The making of a European chiropractor: Fred Illi and the Universal College, 1925-1927

Fred W. H. Illi (1901-1983) was one of the most prominent pioneer chiropractic researchers of the first half of this century, developing theories on the role of spinal biomechanics in the human body. With practical work in chiropractic radiology and later special work in human dissection in Chicago in the 1930-40 decades, and later at his Institute for the Study of the Statics & Dynamics of the Human Body in Geneva, Illi produced a massive volume of documentation in both written and visual format. The education of this researcher was a difficut and, at times, seemingly hopeless experience of self-determination and grit in pre-depression America. Illi's biographer traces his American interlude and the influence of the Universal Chiropractic College in his chosen work, an unusual marriage of his first career choice of engineering, the use of the Xray in chiropractic and the sound, if limited training he received in the critical years from 1925 to 1927.