-
-
New England Female Medical College: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Female_Medical_College#:~:text=New%20England%20Female%20Medical%20College%20(NEFMC)%2C%20originally%20Boston%20Female,School%20of%20Medicine%20in%201874.
-
John Van Surly DeGrasse, MD, was the first Black physician admitted to a U.S. medical society, the MMS, in 1854. He was educated in Paris, practiced in Boston, and was an assistant surgeon with the 35th United States Colored Infantry
in 1863.
More information is available at https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/degrasse-john-van-surly-1825-1868/.
The medical account book kept from 1852 to 1855 by John V. S. DeGrasse, MD, (1825–1868) and a carte-de-visite photograph of Dr. DeGrasse by the well-known Black painter and photographer Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828–1901) are kept at the Massachusetts
Historical Society. Available at https://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0265.
“A Visit with Dr. DeGrasse: The Medical Account Book of Boston’s First Black Physician” by Mia Levenson. Available at https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2020/11/a-visit-with-dr-degrasse-the-medical-account-book-of-bostons-first-black-physician/.
“John V. S. DeGrasse, MD, an eminent physician of Boston was perhaps the most accomplished Colored gentleman in New England between 1850–1860. The following notice appeared in a Boston journal in August 1854.” Quoted from George Washington Williams,
History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1800 (vol 1) and 1800–1880 (vol 2): Negroes As Slaves, As Soldiers, and As Citizens (1882). Available at https://archive.org/details/historynegrorac00willgoog/mode/2up (page 133).
-
Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, in two volumes, by his son, Vincent Y. Bowditch. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1902. pp. 337 and 397. Available at http://babel.hathitrust.org/.
Other references are Henry I. Bowditch, MD, Memorial Meeting available at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4765663&view=1up&seq=3 and American Medical Biographies/Bowditch, Henry Ingersoll available at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/American_Medical_Biographies/Bowditch,_Henry_Ingersoll.
Dr. Bowditch was secretary and archivist of MMS, an ardent abolitionist, and the first chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Health, which was the first such board in the nation.
-
“Call and Response: A Narrative of Reverence to our Foremothers in Gynecology.” Available at https://hutchinscenter.fas.harvard.edu/call-and-response.
-
“Oliver Wendell Holmes, Racism, and Remembrance,” Scott Podolsky, MD, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Winter 2022.
A thoughtful and thoroughly researched article with useful bibliography. See “Racial Justice Report Card.” MMS members may request this article here: https://www.massmed.org/BML-request-form/.
-
“The Lewis and Harriet Hayden Scholarship for Colored Students.” Available at https://perspectivesofchange.hms.harvard.edu/node/9.
The first scholarship supporting Black students at Harvard Medical School was established in 1893 by Harriet Hayden.
-
“A Case of Professional Exclusion in 1870: The Formation of the First Black Medical Society.” Nickens HW. Available at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/398246.
Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts introduced a resolution calling for repeal of the charter of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. The MSDC had refused admission to qualified physicians due to their Black race.
-
She graduated the nursing school of the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Roxbury, MA, in 1879. Available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Hospital_for_Women_and_Children.
She was a member of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses established 1908 in New York City. Available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Colored_Graduate_Nurses.
