In honor of Women’s History Month, Himmelfarb Library celebrates the lives of four influential women within the health sciences. Today, we honor: Dr. Margaret Chung, the first Chinese American woman to become a physician; Dr. Virginia Alexander, African American physician and public health expert who fought against racial discrimination in healthcare; Henrieta Villaescusa, the first Hispanic nurse appointed as Health Administrator of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare; and Estelle Brodman, a medical librarian who had a profound impact on the field of medical librarianship.
Dr. Margaret Chung: The First Chinese American Woman Physician
Margaret Jessie Chung, born in Santa Barbara, California in 1889 and the daughter of Chinese immigrants, dreamed of becoming a medical missionary to China from a young age. She graduated from the University of Southern California Medical School in 1916 as the first American-born Chinese female doctor (PBS, n.d.). As a medical student, Chung was the only woman in her class, and often wore masculine clothing and referred to herself as “Mike” (Wagner, 2021a).
After graduating medical school, she was denied residencies and internships in local hospitals and was rejected from becoming a medical missionary based largely on her race (Stanford Libraries, n.d.). She moved to Chicago where she completed an internship and residency in surgery and psychiatry (Stanford Libraries, n.d.). She returned to California and accepted a staff physician position at the Santa Fe Railroad Hospital in Los Angeles where she specialized in emergency plastic surgery for victims of railroad accidents (PBS, n.d.). She soon started a private practice that catered to the actors and musicians of Hollywood’s growing entertainment industry (Wagner, 2021a). In the early 1920s, she moved to San Francisco where she helped establish the first Western hospital in San Francisco’s Chinatown (PBS, n.d.). She led the OB/GYN and pediatrics units.
In the 1930s, during the Japanese invasion of China and the Sino-Japanese War, Dr. Chung became friends with a U.S. Navy Reserves officer, Steven G. Bancroft and his friends. The group saw her as a motherly figure and adopted her as “Mom” (Wagner, 2021a). Dr. Chung was instrumental in the creation of Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), a reserve corps for women in the Navy (Wagner, 2021a). Although WAVES helped lay the groundwork for women’s integration into the U.S. armed forces, Chung was not permitted to serve, likely a result of her race and sexuality (PBS, n.d.) and she never received credit for her efforts in WAVES creation (Wagner, 2021a). Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, the author of Chung’s biography, wrote that Chung “was not afraid to break barriers” (Stanford Libraries, n.d.). Chung’s fearlessness in breaking down barriers paved the way for other women and minority physicians to do the same!
Dr. Virginia Alexander: Pioneer of Public Health Equity
Virginia Alexander was born in 1899 to formerly enslaved parents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her family faced financial hardships when she was a child. Her mother died when she was only four years old, and her father lost his livery stable when she was 13. The financial strain this placed on the family did not stop Alexander from pursuing her education, something her father was adamant that she continue. She was awarded a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania and worked as a maid, a clerk and a waitress to pay her living expenses (NIH, 2015).
She went on to medical school at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (Wagner 2021b). During medical school, Alexander experienced racism as one of the only Black students in her class (Wagner, 2021b). After finishing medical school, Alexander had trouble landing an internship because of her race and even her own medical school’s hospital did not accept Black doctors (Wagner, 2021b). She eventually landed a position at the Kansas City Colored Hospital.
Dr. Alexander soon returned to Philadelphia and opened up her own community health clinic out of her home, Aspiranto Health Home (NIH, 2015). The clinic focused on treating Black patients who were refused treatment from white staff in Philadelphia hospitals free of charge (Wagner, 2021b). She cared for pregnant women and young mothers, and also provided contraceptives to women free of charge (Finlay, 2020). Over five years, Dr. Alexander saw 2,000 patients and delivered 43 babies (Finlay, 2020).
In 1935, she conducted a study on race and public health in North Philadelphia that found “shocking disparities in health outcomes among Black and white residents'' (Wagner, 2021b). Her data showed that Black babies died at more than twice the rate than that of white babies, and that Black people were dying of tuberculosis at a rate six times higher than the white population in the city (Wagner, 2021b). Her work also exposed racial discrimination in segregated wards at hospitals and linked this issue to the inequality of social conditions including inadequate sanitation in Black neighborhoods (Wagner, 2021b).
Dr. Alexander later earned a Master’s of Public Health degree at Yale University and accepted a position at Howard University as the physician-in-charge of women students (NIH, n.d.). She advocated for the 1939 National Health Bill, an early attempt at a national health insurance system (Wagner, 2021b). During the 1940s, she served with the U.S. Public Health Service. During WWII, Alexander volunteered for the government and treated coal and iron miners who were living in extreme poverty in Birmingham, Alabama (NIH, n.d.). While there, she contracted lupus. She died in Philadelphia at the age of 49. She once said that “we will have to send physicians into sections which have no bright lights and … take public health across the railroad tracks, to serve those most in need of comfort and care” (NIH, n.d.). Dr. Alexander truly lived out this belief throughout the course of her life and incredible career!
Henrieta Villaescusa: The First Hispanic Nurse Appointed as Health Administrator
Henrieta Villaescusa was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1920. She attended Mercy College of Nursing in San Diego, received a Bachelor's degree from Immaculate Heart College, and a Masters Degree from UCLA (NAHN, n.d.). Villaescusa held a variety of nursing positions, and eventually worked for the Los Angeles City Health Department, where she became the only Hispanic supervising public health nurse (Pasadena Star-News, 2005). She later worked as part of the Center for Disease Control’s Hispanic/Latino subcommittee for the National Diabetic Education Program where she worked to address the needs diabetic patients in the Hispanic and Latino population (Pasadena Star-News, 2005).
Villaescusa’s career was one of many firsts for Latino women. She became the first Hispanic nurse appointed as Health Administrator in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (NAHN, n.d.). She was also the first Mexican American Chief Nurse Consultant in the Office of Maternal and Child Health within the Bureau of Community Health Services (HAHN, n.d.). In this capacity, she identified the needs, trends, and priorities in nursing research and training (Pasadena Star-News, 2005).
Villaescusa was also the first Hispanic to serve as the Bureau of Community Health Services’ Federal Women’s Program Manager (Pasadena Star-News, 2005). In the 1960s, she was appointed to the Alliance for Progress, making her the highest ranking Mexican American in the Bureau (Pasadena Star-News, 2005). In this capacity, her impact reached beyond the United States. She worked to improve the health of people in Latin America by partnering with the academic and community health nursing leaders to “develop nursing education programs, curricula, and collaborative partnerships with local health professionals in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Panama” (Pasadena Star-News, 2005).
Throughout her career, Villaescusa worked closely with the National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organization, and the Mexican American National Women's Association (NAHN, n.d.). She also served as the president of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses from 1984 to 1988 (NAHN, n.d.). Among her many other accomplishments, Villaescusa served as an advisor to director of health programs with the Office of Economic Opportunity, was the the only Hispanic member of the Board of Nurse Examiners in California, and was chief nurse with the Division of Maternal and Child Health where “she was responsible for all nursing aspects of the maternal and child health programs in the country” (Pasadena Star-News, 2005). Villaescusa was truly a trailblazer and her career left a lasting impact on the field of nursing, nursing education, and healthcare!
Estelle Brodman: “A Towering Figure” within Medical Librarianship!
Estelle Brodman was born in New York City in 1914, and grew up in a Jewish household that placed a high value on education and learning. This love of learning served her well in her chosen field of medical librarianship. “I find learning a great joy and a great pleasure, …[others] think of learning as something they are required to do, and I think of learning as something I want to do” she stated in her oral history (Messerle, 2010).
Brodman’s father was a physician and she and her brother both intended to follow in his footsteps. While her brother became a psychiatrist, she was not accepted to medical school despite having a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in histology and embryology (Messerle, 2010). Determined to have a career in the medical field, she ultimately decided to become a medical librarian and received a master's degree in library science from Columbia University (Messerle, 2010).
Over the course of twelve years, she held a number of librarian positions at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Library. While serving as “Acting Librarian,” she was told that they would never make a women [head] librarian,” so she decided to get a Ph.D (MLA, 2016). She would go on to serve as the Chief of the Reference Division of the Army Medical Library, which would later become the National Library of Medicine (Messerle, 2010).
In 1960, she was instrumental in developing and writing much of the Medical Library Assistance Act, which created regional resource libraries that were supported by the National Library of Medicine to improve medical library collections, upgrade facilities, and train medical librarians (Fee, 2015). Although the Medical Library Assistance Act was not passed until after Brodman had moved on, it had a “far-reaching impact” and contributed to the growth of medical librarianship and medical libraries (Messerle, 2010).
Brodman later moved to Washington University in St. Louis. The position allowed her to teach, and she “was able to persuade them that just as any other department [the library] should do research and training” (MLA, 2016). Brodman developed the PHILSOM automation project, an automated serials control system, in the early 1960s (MLA, 2016). She was an early adopter of technology and later developed a training program in computer librarianship (Messerle, 2010).
Brodman was active in professional associations including the a term as president of the Medical Library Association in 1964-65, the Special Library Association where she served as Director from 1949-1952, the NIH Biomedical Communication Study Section, History of Medicine Review Panel, the Council of the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the Presidential Commission on Libraries (MLA, 2016). She served as editor of the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association for ten years. In her work with the joint Medical Library Association/American Association of Medical Colleges Committee, she helped create guidelines for medical school libraries (MLA, 2016). When Brodman died in 2007, an article in The Journal of the Medical Library Association stated that we had lost “a towering figure of the profession” (Messerle, 2010). While she is no longer with us, her impact within the field of medical librarianship will not soon be forgotten!
References:
Fee, E. (October 22, 2015). The Medical Library Assistance Act of 1965. Circulating Now, National Library of Medicine website. https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2015/10/22/the-medical-library-assistance-act-of-1965/
Finlay, M. (June 2020). “Guardian of the Health of Negro Women”: The Work and Legacy of Dr. Virgina Alexander. Drexel University College of Medicine Legacy Center Archives & Special Collections Blog. https://drexel.edu/legacy-center/blog/overview/2020/june/guardian-of-the-health-of-negro-women-the-work-and-legacy-of-dr-virginia-alexander/
Medical Library Association (MLA). (March 18, 2016). MLA Oral Histories: Brodman, Estelle (PhD, AHIP, FMLA)*. MLA website. https://www.mlanet.org/blog/brodman-estelle
Messerle J. (2010). Estelle Brodman, AHIP, FMLA, 1914–2007. Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 98(1), 6–8. https://doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.98.1.004 Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2801987/pdf/mlab-98-01-6.pdf
National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN). (n.d.). Henrieta Villaescusa, MPH, PN. NAHN website. https://nahnnet.org/about/bios/Henrieta-Villaescusa
National Institutes of Health. (June 3, 2015). Dr. Virginia M. Alexander Biography. https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_5.html
Pasadena Star-News. (2005, March 9). Henrietta Villaescusa Obituary. Pasadena Star-News. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/pasadenastarnews/name/henrietta-villaescusa-obituary?id=26841230
PBS (May 27, 2020). The First American-Born Chinese Woman Doctor. PBS American Masters website. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/first-american-born-chinese-woman-doctor-ysk233/14464/
Stanford Libraries (n.d.). Dr. Margaret Chung. Rise Up for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. https://exhibits.stanford.edu/riseup/feature/dr-margaret-chung
Wagner, E. (December 9, 2021b). Dr. Virginia Alexander. National Park Service website. https://home.nps.gov/people/dr-virginia-alexander.htm
Wagner, E. (October 8, 2021a). Dr. Margaret “Mom” Chung. National Park Service website. https://www.nps.gov/people/dr-margaret-mom-chung.htm
