Rosalie Slaughter Morton

Rosalie Slaughter Morton, M.D. (born Blanche Rosalie Slaughter; October 28, 1876 – May 5, 1968)[1] was an American physician, surgeon, and author. In addition to running her own medical practices, she was the first chairperson of the American Women's Hospitals Service, served as a medic during the First World War, and was the first chair of the Public Health Education Committee. Morton was one of the first female members of faculty at the Polyclinic Hospital of New York, later becoming its first female professor, and the first at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University.[2]

Rosalie Slaughter Morton
Morton (left) and Anne Morgan (right) in 1918
Born(1876-10-28)October 28, 1876
Lynchburg, Virginia
DiedMay 5, 1968(1968-05-05) (aged 91)
Winter Park, Florida
NationalityAmerican
Alma materWoman's Medical College of Pennsylvania
Known forCo-founder of the American Women's Hospitals Service and chairperson of the Public Health Education Committee
Spouse(s)
George B. Morton Jr.
​
​
(m. 1905; died 1912)​
AwardsCross of Czar Nicholas II
Joan of Arc medal
Conspicuous Service Cross

Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Morton studied at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania despite her family's expectation that she would only aim to find a husband who could provide for her. She went on to further study and research across Europe and Asia before returning to the United States to open her own medical practices.

In 1937 Morton published an autobiography – A Woman Surgeon: The Life and Work of Rosalie Slaughter Morton, and released a second book titled A Doctor's Holiday in Iran in 1940. She received a number of awards during her career, including the Joan of Arc medal, and Rosalie Morton Park in Belgrade is named in her honor.

Biography

Early life

Blanche Rosalie Slaughter was born in 1876 in Lynchburg, Virginia to Mary Harker and John Flavel Slaughter. She had five brothers and one sister (three other siblings died in childhood), and was educated in Lynchburg before travelling to a finishing school in Baltimore.[3] As a child, she occasionally assisted her two older brothers, who were doctors, on their house visits or by sterilising their instruments, and also attended to pets in her neighbourhood.[4] Following the death of her father, who had strongly opposed her desire to become a doctor, she joined the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1893 using money saved from her childhood allowance.[3][4]

In her autobiography Morton remarked that her upbringing and education had "been designed... to make me a capable wife—not to imbue me with a desire for a career,"[4][5] noting that her father had left her no money – expecting her to find a husband who could provide for her – and that many in her family did not want her to pursue a career in medicine.[6]

Later life

Slaughter married George B. Morton Jr., an attorney who had previously studied medicine, in 1905 at St. Paul's Church, Lynchburg.[3][7] The pair moved to New York, but in 1910 it was reported that they were living apart and she was filing for divorce.[8][9] He died in 1912 of an aneurism.[10][11] After her husband's death Morton was overcome with sadness; she later wrote "If my parents had been living, if we had had children, if there had been domestic duties, I would have found palliative comfort in them; but with [my husband's] going my domestic life was ... absolutely demolished".[8] Morton never remarried after her husband's death.[10]

In the early 1930s Morton suffered a bout of pneumonia, prompting her to move to Winter Park, Florida.[1][3] In 1942 she donated a commissioned statue to Spring Hill Cemetery in Lynchburg, dedicating it to the youth of the city.[12]

Morton died in 1968 in Winter Park.[1][3] She was cremated and her ashes placed alongside her mother's grave at Spring Hill Cemetery.[12]

Career

After graduating from college in Pennsylvania with two of the three honors available to her,[5] Morton interned at the Philadelphia City Hospital and was appointed as resident physician at the Alumnae Hospital and Dispensary, where she worked until 1899. She then began further studies in Europe for three years, travelling to Berlin, Vienna, Paris, and London. During this time Morton took courses, observed surgeries, and wrote a number of scientific papers including several comparing the health of women and men. Following the advice of her instructor in London, Victor Horsley, she also travelled to the British Government Laboratory in Mumbai for six months to work on prophylactics against the bubonic plague and spent a period of time in Sri Lanka.[2][3][5][11] Her thesis on the bubonic plague was published by the Johns Hopkins Medical Society.[2]

Having finished her studies, Morton returned to the United States in 1902 and opened a medical practice specialising in gynecology in Washington D.C.[5] After her marriage to George Morton Jr. in 1905 she opened a new medical practice in New York, where he was an attorney. In 1909 the American Medical Association created a Public Health Education Committee with the aim of educating the public on subjects including health, hygiene, child care, and other medical topics. Morton was made the first chairperson of the committee, through which she organized public lectures by female physicians across the United States.[8] Morton was appointed as a clinical assistant and instructor at the Polyclinic Hospital of New York (where she was one of the first female faculty members) in 1912,[5] and later became a professor of gynaecology. During this time she lectured at a number of other universities including one summer spent at the University of Vermont.[3] Between 1911 and 1912 she was the vice president of the American Medical Association, the first woman to hold the position.[2]

After the breakout of the First World War, Morton travelled to Labrador to work in the Mission Hospitals at Battle Harbour and St. Anthony.[2] She was made a special commissioner of the Red Cross and charged with taking supplies from Paris to the Macedonian front. While there she volunteered her time at the field hospitals, working through four epidemics.[2][8] Following her return to New York, Morton became the first female Attending Surgeon at the Vanderbilt Clinic of Columbia University's Physicians and Surgeons in 1916.[8]

Morton had used her time in Macedonia learning about field hospitals, looking to replicate the success of the British and Scottish women's hospitals.[8] Upon her return, she lectured and advocated for further support in Serbia. In response, the Medical Women's National Association voted to establish a War Service Committee, with the aim of establishing American hospitals in Europe. Morton became its first chairperson in 1917 and led the service alongside Mary M. Crawford.[3][13][14] After her request to send one thousand medical women who had volunteered for foreign service was opposed by the General Medical Board in Washington, she raised over $300,000 in 10 days through a national fundraising drive to send them.[3] At the recommendation of William C. Gorgas, Morton was made chairman of the committee of women physicians on the United States Council of National Defense, where she represented over 7000 female doctors.[2]

Morton continued running her New York practice while attempting to aid young people in Yugoslavia and Serbia who had been disrupted during the war get into education.[3] In March 1919 she established the International Serbian Committee, through which she helped dozens of young Serbians join American places of education.[15] After moving to Florida in the early 1930s Morton established a small clinical practice where she carried out research into arthritis and endocrinology.[3]

Over the course of her career Morton published 23 scientific articles in medical journals and is credited with 11 inventions.[2]

Awards
Rosalie Morton Park in Belgrade.

When Morton graduated in 1897, she had won multiple awards, including for best invention for surgical equipment and the best clinical case report.[8] By 1937 Morton had been awarded 9 decorations by world Governments, including the United States, France, and Serbia.[2][16] During her career Morton's awards included the Cross of Czar Nicholas II, the Joan of Arc medal, and the Conspicuous Service Cross,[3] and in 1934 she was presented a special award by the American Medical Association for her work establishing the American Women's Hospitals.[3] The American Cathedral in Paris presented her with the American and Serbian flags which had hung at the church during the war. Morton later presented the flags to women physicians in Belgrade.[2]

A tree was planted in Central Park in her honor, commemorating her "distinguished patriotic service",[2][17] and both a street and park in Belgrade are named after her.[18][4] A historical marker was placed at the location of Morton's childhood home in Lynchburg in 2019.[12][19]

Books

In 1897 Morton wrote a short story titled One Short Hour. It was published in a compilation titled Daughters of Aesculapius alongside other fiction and non-fiction works written by alumni and students at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.[2][20] In her 13-page story, a female medical student is forced to choose between a career in medicine and marriage to her fiancé, ultimately choosing the former.[20]

Morton later wrote an autobiography titled A Woman Surgeon: The Life and Work of Rosalie Slaughter Morton, which was published in 1937 by Frederick A. Stokes. The book was reviewed well, with praise given to both the writing and the breadth of experiences chronicled in it.[21][22] The Pittsburgh Press described Morton's autobiography as an "excellent book on a woman's accomplishments" commending both the descriptions of medical topics as well as political ones.[21] In The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a review wrote "at no time is her book boring", calling it an important book for documenting the contributions of "a woman crusader".[22] The Salt Lake Tribune described the book as "informative, thrilling and colorful",[6] and The Sydney Morning Herald called it "particularly interesting".[16] In their review, the Indiana Gazette rated the book as one of the best medical autobiographies of recent times.[23]

After finishing her autobiography, Morton travelled to Iran, and in 1940 published a book on the country and her time there titled A Doctor's Holiday in Iran.[24][25]

References
  1. Anne Commire (2007). Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages. Archived from the original on 5 May 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2016 – via Highbeam.
  2. Margaret L. Hicks (23 May 1926). "Woman Earns Fame as Surgeon". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 100. Retrieved 20 February 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie; Joy Dorothy Harvey (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L–Z. Taylor & Francis. pp. 918–919. ISBN 041592040X.
  4. Rosalie Slaughter Morton (1937). A Woman Surgeon: The Life and Work of Rosalie Slaughter Morton. Frederick A. Stokes Company. p. 345. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  5. "Dr. Rosalie Slaughter Morton". National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  6. "Noted Woman Physician's Story of Life Informative, Thrilling and Colorful". The Salt Lake Tribune. 25 April 1937. p. 22. Retrieved 21 February 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "Social and Personal: Ceremony in Alexandria". The Washington Post. 7 September 1905. p. 7. Retrieved 20 February 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. More, Ellen (1989). ""A Certain Restless Ambition": Women Physicians and World War I". American Quarterly. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 41 (4): 636–660. doi:10.2307/2713096. JSTOR 2713096.
  9. "Woman Physician Seeks to Divorce Lawyer Husband". The Evening World. 20 December 1910. p. 6. Retrieved 20 February 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Pnina G. Abir-Am and Dorinda Outram (1987). Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives: Women in Science, 1789–1979. Rutgers University Press. p. 52. ISBN 0813512565. Retrieved 9 March 2016. rosalie slaughter.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  11. Leonard, John William (1915). Woman's Who's Who of America, 1914–15. The American Commonwealth Company. pp. 580. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  12. Keith, Shannon (19 April 2019). "Historical marker to honor Lynchburg women's-health pioneer". The News & Advance. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  13. "Lady Doctor Heads Women's Hospitals". The Hutchinson News. 17 July 1917. p. 6. Retrieved 20 February 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Kathryn Cullen-DuPont (2014). Encyclopedia of Women's History in America. Infobase Publishing. p. 14. ISBN 978-1438110332. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
  15. Edith Moriarty (16 July 1922). "With the Women of Today". The Charlotte News. p. 28. Retrieved 21 February 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "Distinguished Woman Surgeon". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 November 1937. p. 22. Retrieved 6 March 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. Marion Brown (4 January 1939). "'Develop Daring Spirit' Urges Renowned Doctor". The Evening Independent. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  18. "Отворен парк "Розали Мортон" у Београду" (in Serbian). 22 April 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  19. Irby, Taylor (2 May 2019). "PHOTOS: Marker in Lynchburg honors Dr. Rosalie Slaughter Morton". The News & Advance. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  20. Morantz-Sanchez, Regina (2005). Sympathy and Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 406–407. ISBN 0807876089.
  21. Harry Hansen (28 February 1937). "Doctor's Work Is Education as Well as Cure, Noted Woman Surgeon Holds in Story of Life". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
  22. George Currie (23 February 1937). "Passed in Review". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Retrieved 6 March 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. "A Book A Day". The Indiana Gazette. 15 March 1937. p. 9. Retrieved 6 March 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. Rosalie Slaughter Morton (1940). A Doctor's Holiday in Iran. Funk & Wagnalls Company. p. 1. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  25. "A Doctor's Holiday in Iran – Rosalie Slaughter Morton". The Morning News. 14 November 1940. p. 6. Retrieved 8 March 2016 – via Newspapers.com.
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