91ÖÆƬ³§

For a better experience, click the Compatibility Mode icon above to turn off Compatibility Mode, which is only for viewing older websites.

The Legacy Center Blog

Categories

Equity and DiversityBehind the ScenesHistory of MedicineHomeopathyLearning and TeachingWomen in Medicine
Dr. Tallant, professor of obstetrics at WMCP outside the college’s maternity clinic c. 1923 (From the Clara Dickinson scrapbook Acc1993.01)

"Guardian of the Health of Negro Women": The Work and Legacy of Dr. Virginia Alexander

Dr. Virginia Alexander graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1925. In the 1930s, she established a clinic from her home in Philadelphia to provide health services to the African-American community, mainly pregnant women. The blog describes how her work has impacted the African-American community and how her legacy lives on in Asasiya Muhammad, who runs Inner Circle Midwifery, and others who share her vision and values. (The Legacy Center Blog)

Read Full Post
Women Physicians Deny They Are 'Disappointed' - Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania clippings scrapbook: Volume 5, page 490-491

"There is No Such Thing as Bad Publicity" - Controversies at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania

The first 8 volumes (1867-1920) of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania clipping scrapbooks were digitized as part of a Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) for the In Her Own Right: A Century of Women's Activism, 1820-1920 project. These scrapbooks uniquely capture the conflicting opinions on women in the medical profession. This blog post explores two events that are documented in the clippings involving WMCP students, specifically the Jeering Episode and Dr. Richard Clarke Cabot's commencement speech.

Read Full Post
Florence Haseltine at a young age. (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

"I answer to myself": Dr. Florence Haseltine and her path to women's health advocacy

The Florence Haseltine papers are available at the 91ÖÆƬ³§ Legacy Center and are filled with the life of Dr. Florence Haseltine through documents and other mediums. This blog features a short account of Dr. Haseltine's life and her many contributions to the medical profession.

Read Full Post
Coming Up Black by David A. Schulz (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

We Are Connected, History Connects Us

Archives intern, Caren Teague, tells of her experience working at the Drexel College of Medicine's Legacy Center and the admiration she gained from working with a newly acquired collection, the Ruth Wilf papers. Dr. Ruth Wilf, an expert midwife, donated a collection of books, training materials, and photos and documentation that reflected her activities as a midwife for the last 50 years to the Legacy Center in 2019.

Read Full Post
Two wooden boxes thought to contain medical instruments (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

Subject: 26-D-4's Box 92 Discoveries

The David Hottenstein collection at the Drexel College of Medicine's Legacy Center contained an unidentified box of medical instruments. This blog post explains the process of discovering the object to be a scale, researching an ancient unit of measurement called drachma, and putting the pieces together to figure out this archives mystery.

Read Full Post
International Conference of Women Physicians, 1919 (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

We Are Not Coexisting but Existing Together: 100 Years of Medical Women's International Association

91ÖÆƬ³§'s Legacy Center houses the records of the Medical Women's International Association (MWIA) which features minutes, member information, history of the organization and ephemera. This blog post commemorates the centennial of MWIA and its origins during the Great War, when a group of women physicians discovered a need to have an organization to connect female physicians from around the world.

Read Full Post
Elizabeth Clark to Ada Peirce McCormick pet nam Dearest Pie-faced Angel-child

Deep bonds and intimate friendships: Letters to Ada Pierce McCormick

The Ada Peirce McCormick papers at the Drexel College of Medicine's Legacy Center is made up largely of personal correspondence; namely, the letters she received from her friends Dr. Emma Elizabeth Musson and Dr. Elizabeth Clark over the course of 40 years, beginning in 1908. This blog post describes how the collection reflects the deep bonds and intimate friendships that can be maintained even through correspondence.

Read Full Post
Dr. Lydia Allen DeVilbiss on the cover of the October 1944 edition of Medical Women’s Journal (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

Birth Control, Sex Education, and Eugenic Feminism: The Peculiar Activism of Women Physicians

Eugenic feminism was a movement that overlapped with the social hygiene movement, women's suffrage and the birth control movement, and explores the intersections of how women are responsible in making the right decisions for the better of the race. This blog post explores how women physicians' language used in the social hygiene movements were influenced by the eugenics movement, even though their ideology wasn't the same.

Read Full Post
Elizabeth Cisney Smith and Augustus Edwin Smith around the time of their marriage, 1903 (Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

Tea at the Turn of the Century: Exploring Small Town Life with Elizabeth Cisney Smith

The Isabel Smith Stein collection on Elizabeth Cisney Smith explores the life of Dr. Elizabeth Cisney Smith, a 1911 graduate of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. The collection includes school materials, diaries, memoirs, medical practice records, personal correspondence, photographs, audio recordings, and other writing and research related to Dr. Smith, most notably connected to her work in the suffrage movement. Much of the correspondence is between Dr. Smith and her husband, Edwin. This blog post explores one particular letter Dr. Smith sent to Edwin during the spring of 1901 regarding the affordability of bulk tea in a small town.

Read Full Post