Adolf Nichtenhauser and the history of medical film

The U.S. National Library of Medicine holds two collections by Adolf Nichtenhauser (1903-53) that have become important sources for historians of medical and health films: an unpublished book-manuscript in which he surveys the history of medical and health films to around 1950, primarily in Europe and North America; and the valuable collection of documents he amassed partly during his research for this book-manuscript. Such is the richness of these collections that it is difficult to imagine a history of medical and health film that is not in some way indebted to Nichtenhauser. Indeed, his book-manuscript has become a standard citation in the historiography of medicine, health and film. Yet very little is known about Nichtenhauser himself, other than that he was a European immigrant to the United States who wrote this key history and died before its completion. This article seeks to do three things: to provide the first English-language biography of Nichtenhauser from his early life in Austria to his career in the United States; to use this biography to explain how he came to write this book-manuscript; and to explore the relationship between his historiography and efforts in the 1940s and 1950s to identify and solve problems with application of film to medicine and health.