Housed at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, the research collection at the Bolton-Brush Growth Study Center is the world’s most extensive source of longitudinal human growth data—including more than 200,000 radiographs of the head and major joints of the body— and was developed through the efforts of university alumni and faculty members.
In 1926, Professor T. Wingate Todd launched the Brush Inquiry to study rates of human mental and physical growth and development. A similar effort in 1929, the Bolton Study, examined facial and dental growth and development through radiography and was started by alumnus B. Broadbent Sr. (DEN 1919). The Charles Bingham Bolton Fund, founded by the namesake of Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and named for her son, fueled the study.
While data collection for the Brush Inquiry ended in 1942, and the Bolton Study in 1959, their findings would prove valuable for years to come. B. Holly Broadbent Jr. (ADL ’50, DEN ’52) combined the collections to form the study center in 1970 and co-published the Bolton Standards for Dentofacial and Developmental Growth in 1975.
Recall efforts occurred in the 1980s and the 2000s to evaluate the health of past research subjects who were studied in childhood. More than 100 returned, and researchers found craniofacial growth continued through all stages of adulthood.
