Overview The Black Women Physicians Project records contains documentation of the lives and careers of Black women in medicine, compiled by Margaret Jerrido, who served as an Archivist at the Medical College of Philadelphia. Started in the 1980s by Jerrido, BWPP is an artificial collection (a collection with materials from disparate sources intentionally arranged for research use) and includes not only Biographical Reference Files, but also oral histories, planning materials that supported BWPP, and...

Overview Gene-Ann Polk was a physician, hospital administrator, professor of pediatrics at Columbia University, and president of the Susan Smith McKinney Steward Medical Society. She was involved with various organizations for Black women physicians in and around New York. The materials in this collection are related to Dr. Polk's education, her private practice, and her years at Harlem Hospital. The collection also includes materials Polk collected related to Black women physicians, and the records...

Scope and Contents The collection documents Dr. Reyersbach’s life in Germany, the Reyerbach family history, a return visit to her home country in 1985, and her life and practice in the United States, from 1867-1991, with the bulk of the dates between 1933-1991. Materials include several photo albums, 1927-1936, capturing Reyersbach with family and friends in Germany and her initial medical training there; German school papers (such as report cards) and certificates; Reyersbach’s passport (issued in 1935); US...

Overview Elizabeth Cisney Smith (1881 to 1965) was a practicing physician for 35 years from the time of her graduation from Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1911 to her retirement in 1946. She primarily worked in Pennsylvania and Maryland with brief time spent in North Dakota and Ohio. Dr. Smith was an active supporter of women’s rights as well as the suffrage movement. The collection was initially compiled and arranged by Isabel Smith Stein the daughter of Dr. Elizabeth Cisney Smith, and...

Overview Jessie Laird Brodie, M.D., also known as “Dr. Jessie,” was an internationally recognized physician and early pioneer of birth control legislation and family planning, active from the 1930s until the early 1970s. The Jessie Laird Brodie, M.D. papers document Brodie’s professional life and work, focusing on Brodie’s work for various causes and organizations in family planning and contraception, such as legislation for contraception in Oregon and the Planned Parenthood Association [just in...