Women Physicians and the Politics and Practice of Medicine in the American West, 1870-1930
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Medical Frontiers: Women Physicians and the Politics and Practice of Medicine in the American West, 1870-1930 by Jacqueline D. Antonovich A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in the University of Michigan 2018 Doctoral Committee: Professor Alexandra Minna Stern, Co-chair Professor Regina Morantz-Sanchez, Co-chair Professor Anna Kirkland Professor Matthew D. Lassiter Professor Martin Pernick Jacqueline D. Antonovich [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6295-7735 © Jacqueline D. Antonovich 2018 For my younger self. A single mother, working as a waitress, with only an associate degree in hand. You are my inspiration every day. ii Acknowledgements Years ago, when I decided to return to school to finish my bachelor’s degree, I never imagined that the journey would end with a Ph.D. I want to thank the History Department at the University of Michigan for taking a chance on me, and I also want to encourage them to keep taking chances on students like me – first-generation, non-traditional students bring a valuable and much-needed perspective to the academy. Alexandra Minna Stern is a phenomenal advisor. Her scholarly insight and professional mentorship has made this dissertation a stronger project, and I am a better historian because of her. My dissertation co-chair, Regina Morantz Sanchez, provided unwavering support over the past seven years. She has always taken my claims about the importance of medical women’s politics seriously, and graciously opened up both her home and her archives to me. Martin Pernick taught me not only how to be a pretty good medical historian, but also how to be an excellent teacher. I want to thank Matt Lassiter for constantly pushing me in new directions. He has an amazing ability to make graduate students feel confident about their work, while simultaneously encouraging them to think beyond their own intellectual boundaries. Thank you to Anna Kirkland for offering critical insights into disability studies and its intersections with race, gender, and class. And finally, I want to thank Michelle McClellan, who guided me through most of my graduate career and taught me the importance of public history. She is incredibly missed at the University of Michigan. In addition to my dissertation committee, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with an amazing group of scholars at Michigan. Howard Brick, Jay Cook, John Carson, Christian De iii Pee, and Gayle Rubin sharpened my thinking early on in graduate school. Michael Witgen’s research seminar not only launched the first chapter of this dissertation, but also helped me figure out how to write a dissertation. I consider Matthew Countryman to be my unofficial advisor. His mentorship in public scholarship has been incredibly important in helping me become a compassionate and publicly-engaged scholar. I also want to recognize the wonderful staff in the History Department. Lorna Alstetter, Diana Denney, Sue Douglas, Susan Kaiser, Kathleen King, and Greg Parker guided me through the bureaucracy of graduate school with knowledgeable kindness and humor. My cohort was unusually large for Michigan, but I am grateful to have built a tight-knit community of friends over the years. I want to especially thank Noah Blan, Paula Curtis, Sarah Mass, Andrew Rutledge, and Katie Wroblewski. Your friendship has meant so much to me and my family. I also want to thank Marie Stango, Austin McCoy, Melissa Johnson, Becky Hill, Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Ronit Stahl, Sara Lampert, Katie Lennard, Jesse Carr, Joe Ciadella, and Aston Gonzales for taking the time over the years to offer advice on navigating graduate school and the dissertation process. A special thanks to Rabia Belt, Amanda Hendrix-Komoto, and Cookie Woolner for reading materials, offering advice, and being all-around fantastic mentors. I’ve been lucky enough to have a wide network of friends and colleagues outside of Michigan. I can’t even imagine how I would have survived graduate school without my Nursing Clio colleagues. Thank you to Carrie Adkins, Laura Ansley, Averill Earls, R.E. Fulton, Amelia Grabowski, Sarah Handley-Cousins, Elizabeth Reis, Cassia Roth, Lauren McIvor Thompson, and Adam Turner for your advice, your friendship, your support, your gifs and memes, and your complete dedication to our project. iv My path to the Ph.D. has been a long and winding road, but I’ve discovered many wonderful teachers along the way. My first exposure to thinking like a historian came in my undergraduate years at Mesa State College, under the careful and patient tutelage of Elizabeth Propes and Sarah Swedberg. At the University of Wyoming, Isadora Helfgott pushed me to seek out good stories and ask hard questions. I am also especially grateful to Michael Brose and Marianne Kamp who welcomed me into their home on several occasions. Our many conversations over dinner and a glass of wine formed an important part of who I am as a scholar. Research and writing requires money as well as time, and for generous financial support that enabled this project, I am grateful to the Department of History, the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, and the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan. The Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Center for the Education of Women provided important dissertation research and writing grants. The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at BYU and the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College provided critical travel fellowships to conduct extensive archival research. The Western History Dissertation Writing Workshop, sponsored by the University of Nebraska and Bill Lane Center for the Study of the American West at Stanford University, gave me an opportunity to workshop my dissertation with an amazing group of American West historians. Archivists and research librarians made traveling to many archives in many states pleasant and productive. At the University of Michigan, the archivists at the Bentley Historical Library were incredibly valuable in helping me trace the migration patterns of medical women graduates at the university. The staff at the Library of Congress were especially supportive in helping me locate materials on women physicians who were politically active in the American West. The archives at Smith College are a special place and the archivists who oversee the Sophia Smith v Collection are incredibly smart and friendly people. In Colorado, the librarians at the Stephen H. Hart Library and Research Center, the Denver Public Library, the University of Colorado, and the Colorado State Archives were kind, patient, and knowledgeable. In Oregon, I had the opportunity to work with the wonderful archivists at the Oregon Health and Science University and the Oregon State Historical Society. In California, the archivist at the Lane Medical Library at Stanford was very generous with his time and knowledge. A special thanks to the archivist at the Native Hawaiian Health Program’s Queen’s Historical Collection in Honolulu for digitizing and emailing my research materials, thus saving me from an arduous, and no doubt boring trip to Hawaii. Finally, I want to thank my family. My mother-in-law for simply asking “why not?” when I said I didn’t think I could do a Ph.D. My daughter Ella, who makes me laugh every day. My son Sam, who has been with me through thick and thin. And my husband Mike, who has always, always believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself. vi Table of Contents DEDICATION ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF FIGURES viii LIST OF TABLES x ABSTRACT xi INTRODUCTION Trailblazers, Pioneers, and Doctors in Petticoats: The Lore and Legacy of the Lady Physician in the Wild West 1 CHAPTER 1 Health Seekers and “Wanderlusting Medics”: The Westward Migration of Medical Women in Turn-of the-Century America 22 CHAPTER 2 “We Have Only a Desire to Cure, Not Punish”: Women Physicians and the Moralist Medical Geography of Denver, Colorado 64 CHAPTER 3 Suffragist Cities: Gender, Race, Sexuality, and the Politics of Public Health in the Urban American West 123 CHAPTER 4 “This is the Age of the Knife and Pistol”: The Politics and Practice of Reproductive Surveillance 184 CHAPTER 5 Utopian Frontiers: Western Women Physicians, Imperialism, and Transnational Medicine 243 EPILOGUE Women Doctors in the Aftermath of Moralist Medicine 293 APPENDIX 300 BIBLIOGRAPHY 303 vii List of Figures: Figure 1. Advertisement for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (Western History and Genealogy Dept., Denver Public Library) 36 Figure 2. Location of Women Graduates from University of Michigan Medical Schools in 1921 53 Figure 3. Location of Women Graduates from the University of Michigan by Region in 1921 54 Figure 4. Medical Schools of Colorado Women Physicians 58 Figure 5. Denver, 1899. Perspective Map of the City of Denver, Colo. (Milwaukee, American Publishing Co, 1889) 73 Figure 6. The 1908 Annual Death Rates for Tuberculosis (per 100,000) City and County of Denver Health Department, Statement of Deaths (Denver: Board of Heath, 1909), U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States (Washington, 1975) 75 Figure 7. Death Rates for Tuberculosis, per 100,000. Denver Tuberculosis Society (1929) 76 Figure 8. Map of Globeville section of Denver, 1905. Baist’s Real Estate Atlas of Surveys of Denver, Col. (Plate 27) (Western History and Genealogy Center, Denver Public Library) 78 Figure 9. Location of Women Physicians’ Private Practices in Denver, 1910. A: Justina Ford B: Ida Beers C: Augusta Rothwell D: Minnie Love 88 Figure 10. Denver Business District, 1920, Clason’s Denver Green Guide (The Clason Map Co. Chicago – Denver) 95 Figure 11. Babies Summer Hospital, Denver 1897 (Children’s Hospital Colorado Archives, Denver, Colorado) 104 Figure 12. Group of GATs (Get Anne There), including Anne Martin in the passenger seat and Dr.