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Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.). Department of Speech Correction and Audiology

 Organization

Biography

Northwestern University’s Department of Audiology, in the School of Communication, had its origins in the Program in Education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which had begun in June 1941.  In 1942 a small faculty headed a budding program in speech correction. In 1946 Dr. Raymond Carhart (1912-1975) offered the school’s first course in audiology.

Although Dr. Carhart is sometimes credited with coining the term audiology, it was probably first used in 1939 by Stanley Nowak, a distributor of hearing aids.  Calling it a word of great usefulness, Dr. Carhart noted “the University of Illinois has the distinction of having made the first academic appointment in Audiology, while Northwestern University is the first school to establish and maintain an educational program in Audiology”.

Immediately following the end of World War II, the Speech and Hearing Clinic received an impetus when the Veteran’s Administration appointed Northwestern University as “the first of several agencies in the nation for aiding in the speech rehabilitation of war veterans.”  Among the staff members involved in veteran rehabilitation were Isaac Brackett, Harold Westlake, who joined the faculty in 1944, and Dr. Carhart, who in 1944 had worked with veterans at Deshon Army Hospital in Pennsylvania.

During the academic year of 1945-46, approximately 85 students took courses in hearing as part of their programs. A report on the Program in Education of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing stated that “more than a dozen undergraduate students and as many graduate students specialized in audiology and (emerged) as qualified for professional positions in the field.” By then, eight students were well on their way to earning their PhDs with specialization in hearing, which the department offered as “evidence that Northwestern University is considered a leading center for education of specialists in audiology and hearing.”

In 1947 Dr. Carhart was promoted to professor of audiology with indefinite tenure.  He was named Head of the Audiology Program in 1953 and held that position until his death in 1975.  Dr. Lois Elliott (1931-1995) served as Head of the Program in Audiology and Hearing Sciences from 1976 until her death in 1995.

See also: Raymond Carhart Papers, Series 20/13; Lois Elliott Papers, Series 20/62; and, for additional historical background, Lynn Miller Rein’s Northwestern University School of Speech: a history (Northwestern University, 1981).

Found in 2 Collections and/or Records:

Raymond Carhart (1912-1975) Papers

 Collection
Identifier: 20/13
Abstract Raymond Thomas Carhart was a professor of Audiology and Otolaryngology at Northwestern University. He holds a distinguished position as the founder and chief pioneer in the field of audiology, establishing the first academic program in audiology in the United States. He developed and refined speech audiometry and used it effectively in evaluating the efficiency of hearing aids. The Raymond Carhart Papers are arranged in five main categories: Biographical Material; Correspondence, Committee...
Dates: 1938-1975

Records of The Department of Audiology

 Collection
Identifier: 20/65
Abstract The Records of Northwestern University's Department of Audiology fill 23 boxes (including one half box), spanning the years 1950 to 1988, with the bulk of the records dating from the late 1960s to the late 1970s--important and busy years for the Audiology Department. Much of the material relates to research work and studies conducted by Carhart, Elliott, and other Audiology faculty. The records have been organized into four categories: General Audiology Department files, Correspondence,...
Dates: 1950 - 1988; Other: Majority of material found within 1965 - 1979

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Audiologists 1
Audiology 1
Audiology--Study and teaching 1