Sanford Louis Palay Papers, 1938-2002

Mss.Ms.Coll.121

Date: 1938-2002 | Size: 77 Linear feet
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Abstract

The Sanford Louis Palay Papers include the bulk of Palay's professional correspondence from his days as a medical student until after his retirement. The collection includes class notes, research notes on brain anatomy and physiology and on the golgi apparatus, a large number of electron micrographs of brain structures, and editorial files from the Journal of Comparative Neurology (1980-1997). This is a large and comprehensive collection of Palay's professional papers.The correspondence and photographs are especially rich and are likely to be the sections of this collection most interesting to researchers. Palay's records from the Journal of Comparative Neurology, which document the publication process for papers, constitute nearly half of the collection.

Background note

A pioneering neuroscientist, Sanford L. Palay began research into the structure and function of the brain as a student at Western Reserve Medical School (MD, 1943). His research on the fine structure of synaptic vesicles at the Rockefeller Institute in 1953, resulted in a series of electron micrographs that are often cited as the first images of the synapse and of the structures that release messenger chemicals in the brain. His later work at the National Institutes of Health and at Harvard Medical School (1961-1989) helped provide a well rounded picture of the structure of neuroglia (cells that support and protect neurons) and of the cerebellum. Palay was the long-time editor of the Journal of Comparative Neurology.

Collection Information

Physical description

77 linear ft.

Provenance

Gift of the estate of Sanford Palay through Victoria Palay, 2003.

Indexing Terms


Genre(s)

  • Correspondence.
  • Research notes.

Subject(s)

  • Brain -- Anatomy.
  • Golgi apparatus.
  • Neuroglia.