Category: Medical Personnel & Services
The First Black Doctor in Canada: Anderson Ruffin Abbott Anderson Ruffin Abbott was the first black Canadian doctor. Abbott and his family had a long history of contributing to the social life and economy of Toronto. Dr. Abbott’s father, Wilson Ruffin Abbott, was born in Richmond, Virginia, to a Scottish-Irish man and a free black woman in 1801. He left home at the age of 15 to work on a Mississippi steamer, and settled in Mobile, Alabama, where he opened a general grocery store. In 1834, the city of Mobile passed a writ requiring all free blacks to provide a bond signed by two white men as a pledge of good behaviour.
History of Medicine Instruction in Surgery. Five physicians and their colleagues in the surgical amphitheatre of the Massachusetts General Hospital watch as the anesthetist administers ether to a patient who is about to have surgery. This illustration appeared in an 1889 issue of Harper's Weekly . The National Library of Medicine was originally established 150 years ago, in 1836, as the Library of the Army Surgeon General's Office. Perhaps the key event in the library's history occurred in 1865, when Dr. John Shaw Billings became director. For the next 30 years he worked tirelessly to expand the library's holdings and open it as a source of biomedical information for all physicians.
History of Medicine Introduction This guide describes the modern manuscript collections concerning Nursing, Midwifery and Obstetrics found in the History of Medicine Division. These collections include lecture notes on midwifery, records of nursing schools and associations, and the correspondence and personal papers of persons involved in the fields of Nursing and Midwifery. Persons mentioned include Francis Henry Ramsbotham and James Young Simpson. A majority of the collections are dated from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although there are several collections from the eighteenth century. Subjects are listed alphabetically with an index of terms. Brief descriptions include author of collection, physical description, and call number.