, Hilde Hensel, also a physician. Luise Pinkus married the pharmacist Werner Grab. In 1939 Felix Pinkus went to Oslo, Norway, where he remained for about a year until his son was able to procure an American entry visa for him. Then he went to the United States via Russia, taking the Trans-Siberian railroad from Moscow to Vladivostock, then traveling by boat to Tokyo, took an ocean liner at Yokohama, and crossed the Pacific to San Francisco, arriving in January 1941. He joined Hermann and Hilde in Michigan, where he resided with them and assisted in Hermann Pinkus' dermatopathology practice. Felix Pinkus died on November 29, 1947.Hermann Karl Benno Pinkus, 1905-1985 ; Hilde Marie Elisabeth Pinkus, née Hensel, 1935-1995Processeddigitize