Portland Women

I'm blogging about women and market inspection in Progressive Era Portland on my author blog and invite you to visit.

Oregon Encyclopedia History Night at McMenamin's Video

On Tuesday, July 20 the Oregon Encyclopedia and McMenamin's hosted a Century of Action: Oregon Women Vote, 1912-2012. Here's a sampling of the presentation, with appreciation to videographer Todd Jarvis!

Early Oregon Women Physicians

I'm currently blogging about early Oregon women physicians at my author blog and invite you to visit.

Portland Medical Club 1901

Visit my author blog for information on a compelling meeting of the Portland Medical Club in 1901.

Sara Marquam Hill Presidential Address, Portland Medical Club, 1902

I've just posted the full text of the presidential address by Sara Marquam Hill, President of the Portland Medical Club in 1902 -- get it at my author blog.

Esther Pohl, M.D. addresses the National Woman Suffrage Association in Portland, 1905

I've just posted the full text of Esther Pohl's speech as president of the Portland Women's Medical Club to the National American Woman Suffrage Association annual meeting in Portland at the Lewis and Clark Exposition in 1905 at my author blog.

Esther Lovejoy and Woman Suffrage Presentation July 20

Esther Lovejoy was in the thick of things in the 1906 and 1912 campaigns for votes for women in Oregon. I'll be giving a presentation on the history of woman suffrage in Oregon, with Lovejoy and her "Everybody's Equal Suffrage League" included. Come join us at McMenamin's Cornelius Pass Roadhouse for the Oregon Encyclopedia History Night, also sponsored by McMenamins and Century of Action: Oregon Women Vote 1912-2012 on Tuesday, July 20.

Esther Clayson's Medical School 1890-1894 -- Obstetric Manikins

I've just posted information from Esther Lovejoy's memoir of her medical school years about lectures in obstetrics on my author blog.

Thank You Lucy Davis Phillips!

One of my heroines is Lucy Davis Phillips, registrar at the University of Oregon Medical School from 1918 until just before her death in 1943. She knew that women students were making history and wanted to record it. Thanks to her work of keeping track of women students and their work after graduation we have a great deal of information on early Oregon women medical students and physicians. Davis Phillips compiled a scrapbook with notes, newspaper articles and correspondence that comprises a vital source for the biographies of medical women. She also sent out a survey in the mid-1930s to all of the women graduates for whom she could find an address and compiled the data. These records comprise the treasure-filled Lucy I. Davis Phillips Collection on Oregon Women Medical School Graduates at the Historical Collections & Archives at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. There are many Esther Lovejoy gems there and so much information about the careers of medical women graduates from Oregon.

She published a summary of her findings and a roster of graduates in Lucy I. Davis, “History of Women Graduates of Oregon Medical School,” Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting and Directory of the Alumni Association, University of Oregon Medical School (Portland: University of Oregon Alumni Association, 1937), 17-20.

Marion Reed East, M.D.,writing for the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association in 1964, recalled that Davis Phillips was "loved and respected by students and faculty alike." In addition to her work to preserve information about the lives of women students and doctors, East noted that the registrar was a strong advocate for women students. "The first unit of the new medical school building (1920) had no provision for a room where the women medical students could rest or hold a 'buzz' session," East noted. So Davis Phillips worked with librarian Bertha Hallam to get them a room of their own on Marquam Hill.

So here's to your memory, Lucy Davis Phillips: registrar, historian, advocate. The history of women in Oregon is richer because of you.

See
Marion Reed East, M.D., "Branch Five Presents . . . Friends of the Medical Students," Journal of the American Medical Women's Association 19 no. 1 (March 1964): 235.

First Portland Women's Medical Society 1891-1892

Today I've posted a discussion of the regional and national context for the first Portland Women's Medical Society at my author blog.

Viola Coe, M.D. physician and suffragist

Just posted to my author blog, a biography of Viola Mae Coe, the last of the profiles of the five physicians in the first Portland Women's Medical Society 1891-1893.

Florence King, M.D. (?-1895)

In addition to doctors Lydia Hunt King, Mae Cardwell, Helena J. Price and Viola Coe (to be profiled tomorrow) Florence King was one of the five women to be members of the original Portland women's medical society of 1891-1892. A graduate of Wooster (Ohio) University Medical School in 1879, she married homeopathic physician Samuel Lewis King. IN 1890 the Portland City Directory listed them both as practicing in their home office at 195 1st in Portland. Florence King died on May 2, 1895 in Portland, just four years after the founding of the women's medical society.

Helena J. Price, M.D.

I've just posted information about Helena J. Price, another of the five women in Portland's first all-female medical society in 1891-1892 on my author blog. As you'll see I don't know as much about her as the other women physicians I'm profiling, and I welcome any information you might have about her.

Mae Whitney Cardwell, M.D. (1853-1929)

This week I'm focusing on early women physicians and medical societies in Portland as a foundation for Esther Pohl Lovejoy's work with the Portland Medical Club as president in 1905. Another of the five women physicians who were active in the first Portland Women's Medical Society in 1891-1892 was Mae Whitney Cardwell. She received her first medical degree from the Cooper Medical School in San Francisco in 1883 and completed a second degree from Oregon's Willamette University Medical Department in 1885. She established a practice in Portland and was a "local" woman to join the Portland Women's Medical Society.

Cardwell served as a bridge between male medical societies and women physicians and was often the only woman to serve in administrative roles in these societies. She was an early member of the Oregon State Medical Society, joining after her WUMD degree in 1885 and was treasurer of the organization for ten years from 1893-1903, and later served as vice president. The Portland Medical Society, established in 1884, banned women from membership until, in 1902, she became the first woman member.

But Cardwell also supported separate women's societies. In addition to her work with the first Portland Women's Medical Society she was the she was a founder and first president of the revitalized Portland Medical Club in 1905. And, conscious of the importance of women's activities in the Oregon medical scene, Cardwell's history of Portland medical societies preserves vital chapters in the history of women and medicine in Oregon.

In addition, Cardwell worked for woman suffrage in Oregon and served as one of five vice presidents for the Portland chapter the of the College Equal Suffrage Association in 1912 campaign that won the right for Oregon women to vote. She also participated in a World War I test to claim officer status for women physicians at the Vancouver, Washington army base.

A biography of Cardwell and her image are included with the Oregon Health & Science University's exhibit in association with the Changing the Face of Medicine exhibit at http://www.ohsu.edu/library/hom/exhibits/medbios.shtml

See:

Mae H. Cardwell, “The Medical Club of Portland—Historical,” Medical Sentinel 13 no. 7 (July 1905): 222-226.

Kimberly Jensen, Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008)

Cora Bagley Marrett, "Nineteenth Century Associations of Medical Women: The Beginning of a Movement," Journal of the American Medical Women's Association 32 no. 12 (December 1977): 469-474.

Lydia Hunt King, M.D. (1837-1900)

As I posted on my author blog today (http://kimberlyjensenblog.blogspot.com/) I am working on the chapter for the Esther Pohl Lovejoy biography that deals with women in early medical societies in Oregon and the nation. Because I can't include all the details about the participants that I'd like to in the book, I'd like to share the information here on my blog. In this and other cases when information about Oregon women's history intertwines with my author blog I'll post a copy here.

Today I'm posting information about Lydia Hunt King and will post innformation about other women physicians in subsequent days.

Portland women doctors established the first all-female medical society in Western states in 1891 (and the third women's medical society in the nation) and the five women members met for just over a year. This group was short-lived, but in 1900 women doctors in Portland, including two of the original group, revived what they called the Portland Medical Club. Esther Pohl was active in this second group and was its president in 1905 when both the American Medical Association and the National American Woman Suffrage Association held their annual conferences in Portland to coincide with the Lewis and Clark Exposition. Pohl's speech at the exposition will be a key part of my chapter.

Lydia Hunt King, M.D.(1837-1900) was one of the five Portland women physicians active in this first women’s medical society. She was also a leader in the movement for women’s right to vote in Oregon.

A graduate of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1881, Lydia Hunt came to Portland to establish a medical practice in 1883 and married Samuel Willard King, a former educator who turned to business and founded the department store of Olds, Wortman and King in Portland. Hunt King joined the Oregon State Medical Society in 1884 and presented a paper on “Attention to Little Things in Normal Labor” at the 1889 annual conference of the association. She was one of five members of the original Portland Women’s Medical Society, which she joined in the fall of 1891.

In 1894 she became president of the newly-revived Oregon State Woman Suffrage Association and in July published an open letter “To the Friends of Equal Suffrage in the Northwest” announcing the “revival of our work in the Pacific Northwest” and inviting supporters to weekly meetings at the home of Abigail Scott Duniway, secretary of the OSWSA. At a OSWSA meeting in August, the Oregonian reporter noted her “sparking 10-minutes’ talk” in which she spoke “from a physician’s standpoint” and “held the right of self-government was inherent in all female life, and the times were out of joint because this principle was not recognized in the human species.” Hunt King resigned the OSWSA presidency later that fall due to ill health. She died March 10, 1900 following a four year illness. Her obituary, from the Oregonian, March 11, 1900, 24 appears below.

See:

Joseph Gaston, Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders vol. 2 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1911): 244-45.

Proceedings of the Oregon State Medical Society 11 (1884): 97.

Proceedings of Oregon State Medical Society 16 (1890): 218-222.

Mae Cardwell Notebook “Early Women Physicians of Oregon. Cardwell. Excerpted by K.C. Mead, January 1930,” 23, Lucy Davis Phillips Collection, Historical Collections & Archives, Oregon Health & Science University.

“Woman Suffrage; An Open Letter Through the Press by the O.S.W.S.A.,” Oregonian, July 5, 1894, 3.

“Equal Suffragists,” Oregonian, August 20, 1894, 5.

“Dr. Lydia Hunt King,” Oregonian, March 11, 1900, 24.