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The Legacy Center Blog

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Equity and DiversityBehind the ScenesHistory of MedicineHomeopathyLearning and TeachingWomen in Medicine

Black Women Physicians Project: An Early Step in the Path Toward Reparative Archives

Jess Hutchison highlights her experience processing the Black Women Physicians Project and where the project fits into the history of reparative archives. 

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Hartwig Kuhlenbeck

Research Co-op Projects 2021: Dez Uwaomah

Dez Uwaomah discusses her starting research on Hartwig Kuhlenbeck, MD from the end of World War I in 1918 to his appointment as Research Professor in Neurobiology in 1963. intending to explore his life story, discoveries in neuroscience, and his professional network help us to understand his contributions to the history of neuroscience.

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Engraving showing the sale of Manhattan Island. Source: Hearth, Amy Hill. “Strong Medicine” Speaks: A Native American Elder Has Her Say. New York: Atria Books, 2008. P.4

Research Co-op Projects 2021: Amanda Lyles

Amanda Lyles introduces her research on the journeys of Indigenous women in medicine as early representatives of their communities who historically attempted to improve conditions and eliminate disparities as a result of the government’s mission to fully assimilate Native Americans. As healers, representatives, and activists; Indigenous women in medicine demonstrated resistance that called for government responsibility and obligation by way of genuine intent for change during the Progressive era which ignited later movements. Their journeys set examples for how their communities are expected to survive a structure created to uphold inequality.

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Correspondence between Pauline Dinkins and Martha Tracy, 1919. (Legacy Center Archives & Special Collections)

The True Path to Diversity

The murder of George Floyd turned the United States and the world into a state of chaos. He wasn’t the first person to lose his life to police brutality and unfortunately, probably won’t be the last. His death sparked many conversations about the racist violence and just plain racism that Black People endure while living in the nation. In the world of archives, conversations began about how to document the lives of Black People during this time and how to bring the hidden stories already acquired to the main dialogue of the archives' story. 

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Illustration of "The Goblin Germs" from Jack O'Health and Peg O'Joy: A fairy-tale. (The Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections)

Woman's Medical College vs the 1918 Flu Pandemic

In the aftermath of the 1918 Flu Pandemic, health officials struggled on defining ways to better help individuals. Without immunization in sight for influenza, physicians needed to turn to different ways to better support their patients.

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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)

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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.

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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 Drexel University College of Medicine 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.

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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.

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