Book Reviews
Daniel M. Kittay, ed., Bicentennial Minutes-New Yorks Role in the
Ratification of the Constitution (Albany, New York: Charles Evans
Hughes Press, 1988) 63 pp.
Over the passage of time, it h as generally been forgotten that 12
years separated the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence from the ratification of the United States Constitution. Prior to
the adoption of the Constitution, the United States was governed by
the Articles of Confederation which bound the individual states
together as a loose unit. Under the Articles many ofthe powers now
granted the federal government were reserved for the individual
states. This arose out of the colonists' fear that a large and powerful
central government would simply re-create the tyrannies suffered
under British Rule.
However, it soon became clear that the Articles did not provide a
sufficient governmental structure for the new nation. Each state
jealously guarded its own rights and privileges at the expense of its
neighbors. As the text notes, under the Articles each state retained
"its sovereignty, freedom and independence." This led to many disputes and much confusion. The Articles, originally drafted in 1776
and finally adopted in 1781, provided for only one agency of national
government-the Continental Congress. Comprised of delegates from
each of the states and seldom at full strength, the Continental Congress had only the sligh est authority over the individual states. To
quote from the text:
Clearly, it is almost incorrect to call the Continental Congress a government, for it lacked real compulsory authority. Its actions were not laws;
they were resolutions or re quisitions.
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The Hudson Valley Regional Review, March 1989, Volume 6, Number 2
In order to provide for a more orderly form of government, a
convention was proposed for the purpose of amending the Articles
of Confederation. Delegates from each state were chosen and assembled in Philadelphia. Believing that the Articles would not be sufficient even as amended, the delegates took it upon themselves to
propose an entirely new form of government for the nation, based
on a constitution and granting many of the powers and rights reserved
for the states to a centralized federal government. This proposal
caused a great deal of public debate and discussion. An almost equal
division existed in the country between "Anti-Federalists," opposed
to the new Constitution, and "Federalists," who favored its adoption.
As is noted in the text:
Between the signing of the Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17,
1787, and its ratification by New York in July, 1788, occurred the first great
national debate under an establishe d system of republican governme nt.
The men involved believed th ey were making a decision not only for
themselves, but for millions unborn.
The debate over ratification was particularly acrimonious in New
York, as Anti-Federalists substantially outnumbered Federalists. Furthermore, the Anti-Federalist governor, George Clinton, was applying his vast influence in an effort to defeat the Constitution. Writing
under the assumed name of "Cato," associates of Clinton published
seven essays in New York newspapers arguing against the adoption
of the Constitution. New York was a populous state and a state of
great commercial influence: Its ratification of the Constitution was
essential to the success of the new nation. New York's Federalists
knew the fight for ratification would be difficult. Governor Clinton
had scheduled New York's ratification convention to take place in
Poughkeepsie, his hometown and power base, since he wanted the
ratification debate to occur somewhere outside of New York City,
where civic leaders, under the influence of Alexander Hamilton,
generally supported the Constitution. In the upstate regions AntiFederalism prevailed.
When New York's ratification convention was called to order, AntiFederalist delegates outnumbered Federalists 46 to 19. The AntiFederalists agreed to debate each clause of the Constitution separately
rather than debating the document as a whole. The Federalists, in a
strategic gambit designed by Chancellor Livingston, were also successful in having the Anti-Federalist delegates agree to postpone voting on the individual portions of the Constitution until the document
Book Reviews
101
had been considered as a whole. As the text makes clear, the AntiFederalists hoped that Virginia, whose ratification convention was
already underway, would fail to ratity, effectively scuttling the Constitution regardless of what happened in New York. However, as the
New York delegates debated, both Virginia and New Hampshire ratified the Constitution. With Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina having
previously ratified the document, the success of the Constitution
was now assured. At this point, New York City merchants, fearful of
being excluded from the commerce of the new nation if their state
failed to ratity, began to pressure the delegates. The Anti-Federalists,
sensing defeat, slowly changed their position. Most were now willing
to accept the Constitution, but only with amendments and a separate "Bill of Rights." The convention produced a ratification document containing 32 proposed amendments, and soon debate was
limited to the issue of whether New York's ratification should be
conditioned on the acceptance of these amendments. The Federalist delegates, as the text notes, "played on the delegates' fears of the
consequences of conditional ratification while making offers of
conciliation about the amendments."
New York ratified the Constitution onJuly 26, 1788, while at the
same time addressing a circular letter to the legislatures of its sister
states calling for a second convention to address the proposed amendments, particularly the Bill of Rights. However, New York's role in
the ratification of the Constitution extended far beyond the geographical boundaries of the state itself. New York was home to two of
the three authors of the Federalist Papers. This series of 85 essays
was authored by New Yorkers Alexander Hamilton and John Jay,
along with Virginian James Madison. Originally published in four
New York City newspapers, these essays were designed to defend
and explain the Constitution as well as provide cogent arguments in
support of ratification. Addressed to "The People of the State of
New York," the Federalist essays began to appear in print on October 27, 1787, and continued through May of 1788.
These essays were designed with a specific purpose in mind. As
we learn from the text, four states were considered essential to the
success of the new nation-New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and
Massachusetts. In both New York and Virginia, opposition to the
Constitution was strong. George Clinton in New York and Patrick
Henry in Virginia each led powerful factions opposed to ratification.
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The Hudson Valley Regional Review
The Federalist Papers were designed, in part, to swing the votes of
Virginia and New York to the side of ratification. These essays, largely
composed and published in New York, had just that effect, causing
many of the delegates to change their minds and favor ratification,
thus ensuring the viability of the new union.
The text also makes specific note of the role played by Chancellor Robert R. Livingston in ensuring New York's ratification of the
Constitution. The Chancellor (so designated to distinguish him from
all the other Robert Livingstons), like many other members of New
York's aristocratic families, was an early supporter of the Federalist
cause. Livingston had a hand in many of the events leading up to
New York's ratification of the Constitution, and he himself had helped
to draft the New York State Constitution, adopted at Kingston in
1787. It was Livingston who devised the strategy of having the Constitution considered as a whole by the ratification convention before
having any votes taken on the individual portions of the document.
To quote from the text: "It is thought that if individual portions had
been voted on separately, the Constitution might have been defeated
before pressure could build up for ratification."
To Livingston's credit, his strategy turned out to be correct when,
as more and more states ratified, New York was left with little choice
but to ratify. Although Livingston was a tireless worker for the Federalist cause, his best work was done in the back rooms and behind
closed doors. The text makes note of the impression Livingston made
on the other delegates, and we may conjecture that it was somewhat
less than favorable:
At th e conve ntion, Livingston, working closely with Hamilton and J ay, was
most successful in negotiating behind th e scenes with wavering delegates.
It is doubtful that Livingston's speeches to th e convention, which were
ge nerall y marked by a haughty, aristocratic tone, could have been very
effective in bringing over avowedly Anti-Federalist delegates elected by
ordinary farmers and workers.
Nevertheless, Livingston is entitled to great credit for the successful
outcome of the convention.
This is a thin volume, yet it sheds much light on the role played
by New York and New Yorkers in the ratification of the Constitution.
It has a number of excellent illustrations, and the essays which comprise the text are well-written and illuminating. This is an excellent
work for anyone interested in acquiring a greater understanding of
New York's role in the formation of the federal republic. 0
-George A. Smith
Book Reviews
103
Roderic H. Blackburn and Nancy A. Kelly, eds., New World Dutch
Studies: Dutch Arts arul Culture in Colonial America, 1609-1776 (Albany:
Albany Institute of History and Art, 1987) 200 pp., illustrated.
This publication is part of a larger tapestry dedicated in recent
years to painting a more complete portrait of the Dutch presence in
New York. Dutch settlement, the chronology of which is presented
succinctly by Ruth Piwonka in the opening pages of the book, was
brief, barely spanning 50 years from 1614-1664. Although not a particularly successful colonization of the new world, it has fascinated
scholars, archeologists, geneologists, and general readers for many
years. In part this is because the Dutch managed to hang onto their cultural heritage, albeit in decreasing intensity, well into the 19th century.
In recent years this presence has been studied from a variety of
perspectives. Charles Gehring, director of The New Netherland Project, has been translating Dutch documents for other scholars to study,
and Oliver Rink's recent work Holland on the Hudson: An Economic
and Social History of Dutch New York has made a significant contribution. Though narrower in focus, Charlotte Wilcoxen's SeventeenthCentury Albany: A Dutch Profile broadens understanding of a small
group of colonizers. Equally important is the ongoing work, the "Colonial Albany Social History Project" directed by Stefan Bielinski and a
similar one on Schenectady undertaken by Thomas Burke. No doubt
these efforts will be supplemented and expanded as more material
from the New Netherland Project becomes available.
This work, edited by Blackburn and Kelly, is another contribution
to understanding the Dutch presence in America, from the important perspective of material culture. It was completed in conjunction
with an exhibition at the Albany Institute of History and Art in 1986
entitled "Remembrance of Patria." The purpose of the exhibition
and these symposium papers was to discover and document "aspects
of Dutch social life and cultural values which might otherwise be
overlooked or remain unsubstantiated if studied from a strictly historical approach."} Further, the intent was to show how "Old World
Dutch products" were adapted to new world conditions. Ten of the
15 papers cover a broad range of topics which include archeology,
social history, furniture, and painting in the New World. Four of the
remaining five papers discuss life styles in the Old World as expressed
in urban and rural architecture. These final papers, introduced by
Roderic Blackburn, are intended to demonstrate how "certain object
104
The Hudson Valley Regional Review, March 1989, Vo lu me 6, Number 2
concepts ... in the Netherlands were adapted by the Dutch in the
New World."2
Jan Baart and Wilcoxen discuss in separate papers ceramics
imported from the Netherlands and other European centers found
at archeological sites which include Indian burial excavations in New
York State. Trade patterns between the New and Old World and
within the New World are noted together with brief references to
standards of living gleaned from the type of ceramics used. In a
well-documented and instructively illustrated work, Paul Huey
reviews cellars built of perishable wood in Albany and New York
City during the 17th and 18th centuries.
Golf, probably played on ice as early as 1650, and a fight which
followed one game, are used by Gehring to illustrate in a delightful
manner the value of court records and inventories. These valuable
sources enlighten the social historian about daily living during those
early years. Margriet De Roever and Ruth Piwonka in separate papers
demonstrate further the importance of archival research, particularly inventories through which the quality oflife can be reconstructed.
The readers will e~oy a succinct but thorough discussion of the
portraiture, landscape, and scriptural painting produced in New York
from the mid-17th century to the early years of the 18th century.
Mary Black's manner of presenting this topic is particularly pleasing
because of her ability to weave important historical information into
the discussion without ever distracting the reader from the principal
subject. In contrast, Joyce Volk gives a useful description focused
only on structural details of one piece of Dutch furniture, the kas,
particularly one crafted by Roelof Demarest.
The subject of four of the remaining papers is architecture and
furnishings in the Netherlands. The first of these papers may have
been intended to be a transition paper into Old World living. The
relevance of this paper to the symposium and the two of the
remaining four papers is difficult to grasp. Furthermore, Dr. Fock's
discussion of life on Dutch canals interrupts the flow of the book.
Not until half way through the paper which follows does its author,
Henk Zantkuyl, return the reader to the New World through a discussion of Jan Martense Schenck's house in Brooklyn, New York.
Equally without relevance to the symposium (and perhaps the least
scholarly work of the symposium) is the paper by Piet Van Wijk.
Relating the discussion of the two farm houses and three types of
barns to similar structures in the New World might have redeemed
Book Reviews
105
the simple descriptions offered. Perhaps it should be enjoyed simply as a general introduction to the subject.
FoliowingJasp Schipper's paper which describes a variety of 18th
and 19th century wooden structures in one province in North Holland, David Cohen happily returns the reader to the purpose of the
symposium. His comparison of agricultural production, implements,
and farming practices in the Old and New World is particularly well
written and instructive. With a broad brush in a well-documented
presentation, his work also touches on a variety of issues related to
quality of life on the farm.
Except for the reader's struggle before he can grasp the relevance
of the final papers, the symposium fulfills its purpose-to present a
readable work on Dutch arts and culture. Several papers provide
especially useful bibliographies. Particularly enjoyable are the
number of appropriately placed and captioned photographs and
drawings. These more than make up for the few shortcomings of
the book. 0
Notes
1. Roderic H . Blackburn a nd Nancy A. Kelly, eds. New World Dutch Studies: Dutch
Arts and Culture in Colonial America, 1609-1776 (Albany: Albany Institute of History
and Art, 1987) p. vii.
2. Ibid., p. 95.
- William P. Mc Dermott
Julian Burroughs, with foreword by Elizabeth Burroughs Kelly,
Hudson River Memories (West Park, New York: Riverby Books, 1987),
106 pp.
Julian Burroughs was the son of John Burroughs, the beloved
writer who contributed so abundantly to the genre of the nature
essay in the two generations following the Civil War. In 1873 John
Burroughs purchased land and soon built a home on the west bank
of the Hudson River opposite Hyde Park. Here Julian was raised by
John and Ursula, and it was at Riverby that Julian died in 1954.
Indeed his entire life, except for his college years at Harvard, was to
be shaped by the circumstances and events associated with his home,
the nearby Hudson River, and, of course, his father.
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The Hudson Valley Regional Review, March 1989, Volume 6, Number 2
Not surprisingly, John Burroughs is a presence throughout the
memoir. The earliest recollection ofJulian is fishing with his father
at Gordon's Point, and the final paragraph recounts his father's death
while returning from California in 1921. The father is recalled tapping maple trees in late winter, helping his son to extricate himself
from a dangerous situation in the river, introducing his visitors-Oscar
Wilde, Walt Whitman, Teddy Roosevelt-and scribbling away in pursuit of his career as an author while the hired man trimmed the
grape vines. It was John Burroughs who chose a Poughkeepsie military school for his son's education and then Harvard College, and he
insisted that Julian, who wished to pursue a career as a photographer, return to the Riverby farm to assist him.Julian's recollections
are, on the whole, marked by respect; however, tensions do manage
to surface. He notes his mother's irritation at having to wait on his
father's guests and later her deep disapproval ofJulian's wife, Emily,
whose housekeeping efforts fell below her own standards. (John later
entertained visitors at his Slabsides retreat and did much of the cooking himself. Unfortunately, Emily did not have such a convenient
retreat!) His father, he observes, could be "a high strung, quick tempered being."l When Julian built his own house, his father became
increasingly exasperated at the slow pace of construction. Julian dryly
notes: "He liked the expression of Thoreau's 'A broad margin ofleisure'
except when he felt I should finish some job he wanted finished. 2
Yet Riverby and John Burroughs also provided the essential framework of Julian's life. With his father, he tended the vineyards which
provided the central market crop of the farm. He tried his hand at
writing and was published in a variety of periodicals. Later they traveled together to Jamaica and then to California. In any event, Julian's
life does take on a shape of its own. He discovered the camera while
in college, and it became his own unique medium. The need to
build a house for his family led to an interest not only in carpentry
but in architectural design as well. This talent was put to good use
when Julian became the superintendent on the estate of Colonel
Payne in West Park, and in this capacity he contributed plans and
supervised construction on the estate grounds. When this work ceased
with the death of Colonel Payne, Julian was forced to find another
source of income and turned, with the arrival of Prohibition, to
making wine. While admitting some embarrassment about this turn
of events, he seems in retrospect to have been satisfied with his success. It was, he writes, "the first time in my life that I had something
to sell for which I not only got cash but got my price in full."3 Clearly
Julian exhibited the will to survive on his own terms.
Book Reviews
107
All
of this, in its own way, contributes something, beyond the
affairs of family, to the social and economic history of the Hudson
Valley. The farm on the banks of the river was a marginal affair, and
the yield often seemed small compensation for the labor involved.
Julian writes of many years in which the grapes did poorly and their
income was almost nil. He notes the peculiar classless-ness of his
own family falling ambiguously between the wealthy owners of the
great estates, on one hand, and the workers, on the other. It was a
circumstance that was the source of great pain to Julian as a child.
(Perhaps this accounts for the choice of a military school.) But especially,Julian reminds the reader of the still vital economic life of the
river itself with its great variety of vessels, both sail and steam, plying
the river with agricultural products, coal and stone, and commerce
of all sorts bound for the markets of New York and beyond. He
recalls the musical sounds of the bell of the Mary Powell announcing
its Hyde Park landing and the many other passenger lines which
brought both grace and enterprise to the busy Hudson by day and at
night turned the river into a scene of myriad lights.
The most compelling portions of the memoir are the recollections of the river itself and of julian's life-long experience with the
subtle dynamics of the Hudson. These memories prompt the best
writing as Julian evokes the sounds, moods, dangers, and dynamics
of the Hudson for one who ventures out on her great expanse in a
small boat.
When the fl ood tide runs itse lf out and begins to change it does so first
on the surface, I soon saw the tide running aro und my buoys. It was as
though they were towed upstream, for deep down in the water the tide
had no t stopped but was still loite ring, holding the net stationary while
up o n the surface th e water had begun to slip away. Some branches came
drifting down a nd caught in my buoys . ... In that dead, blank void of fog
and silence I just drifted, though I was not conscious of drifting at all;
everything felt stationary..
We share the writer's delight in a May morning as the sun rises
over the eastern hills and the oven-bird and wood thrush sing in the
woods. "All about the fish are jumping, making dancing spreading
rings of light in the slanting rays of the rising sun."5 It is in such
moments of sensitive appreciation that these memories of the Hudson
are most compelling. 'Sometimes one makes a perfect drift and everything is so satisfactory that the memory of it is always happy."6Julian
Burroughs was evidently a shad fisherman experienced enough with
the river to make, on occasion, "a perfect drift". He was certainly, on
occasion, a writer capable of recreating such episodes of meaning. 0
108
The Hudson Valley Regional Review
Notes
1. Julian Burroughs, Hudson River Memories (West Park, New York: Riverby
Books, 1987) p. 75.
2. Ibid., p.74.
3. Ibid., p. 48.
4. Ibid., p. II.
5. Ibid., p. 19.
6. Ibid.
-David C. Pierce
Ruth J. Abram, ed, "Send Us a Lady Physician": Women Doctors in
America, 1835-1920 (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1985) 255
pp.
Whenever an editor attempts to compile a collection of articles
into a single volume, one inevitably must take into account several
variable characteristics: the originality and extent of the research
conducted, the persuasiveness of the argument(s) advanced, and the
differing lengths and writing styles of the essays submitted. While
clear guidelines and standards should be established at the inception of any project, unevenness is bound to surface. Such qualitative
inconsistencies emerge in the recently edited work by Ruth J. Abram
entitled, "Send Us a Lady Physician": Women Doctors in America, 18351920. Besides the textual discrepancies, the publication's principal
title "Send Us a Lady Physician" is also problematic. Women practitioners of the 19th century were the last group from whom most
American patients sought relief.
The volume documents the rise and decline of American medical
colleges during the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. More
specifically, "Send Us a Lady Physician" treats the extent to which medical education was made accessible and available to the black and
white female population. Except for Elizabeth Blackwell's unprecedented "accidental" acceptance in 1847 into the Geneva Medical College in upstate New York, integration of women into male-dominated
medical institutions was a slow and arduous process. Women's medical schools were not created as rival institutions; instead such places
evolved as alternatives and parallels to those colleges already functioning in an effort to propel women forward into the medical world.
Abram's study traces the careers of several select pioneering lady
practitioners. In a period when the tide of opposition to women in
medicine was strongest and most overt, these female doctors not
The Hudson Valley Regional Review, March 1989, Volume 6, Number 2
109
only graduated from higher institutions of medical learning, but also
distinguished themselves in the profession in unique ways. "Send Us
a Lady Physician" is a tribute to the tremendous accomplishments of
these women.
Vaguely hinted at in the "Acknowledgments" of Abram's volume,
"Send Us a Lady Physician" is really a catalog which complements a
traveling museum exhibit of women doctors in America, which was
displayed in our area at the New York State Museum in Albany.
Nowhere in her introduction to the book does Abram indicate at
which museums throughout the country the exhibition was shown.
(I learned of the exhibit when it was reviewed in a Berkshire County,
Massachusetts, newspaper early in 1988.) Abram further omits any
discussion of the exhibit itself and completely neglects to include a
list highlighting the credits of the various contributors to the catalog.
The text of "Send Us a Lady Physician" is divided into four parts,
the main purpose of which is to "explore and interpret the history of
women's entry into the American medical profession, the success
they achieved by the century's end, and the difficulty they had
maintaining a foothold in the profession in the early years of the
twentieth century."l An overview of the women's medical movement
is presented in part one. The second chronicles women's penetration into the profession by focusing on six outstanding female practitioners. In the third section, biographies of 20 members of the
graduating class from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania
in 1879 are featured , emphasizing their individual respective careers
as medical students and practitioners. The reasons behind the decline
in the numbers of female practitioners nation wide at the end of the
19th century is assessed in the final closing part of the book. It is
profusely illustrated with photographs; some are portraits of the doctors, others of the offices and hospitals in which they practiced, and
still more are even of the instruments practitioners worked with during examinations. In addition, Abram has constructed a time-line,
which helps in p lacing the major events in medical history into the
broader context of United States history. Abram has done a superb
job in scouring archives and libraries throughout the country for
hard to find manuscript and illustrative material to document her
essays. She h as hurdled the barricade that every historian dreadsthe paucity of extant sources.
"Send Us a Lady Physician" contains 18 articles which comprise the
bulk of the text, and most are penned by different authors. At first
llO
The Hudson Valley Regional Review
glance it appears the volume is a fresh, novel contribution to the
field of medical history. Yet, upon closer examination one discovers
that at least three of the articles-two in part one, namely, Charles E.
Rosenberg's "American Medicine in 1879" and Ronald Number's
"Do-It-Yourself the Sectarian Way"-are reprints from previously
published sources. The same holds true for the essay, "The Female
Student Has Arrived: The Rise of the Women's Medical Movement"
by Regina Morantz-Sanchez, whose article is located in part two.
Some authors have written more than one piece with Abram taking
the lead with six articles, Ellen]. Smith with five, and two composed
by Regina Morantz-Sanchez. Other scholars wrote the remainder of
the text.
Beyond beingjust a mere editor, Abram's influence as a contributor dominates throughout the book. She has constructed introductions to all four sections of the volume, as well as having written the
more original and enlightening of the essays. If the objective of
Abram's study was to center on the rise and decline of women physicians in America, one can not resist questioning why certain articles
that have simply no relevance to the topic have been incorporated
into the body of the work? For instance, six pieces including Alan R.
Koslow's "Tools of the Trade: Late Nineteenth Century Medical Instruments"; Ronald L. Number's "Do-It-Yourself the Sectarian Way";
Barbara Molosh's "Every Woman is a Nurse: Work and Gender in the
Emergence of Nursing" and two of the essays by Ellen]. Smith, "Medical Societies Lifted from the Ranks of Mere Pretenders" and "Family
Life and Community Life: Cordial Social Relations", while important and informative articles really do not belong here simply because
they are tangentially connected with the theme of the volume.
Another incongruous feature of Abram's "Send Us a Lady Physician"
are the extremes in the lengths of the essays. On the average, most of
the articles are about ten pages, with the longest extending to 34
pages and the shortest ending at four.
The articles collectively demonstrate the steady stream of opposition women had to bear in the forms of sexual discrimination and
ridicule. Women who wanted to enter the medical profession experienced negativism and discouragement from family and friends.
The truly successful female practitioners had an unusual home-life
with unfaltering support from either parents and or spouses. Of the
numerous female physicians discussed in Abram's volume, only two
can actually be singled out as having had the most fascinating, illusBook Reviews
III
trious, and unique of careers: Dr. Ann S. Kugler (1856-1930), who
devoted her life as a missionary for the caring of the poor in Gunthur,
India, and Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi (1842-1906) who in 1876 earned
the prestigious, coveted Boylston Prize from Harvard Medical College for her brilliant rebuttal of the old notion that women need rest
during menstruation. One peculiarity that aided women in their
success was many women practitioners were of the Quaker faith.
Historians have shown that Quakers were crafty businessmen who
became leaders in the mercantile community surrounding Philadelphia. As on contributor in "Send Us a Lady Physician" puts it, Quakers:
"had enlightened views about women's rights."2 With respect to medicine, Quakers un dauntingly urged women to become practitioners
for they favored sectarian forms of medicine, and they believed healing was a "natural" extension of women's role in society and one in
which they could simultaneously fulfill their "function" of doctoring
for the sick in the home. By encouraging women into the medical
field, several prominent Quakers-some of them physicians-participated in the founding of two medical colleges exlusively for women:
the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania and the New England
Female Medical College. A significant aspect of the medical schools
was that they did not discriminate against blacks. Black women
endured greater hardship than white women since they were doubly the victims of discrimination based upon their sex and race.
Women's medical colleges afforded black women the chance to
become doctors, despite the fact that these institutions were segregated. Had these schools not been organized, both black and white
women would never have been able to train as physicians unless
they sought tutoring under the dated apprenticeship system.
An
obvious characteristic emerges about the women who managed to attend medical schools. This pertains to their composition.
An overwhelming majority of both black and white women came
from the ranks of the middle class. When one considers this point in
terms of white women, the phenomenon is not so surprising. The
fact that black women with middle class status too were studying in
medical colleges at the height of the Civil War is startling! This raises
the question of how accessible were 19th century medical institutions
to the ordinary black and white woman of modest means? If Abram's
article in part three, aptly titled, "Her Calling in Life: The Class of
1879 of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania" can be cited
as a benchmark in detailing the kind of women who made it into
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The Hudson Valley Regional Review
medical schools, then clearly women from working class backgrounds
who had designs of becoming physicians wished in vain.
According to Abram, "Most of the class entered medical school
during the nation's centennial year. Together, they represent the 'typical' late nineteenth century woman physician. Unlike earlier and
later classes, the class of 1879 did not include a black woman."3 In an
attempt to illustrate to the reader the make-up of the economic backgrounds of the women in the Class of 1879, Abram has listed biographical sketches of each student. She further states in her introduction
to this section: "The nineteenth century women's medical movement
was blessed with leaders of heroic proportion. But it was their followers, the 'ordinary' women physicians, whose collective character,
training, failures and successes would determine the fate of the nascent movement for women in medicine."4 Of the 20 women in the
Class of 1879, Abram estimates seven belonged to the occupational
category of artisan/tradesman, and the rest had roots from prosperous
farming, business and professional families. The number seven is
actually an overstatement, as this reviewer found only two students
who could have fallen into the grouping of ordinary parentage: Dr.
Sophia Presley (1834-1919), the daughter of Irish immigrants from
Steubenville, Ohio, whose father worked as a glass packer, and Dr.
Mary H. Wolfenden Battershall (1854-1928) likewise of English immigrant stock who was raised in New York City where "her father worked
in coloring."5 At a time when tuition assistance and financial aid to
medical students was not available, it must have been almost impossible for the daughter of a working class family to obtain medical
school training. If this was the rule and not the exception for white
women, then the same conclusion must be drawn for women who
were black. Darlene Clark Hine's article called, "Co-Laborers in the
Work of the Lord: Nineteenth Century Black Women Physicians"
corroborates the view that only daughters of wealthy black families
attended medical schools. With special reference to black women
who were graduates of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Hine declares non-committally: "It is open to speculation whether
the success achieved by the Women's Medical College's black graduates attest to a high quality of education or simply underscores the
advantage of a more nurturing and supportive sex-segregated environment, in which students learned from female faculty role models.
Closer scrutiny suggests other factors, including family background,
prior education and social status, may have influenced their securing a medical education in the first case and subsequently their
success."6 Hine becomes more pointed when she admits: "The majorBook Reviews
113
ity of the early black women physicians were the daughters of socially
privileged or 'representative' black families who, perhaps to protect
them from menial labor or domestic servitude, encouraged their
daughters to educate themselves.'" Indeed only one black woman is
documented as being from a needy household. Dr. Eliza Anna Grier
(l8?-1902) graduated in 1897 from Fiske University in Nashville, Tennessee. When she first applied to medical school in 1890, she wrote:
"I have no money and no source from which to get it only as I work
for every dollar. . .. What I want to know from you is this. How
much does it take to put one through a year in your school? Is there
any possible chance to do any work that would not interfere with
one's studies."8 Remarkably, it took Grier seven years to finish her
medical training for she worked every other year in order to finance
her studies. No other information is extant about this persevering
lady practitioner.
If most of the black and white women who earned the M. D.
degree in the 19th century were the offspring of elite families, one
can safely presume that they also catered their medical skills to the
same social class. More than one of the authors in "Send Us a Lady
Physician" echo the interpretation that middle class women physicians sought to improve their social position by seeking out patients
who too were from the upper echelons of American society. The
very thought that these practitioners equated improvements in their
health care services with the status of their patients is symptomatic of
the issues contemporary health care critics have been arguing about.
Since the 19th century, physicians have been negligent in giving
proper medical care to the poor. Of the numerous female practitioners covered in "Send Us a Lady Physician," only the Blackwell sisters (Elizabeth and Emily) and their colleague Marie Zakrezewska
dedicated their lives to caring for the destitute immigrants of New
York City and New England, while Anna S. Kugler, the missionary in
India already mentioned, ministered to the needs of the Gunthur
populace. The rest of the practitioners sought after the accumulation of wealth by restricting their medical services to affluent women
patients who were willing to pay the demanded medical fees.
Setting aside these ideological considerations, Ruth J. Abram's
"Send Us a Lady Physician": Women Doctors in America, 1835-1920" is a
fine contribution to the study of 19th century American medical
history-a contribution that is appealing to both the popular and
scholarly reader. 0
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The Hudson Valley Regional Review
Notes
1. Ruth
J.
Abram, ed., "Send Us a Lady Physician ": Women Doctors in America,
1835-1920 (New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1985) p. 5.
Ibid., p. 77.
Ibid., p. 6.
Ibid., p. 13 1.
Ibid., p. 138.
Ibid., p. 110.
7. Ibid., pp. 110-11.
8. Ibid., p. 112.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
- Andrea K. Zimmermann
Henry Pomares, Town of Goshen: "Some Highlights of its History
(Goshen, New York: Town of Goshen Bicentennial Committee, Inc.,
1988) 55 pp. plus appendices.
Marking the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the Town
of Goshen, Henry Pomares has written a concise and spare history
of the municipality's early years and its evolution through different
political jurisdictions and economic development phases. The author
treats the years from 1768 to 1795, marking the shift from precinct to
town, and the period extending to the 1840s when the coming of the
Erie Railroad began to aid in the change of the economic and commercial pace of the region.
Pomares, the historian of the town of Goshen and archivist of the
Goshen Public Library and Historical Society, gives the reader
glimpses of transformations in Goshen society-its turnpike era, the
political structure of its governing bodies, and its schools and
churches, with many local personalities introduced during the formative years. Using manuscript materials from the archival holdings
of the Historical Society as well as State and Federal Censuses, the
author forms a series of appendices detailing the town finances, slave
ownership, and population data for selected years. These statistics
are informative, though perhaps an extension could have been made
to include more data points so continuity and growth (or lack of it)
could have been established.
It
is a pity the work is such a short one for there are intriguing
chapters in Goshen's (and Orange County's) history that deserve more
extended discussion. For example, the important land reclamation
The Hudson Valley Regional Review, March 1989, Volume 6, Number 2
115
scheme-the so-called "drowned lands" project-is an important chapter in New York history and yet it seems all too sketchily treated in
Orange County histories. The author also touches upon the interesting impact of the coming of the railroad to the region and the
resultant effect on the pattern of agricultural production, i.e. , a shift
from the well-known "Goshen butter" output to milk production for
the New York City market. Unfortunately, the length of the work
does not allow such items to be developed in more detail.
As th~ author points out, any historian attempting to work through
Goshen's earlier years is limited by the loss of the town records in a
fire in 1843. As readers of regional histories know, this story is an all
too familiar one and a problem met in record searches for many
municipalities. Yet he has still reconstructed much of interest here. I
think this is especially the case with his account ofthe taxation situation in the town over these years.
It
is always a piece of luck when contemporary historians turn
their attention to their locales with benefit of more recently available materials and data than those that were accessible to the authors
of those late 19th-century histories that turn out in many cases to be
Chamber of Commerce hypes for an area. Pomares's work, though
brief, is a welcome attempt to fill in some of the blanks left by our
predecessors in earlier local history. D
- Richard C. Wiles
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The Hudson Valley Regional Review