Christopher Gian-Cursio was a naturopathic doctor, nutritionist, author, editor, and researcher. The collection reflects Gian-Cursio’s professional career as a practicing Natural Hygienist and his extensive research into the development and pioneers of the health movement in America, especially James Jackson’s “Our Home on the Hillside” Hygienic Institute in Dansville, N.Y. Also included in the collection are a substantial number of clippings on a broad variety of health-related subjects such as food and nutrition, cancer, chiropractic care, fasting, sexual health, a small assortment of newspapers from the middle-to-late 1800s, and correspondence with other leading figures of the Natural Hygiene movement, including Jesse Mercer Gehman and Herbert Shelton.  The Gian-Cursio Collection exists today thanks to the efforts of his long-time assistant and companion, Sydell Herbst.  The Gian-Cursio Collection also includes an extensive complement of books, which are cataloged into the UT Libraries catalog.

• Sydell Herbst and Christopher Gian-Cursio Collection, ca 1800 - 1984, undated
  

Barbells & Bios: The Sydell Herbst–Christopher Gian-Cursio Collection

by Conor Heffernan

Born in Rochester, New York in 1910, Christopher Gian-Cursio was one of America’s most outspoken, popular and reviled commentators on...