Iowa Women in Health and Medicine: An Iowa Women's Archives Resource Guide: Physicians
A guide to primary sources held at the Iowa Women's Archives that feature women in the medical profession including physicians, nurses, midwives, and pharmacists.
From the Myrtle Hinkhouse papers
Myrtle Hinkhouse was given this notice in 1914 indicating that she met the requirements for an MD from the Women's Medical College in Pennsylvania.
Myrtle Hinkhouse (seated front on the left) and her colleagues at the Paoting Fu Mission Hospital in 1941.
When Myrtle Hinkhouse attended the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia, it was one of the few schools in the United States that trained women to be physicians. That history is celebrated in this article found in Hinkhouse's papers.
From the Sarah C. Taylor papers
One of several receipts from Sarah C. Taylor's papers that represent her medical practice in Hamburg, Iowa.
Physicians' Papers
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Boulware, Lois (1903 – 1998)Papers, 1977 – 1995. 1 linear inch. Boulware received an MD from the State University of Iowa (today known as the University of Iowa) in 1937. She was one of 6 women in a class of 101. Boulware spent 33 years as a physician in the University’s Student Health program. Her papers include an oral history that offers details of the organization of the early student health program and the University’s general hospital through World War II and beyond. A tribute to her life written by Charles Hawtrey and a 1982 Des Moines Register article underscore her impact as a founder of the hospital’s Patient Representative Program.
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Braunwarth, Sarah (1853 - 1927)Papers, 1874 – 1913. 5 linear inches. Sarah Braunwarth began attending medical school at the State University of Iowa four years after the school opened its doors to women students. She later set up a private practice in Muscatine, Iowa. Both her education and career are represented in handwritten clinical and lecture notes that detail patient information, diagnoses, and treatments common in the late 1800s.
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Fuchs, Adele (1862 - 1955)Papers, 1884 – 1990. 6 linear inches. Adele Fuch’s career as a German teacher was punctuated by several years as a practicing physician in Sioux City, Iowa, and Des Moines, Iowa. Fuchs had received a degree in medicine from the State University of Iowa in 1899 at the age of thirty-seven. She retired from medicine in 1905. Her collection almost completely omits this portion of career, with her medical practice being mentioned only in passing in correspondence to her friend and suffragist Mary A. Safford.
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Hinkhouse, Myrtle (1883 - 1972)Papers, 1875 – 2015. 14.75 linear feet. In 1910, Myrtle Hinkhouse left her home in West Liberty, Iowa for the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania with the intention of becoming a medical missionary. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions sent her to China in 1916 and she stayed in the country until 1941, serving as a physician in Tengchoufu, Beijing, and Paoting Fu Mission Hospital. Her collection included details from her life as a medical student in Pennsylvania such as notes, photographs, and commencement programs. But the bulk of the medical materials in the collection come from her professional career in China. Items such as medical missionary publications, correspondence from patients, hospital reports, and photographs of hospital staff can be found throughout Hinkhouse’s papers.
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Maresh, Marion (1906 - ?)Papers. 1884 - 1990. 6 inches. Marion M. Maresh Fooks, who used the name Marion Maresh professionally, graduated with a medical degree from the State University of Iowa in 1932. The Medical Career and Education series in her papers reflects small portions of her work at the University of Colorado Medical Center. Maresh’s research focused on physical growth and maturation. Her collection includes classroom slides, printed copies of some of her publications, and the draft of a text on embryology written by one of her colleagues.
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Mason, Stella (1861 - 1957).Papers, 1852 – 1958. 12.5 linear inches. Stella Mason studied medicine at Hahnemann Medical College and received a degree in 1893. She practiced as a physician and surgeon in Mason City, Iowa until 1943. While most of the collection is not related to her medical career, there are three boxes of artifacts containing medical instruments such as speculums, syringes, and suture needles.
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Meadows, Jill (c. 1970 - )Papers, 2001 – 2019. 5 inches. As an obstetrician and gynecologist, Dr. Jill Meadows was an assistant professor of clinical ob-gyn at the University of Iowa from 1999 to 2010. She was the medical director of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland from 2010 to 2019. During her tenure at the University of Iowa, she was the institution’s liaison to the Emma Goldman Clinic for Women, where she provided abortion care. Meadows’ collection focuses entirely on her career and health activism. It covers her role as a plaintiff in Gonzales v. Carhart, which unsuccessfully challenged the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in the US Supreme Court, and multiple lawsuits she filed against the State of Iowa for its efforts to restrict abortion in the 2010s.
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Stewart, Zella White (1878 - 1943)Papers, 1917 – 1927. 3.5 linear inches. Dr. Zella White Stewart practiced as an allergist in Iowa City, Iowa from 1910 until her retirement in 1933. Her collection consists almost entirely of correspondence which is organized alphabetically by correspondent and includes both personal and professional communications. Stewart wrote frequently to other doctors studying asthma and hay fever. She had extended correspondence with chemical supply companies like Alington Chemical Company and Howard Holt Company, which supplied her with testing solutions as well as treatments for her patients. Additionally, within her correspondence there are descriptions of patients and correspondence with allergy sufferers from Iowa City and the surrounding area.
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Taylor, Sarah C. (1835 - 1907)Papers, 1881 – 1907. 0.25 linear inches. Sarah Cosland Taylor graduated from the Medical College in Keokuk, Iowa in 1881 and continued to study medicine at Rush Medical College in Chicago. She ran a practice and sanitarium in Hamburg, Iowa. Her papers comprise only thirteen items and include receipts for medical supplies she purchased from Chicago and a handwritten book recording births in the Hamburg area from 1882 to 1883.
From the Jill Meadows papers
Dr. Jill Meadows, who also went by the name Jill Vibhakar, discussed her decision to perform abortions as a practicing Christian in this revealing article on her career.
Dr. Jill Meadows, then named Jill Vibhakar, testified in the US Supreme Court case Gonzales V. Carhart. Her papers include details of her visit to Washington DC for the case.
From the Zella White Stewart papers
Dr. Zella White Stewart's papers encompass personal and professional correspondence including many letters like this addressing her treatment of patients with asthma, hay fever, and various allergies.