Family
Joseph Leidy was born on September 9, 1823, to an established Philadelphia family of German extraction. His father, Philip, was a hatter; his mother, Catharine, died when he was young, during childbirth, whereupon his father remarried to his wife's first cousin, Christiana Mellick. Leidy also had a brother named Thomas Leidy. With the support of his stepmother, and after overcoming the opposition of his father (who wanted him to be a sign painter), Leidy studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated with his medical degree in 1844.
He married Anna Harden, a woman who took a serious interest in his work and helped him with it on occasion. Their marriage was childless, and they eventually adopted an orphaned seven-year-old girl.
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Famous quotes containing the word family:
“The touchstone for family life is still the legendary “and so they were married and lived happily ever after.” It is no wonder that any family falls short of this ideal.”
—Salvador Minuchin (20th century)
“Respectable means rich, and decent means poor. I should die if I heard my family called decent.”
—Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866)
“I can only sign over everything,
the house, the dog, the ladders, the jewels,
the soul, the family tree, the mailbox.
Then I can sleep.
Maybe.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)