ORTHODONTIC PROFILES

Edward Hartley Angle (18554930)

UPON conferring the honorary degree of Doctor of Science on Edward H. Angle
in 1915, Provost Smith of the University of Pennsylvania referred to him as
follows : “Lover of art and nature, intimate friend of trees and flowers, but
preeminently founder of the science of orthodontia,” to which the best thought
of a life has been given in experiments and in tests.” Today, 35 years after his
death, there are few who would hesitate to name Dr. Angle as the greatest single
contributor to the specialty. This was not always so, however, for during his life-
time Dr. Angle was the center of bitter controversy, much of it caused by his
own inflexibility.
To Angle there were no grays in orthodontia; almost everything pertaining
to it was either black or white. Thus, in its technical aspects, there was “only
one best way” and anything less was unforgivable. He was similarly uncom-
promising in his concepts. It should be pointed out, however, that his concepts
had grown out of a lifetime of keen and careful observation, as well as from
information gleaned from the minds that he considered better qualified than his
own in their respective fields. For a man who was lacking in formal education,
he was extraordinarily well educated and conversant on subjects ranging from
the life of the bee to the literary works of Dickens, Mark Twain, Lincoln, and
others too numerous to mention.
Coupled with these admirable characteristics were traits of a quite different
nature. The chief of these was his inability to recognize the wide range of
differences in men in the matter of their endowments. He expected of others
the same lifelong pursuit of knowledge, the same logical methods of thought,
the same intense pursuit of perfection, and the same high standards of personal
integrity that were his. Naturally, he rarely found then in others in the same
proportions as he possessed them. Discovering their shortcomings, he cut many
of his colleagues off with ridicule, with scorn, and with sarcasm, and he frequent-
ly did so to their faces. There were few who loved him; many were hostile to
him; yet all respected him. Of those who studied under him, not one was ever
sorry or failed to benefit from his teaching. It is no wonder that he was a center
of controversy and that his great contributions are only now beginning to

*The word orthodontia is used throughout this profile, notwithstanding the fact that
orthodontics is the term accepted as correct by the American Association of
Orthodontists, the American Dental Association, and the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF
ORTHODONTICS. Orthodontia is being used here because it was the term used by Dr.
Angle throughout his lifetime.-Ed.

529
530 Orthodontic profiles An,. J. Orthodontics
JuZg 1966

Edward Hartley Angle

emerge from behind the cloud of animosity that obscured them during his life-
time. In spite of his stubbornness, he was always alert to signs that would
lead to progress and would make any change that he thought would eventually
benefit orthodontia.
Edward Hartley Angle was born in Herrick, Pennsylvania, on June 1, 1855.
We do not know very much about his early life, except what we learn from his
own description of his characteristics as a child. He did not like school; nor
did he care for work around the farm. He derived his greatest pleasure from
roaming the hills and woods around his home, and he was fascinated by the
crude machines that were used in the farming community in that period. Indeed,
showing an early flair for inventiveness, he designed and built the horse-drawn
hay rake that was used on American farms for many years afterward. In all of
his work, he developed a passion for simplicity in design and efficiency in
operation which was to characterize his orthodontic mechanisms in later years.
Wishing to avoid what was to him the distasteful work of the farmer, he
apprenticed himself to a dentist. After a few months he enrolled, in 1876, in the
Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, from which he graduated in 1878.
Vomne 51 Orthodontic profiles 531
Number 7

After practicing dentistry for a few years in Minneapolis, he became interested

in the alignment of misplaced teeth and in the correction of deformities of the
jaws. Attracting considerable attention with his work in this most unusual (for
that time) field, he was invited in 1886 to join the faculty of the dental school
of the University of Minnesota. In 1887 he read a paper entitled “Irregularities
of the Teeth” before the Ninth International Medical Congress. This paper
has always been considered the first edition of his textbook, which was to go
bhrough seven editions with translations into many foreign languages.* At the
time of his death the manuscript of the eighth edition was in preparation.
Resigning from the University of Minnesota, he moved to Chicago, where
he accepted a position as a teacher of orthodontia at Northwestern Dental Col-
lege. In 1895 he moved to St. Louis, where he joined the dental staff of Marion
Sims College of Medicine (now St. Louis University). He also taught for a
short time in the dental department of Washington University in the same
city. His experiences in these various schools were to lead him to the conviction
that orthodontia could not be properly taught in a dental college. As a member
of a prosthetic department to which orthodontia was attached, he found that
the students, being pressed with the demands of other departments, were not
encouraged to pay any attention to his work. From this time forward until his
death, he fought for the establishment of separate educational facilities for
orthodontia.
In 1899 he published a paper entitled “The Classification of Malocclusion”
which carried his definition of malocclusion. Like all of his definitions, this was
short, descriptive, and to the point: “Orthodontia is that science which has as
its object the correction of malocclusion of the teeth.” His classification, based
primarily on the mesiodistal relation of the jaws and dental arches to each
other and to the skull as indicated by the positions on eruption of the first
permanent molars, has become generally recognized and has provided an intel-
ligent and easily understood means of communication among members of the
dental profession.
It was at about this time that he proved to his own satisfaction “that nature
through her own power strives to build the human denture in accordance with
a well defined pattern which we will call the normal pattern and which varies
only as each human varies from every other human, and that normal occlusion

*The seven editions of Dr. Angle’s textbook were published under the following titles,
the first three appearing in pamphlet form:
1. Irregularities of the Teeth, 1887.
2. A System of Appliances for Correcting Irregularities of the Teeth, 1890.
3. The Angle System of Regulating and Retention of the Teeth, 1892.
4. The Angle System of Regulation and Retention of the Teeth-With an Addition
of Treatment of Fractures of the Maxillae, 1895.
5. Angle System of Regulation and Retention of the Teeth and Treatment of Frac-
tures of the Maxillae, 1899.
6. Malocclusion of the Teeth and Fractures of the Maxillae, 1900.
7. Treatment of Malocclusion of the Teeth, 1907.
For a complete list of Dr. Angle’s publications the reader is referred to the Index to
Dental Literature, published by the American Dental Association.
532 Orthodontic profiles Am. J. 0,‘thodontics
Jlily 1965

of the teeth should be the highest aim of the orthodontist.” This was the underly-
ing principle that governed his approach to the science, practice, and teaching
of orthodontia.
In 1900 Angle was approached by four young.men who asked him to instruct
them in the principles that he was teaching. They were Thomas B. Mcrcer,
Henry A. Lindas, Milton T. Watson, and Herbert A. Pullen. These men spent
3 weeks in his office and have always been considered as having been the first
class ever trained in a school of orthodontia or in any dental specialty.
Angle’s influence on his students was profound, although his teaching
methods were most unorthodox. In truth, he did not teach; he made men learn
through a rigid system of discipline. This covered every phase of their lives
while they were under him, from the preparation of their assignments in
theoretical subjects and the meticulous execution of their technical procedures
to the menial housekeeping tasks of dusting and polishing their working quarters
and even to sweeping the floors. His demeanor toward the students was always
reserved and dignified, as might be expected in such an atmosphere.
He did not approve of what was then the customary method of lengthy
classroom lectures followed by a formal examination. His classes were small;
the largest enrollment in any of his private schools was fourteen. His lectures
often lasted 3 or more hours and were gems that were never to be forgotten.
The philosophy of the great men of history, letters, and science-Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Charles Darwin, and Ralph Waldo Emerson-became as familiar to
his students as the study of biology and force control in orthodontia. His object
was “to light the fire of ambition” in order that the student would develop to
his highest potential. One of Angle’s earliest students summarizes his teaching
method in a few well-chosen lines: “As a teacher he not only had that rare gift
of inspiring his students with great enthusiasm but he also was so thorough and
systematic in his teaching methods that the ideas and ideals he taught were
indelibly impressed upon the student’s mind.” They left feeling that they had
enjoyed the most thorough training available, a training that covered far more
than orthodontia. They were, by and large, evangelists burning to spread the
gospel.
As other classes followed the first, Angle began to feel t)he sense of responsi-
bility that is felt by all conscientious teachers, namely, that his students must
have available the best sources of information possible. He began by restricting
his own practice to the treatment of malocclusion, thus becoming the first dental
specialist. He then began the building of a faculty, some members of which,
already trained in one of the basic sciences, desired training in the principles
of orthodontia. Among them were Milo Hellman, a paleontologist; Raymond
C. Osborn, a comparative anatomist; and two experimental histologists, Freder-
ick B. Noyes and Albin Oppenheim. From them, both he and the students learned
of tissue tolerance, the effect of mechanical forces on bone and tooth structure,
and the physiologic and anatomic development of the dentofacial complex. As
Angle’s knowledge increased, he developed an almost “uncanny insight into the
fundamental principles that underlie all orthodontic procedures both mechanical
and biological.” His appliances became less cumbersome, more delicate, and
 Orthodontic profiles 533

refined. This can be followed in the development of his four major appliances
the expansion arch E introduced in 1899; the pin-and-tube appliance in 1911;
the ribbon arch in 1913; and the edgewise mechanism in 1925.
Many have referred to Angle as a mechanical genius. If he was, it was be-
cause of his ability to apply the simple principles of mechanics to the procedures
required in the movement of teeth. His appliances were designed to satisfy the
principles of physiology, mechanics, and art, in that order. Simplicity and
efficiency were the fundamental requirements of any orthodontic mechanism
that met with his approval.
With the publication of the sixth edition of his textbook, Angle was con-
vinced that there must be a formula for facial balance to which all human faces
should conform. In the attempt to develop such a pattern, he arrived at what
he termed the “line of harmony” which passed through the forehead, the alae
of the nose, and the point of the chin. It was based on the Grecian profile of
Venus de Milo. With this in mind, he called upon Professor Edmund Wuerpel,
then chairman of the Art Department at Washington University in St. Louis.
This eminent teacher of art was destined to exercise a profound influence on
Angle’s thinking. Wuerpel, in his kindly and patient manner, pointed out that
there was no line, no set of measurements, no formula that could be applied to
every human face and that there were differences in every individual-differ-
ences due to racial characteristics, inheritance, and many other factors-which
could not be made to conform to a common denominator. This concept was new
to Angle. From that conversation there developed a lifelong friendship and, for
Angle, the realization that the best proportions of the mouth in relation to the
other features require that there shall be “a full complement of teeth and each
tooth shall be made to occupy its normal position-normal occlusion.”
In 1907 Angle moved his school to New York and in 1908 to New London,
Connecticut, where regular sessions were held until 1911. It was here that he
gave up the clinical practice of orthodontia in order to devote his life to study
and to the development of better and more refined orthodontic appliances.
In 1916, for the sake of his health, Angle found it necessary to move to
a warmer climate where he could avoid the rigorous winters of the eastern coast.
He went to Pasadena, California, where he improved rapidly. While there he
continued his work on appliance refinement and additional writing. However,
his reput,ation as a teacher had become so widespread that it was evident that
he could not escape the responsibilities of training young men. One day a young
man from New York, bearing the same name but not related, came to make a
courtesy call on the man of whom he had heard so much. He stayed a year.
This man, in turn, spread the news of his experience, and soon others applied
for training. Because of the physical limitations of Angle’s laboratory and
study where, of necessity, the classes were held, only three students could be
accepted at any one time.
In 1922 students from the previous classes in the school in Pasadena, to-
gether with some of the graduates of the earlier schools, donated sufficient funds
to build and equip a building that would permit the training of a greater
number of students and provide clinical facilities for the treatment of patients.
 This building, on a lot adjacent to Dr. AnglcB honrc~, was the first lmilding IO
he devoted exclusively to the teaching of o~~thodontia, as well as the first to hc
chartered for that purpose by any statr or national government. The chartel
was granted by the State of California in 1X1 under the official name of The
Edward H. Angle College of Orthodontia. The courx~~of training was ultimateI:
lengthened to a full calendar year. Regular classes were held at the school until
1927, when Angle announced that he could no longer carry the responsibilit,ios
that it entailed and, because of his failing health, the school was closed.
It is interesting to note that wherever Angle conducted a school those who
had successfully completed the cowsc soon organized themselves into what
today would be known as continuation study groups. These eventually developed
into official societies with officers, bylaws, and the organizational detail that
every society considers so necessary to its progress and permanence. The
graduates of the 1900 school in St. Louis organized the world’s first orthodontic
society, the official name being the Society of Orthodontists. In 1901 the
word Ant&cam was added and it became the American Society of Ortho-
dontists. This was the forerunner of the present American Association of
Orthodontists-now a representative organization with nearly 4,000 members.
This first society established a quarterly magazine named The American Ortho-
dontist, the first publication devoted exclusively to the dissemination of ortho-
dontic material. It was published from 1907 to 1912.
In 1909 the graduates of the New York and New London schools organized
the Eastern Association of Graduates of the Angle School of Orthodont.ia, with
sixteen charter members. This society conducted regular meetings for 30 years.
In 1939 because the closing of the Angle College threatened to make it a “last
man’s club,” they voted to adjourn sine die. During the course of its existence
this society had as many as sixty-six active members.
Early in 1913 Dr. Angle was invited by a group of his former students
practicing on the Pacific Coast, to give a short course on what was then his latest
appliance, the pin-and-tube or, as he preferred to call it, a “bone-growing
appliance.” This was the first gathering of Angle graduates west of the Missis-
sippi River. After completion of the course, these men and one woman (Dr.
Janette Harbour) decided to form a permanent organization which t,hey named
the Pacific Coast Society of Graduates of the Angle School. In 1917 the eligi-
bility requirements for membership were broadened and the name of t,he group
was changed to the Pacific Coast, Society of Orthodontists. As such it has become
a constituent society of the American Association of Orthodontists.
By 1922 there were sufficient graduates of the rollege in California. to form
a working organization, and the Edward II. Angle Society of Orthodontia was
founded. The membership consisted of eleven gra.duatrs of the college, supple-
mented by a number of graduates of the former schools in St. Ilouis and New
London. With a yearly increment from the college, there was a total of forty-six
active members at the time of Angle’s death in 1930. This society was unique in
many ways; there were no officers other than a secret.ary, and there were no
bylaws. Like the college, the society was run by Angle. The meeting of this
Volume 51 Orthodontic profiles 535
Number 7

society in New London in 1928 was the last meeting that Dr. Angle ever attended.
With his passing the society ceased to exist.
On Nov. 17, 1930, twenty-two members of this latter organization met in
Chicago. The purpose of the meeting, as expressed by the chairman, was “to
find some way to carry foward Dr. Angle’s ideals of orthodontia.” They decided
to reorganize the society that was functioning at the time of Dr. Angle’s death.
There were forty-six charter members, including Professor Wuerpel and Mrs.
Angle. As of this writing, the society has a membership of approximately 300,
organized into various components which embrace the United States. It was at
this meeting that the society decided to begin publication of the Angle Orthodon-
tist.
It has been said that human institutions are but the lengthening shadows of
a man. Viewed in this light, Edward H. Angle cast many shadows. As the first
specialist in dentistry, he blazed the way for specialization. As the first post-
graduate teacher, he blazed the way for all postgraduate dental training. As
founder of the first specialist society and the first specialized journal, he laid
the groundwork for all subsequent work in those fields. All of these shadows
blended to form the biggest shadow, known by the name he gave it-orthodontia.
His pioneer efforts in orthodontic education, his contributions to orthodontic
literature, and his development of innumerable instruments and appliances are
not the accomplishments for which he will be remembered. Long after these
have faded into history, Angle’s name will be associated with the onward march
of biologic science and it will be realized how perceptive was the mind that could
penetrate the empiricism of his day and proclaim the significance of normal
occlusion. This established orthodontia as a science, and it will remain Angle’s
greatest monument.
At the root of every man whose influence is cherished lies an ideal. With
Angle that ideal was perfection-perfection not only in the basic mechanics that
enter into an orthodontist’s daily work but perfection in everything that a man
thinks, and lives, and does. This was the philosophy that Angle taught his
student.; this is the heritage that he left orthodontia; this is the debt that
orthodontia owes to him.
George TV. Hahn