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The Legacy Center Blog

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American Women's Hospital Service workers in front of ambulance. (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

From the Collections: Women Physicians at War

The American Women’s Hospitals (AWH) was established in 1917 as an volunteer organization for women physicians to help refugees and civilians caught in the midst of the First World War. Originally named the War Service Committee, AWH was founded by Dr. Rosalie Slaughter Morton as an extension of the newly established Medical Women’s National Association. AWH opened volunteer run hospitals across Europe and the Middle East. After the Sparkman Act of 1943 allowed women physicians to serve in the U.S. Army and Navy, many women physicians such as Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania Dean Dr. Margaret Craighill joined the military during World War II as physicians. This blog post details the history of woman physicians Volunteering in World War I and II, focusing specifically on Dr. Craighill and the AWH.

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Construction of new building on Drexel Queen Lane campus, 2009 - interior storage space. (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

Latest Construction Photos: Nearly There!

On December 4, 2009, the Drexel University College of Medicine Legacy Center Archives moved from Drexel University’s Hagerty Library to a new space at the Drexel University College of Medicine Queen Lane Campus. This blog post is a September 2009 update of the construction on the new Legacy Center building at the Queen Lane Campus.

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Clipping title Why Not Marry a Suffragette, by J. Ilted. (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

From the Collections: Women’s Suffrage

Passed on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment created universal suffrage in the United States and after years of fighting, allowed women to vote. This blog post, written to honor the 89th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, looks at opinions on the suffrage at Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. It highlights unexpected critics of the 19th Amendment through student editorials, and highlights suffragist faculty members of the college such as Dr. Ellen Potter and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw.

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Louisville Floods & Racing History

In early August 2009 a huge storm hit the American midwest and caused major flash flooding in the Louisville, Kentucky area. One building damaged in the flood was The Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs, which sustained heavy flooding to its basement, where the museum’s archival collections were stored. This blog post focuses on the converging interests of its author, Legacy Center archivist Lisa Grimm: horse racing and archives. The post describes the immense danger of water damage in archival collections, and explains why the majority of archives are located in basements. It also briefly covers the widespread and sometimes unorganized nature of archival material on horse racing, and suggests better ways to preserve horse racing archival material.

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Construction of new building on Drexel Queen Lane campus, 2009 - exterior. (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

Construction Update: July

On December 4, 2009, the Drexel University College of Medicine Legacy Center Archives moved from Drexel University’s Hagerty Library to a new space at the Drexel University College of Medicine Queen Lane Campus. This blog post is a quick update from the archives staff on the status of the new building's construction.

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This Thing Is Actually Happening

On December 4, 2009, the Drexel University College of Medicine Legacy Center Archives moved from Drexel University’s Hagerty Library to a new space at the Drexel University College of Medicine Queen Lane Campus. This blog post is written a few months before the move, and goes over some of the logistical challenges of moving the Legacy Center archival collections.

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Drug advertisement from the Medical Women's Journal, 1924, featuring viburnum. (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

From the Collections: Drugs

Advertisements for pharmaceutical drugs in print media is a decades old phenomenon. This blog post features several pharmaceutical advertisements featured in The Medical Woman’s Journal and The Journal of the American Medical Women's Association between 1924 and 1958. It pokes fun at their dated quirks and points out the advertising ambiguities such as who they are marketed two. The blog post also points out the clear gendered marketing present in the drug advertisements.

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Permission pass allowing Anne Smith (FMC matriculate) to pass between Northern and Southern armies (Civil War), 1863. (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

From the Collections: Civil War Doctors

The American Civil War began in 1861 and was fought between the rebel secessionist Confederate States of America in the American South, and the rest of the United States of America, calling themselves the Union. The war ended in 1865 and resulted in over an estimated 850,000 deaths. The carnage of war was a clear cause for doctors and nurses to be utilized on and off the battlefield, and the American Civil War saw many women doctors and nurses take part in this medical effort. This blog post summarizes the story of several woman doctors and graduates of Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania who served in the civil war. These women, Dr. Orianna Moon-Andrews, Dr. Chloe Buckle, Anne Smith, and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, all have material stored in the Legacy Center Archives, and contributed their medical knowledge as nurses and physicians in the American Civil War.

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Letter from a patient to Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania Dean Dr. Rachel Bodley, 1886. (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

From the Collections: A Nymphomania Cure?

Dr. Rachel Bodley was a prolific chemist and botanist who served as Dean of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania from 1874 to 1888. This blog post concerns a letter discovered in her collection written by an anonymous patient suffering from nymphomania. “The Patient” as she was known, was under the care of neurologist Dr. Charles K. Mills at the Women’s Nervous Wards at Philadelphia Hospital. As the blog explains, The Patient began a correspondence with Dr. Bodley and requested that upon her death, her body be dedicated to helping find a cure for nymphomania. The blog post covers the unusual archival item, and poses the questions of what became of The Patient after the letter was sent.

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