Collection: Documenting Women’s Medical Education and Health in New York City, Publications from the Medical Center Archives of NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine

Description: The Medical Center Archives (MCA) will digitize and make freely available online key publications highlighting women’s medical education and treatment in New York City from the 19th and mid-20th centuries. The digitized materials will include documents from two institutions founded by Drs. Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, the first and third women to receive medical degrees in the United States: the New York Infirmary for Indignant Women and Children (annual reports, 1890-1954) and the Women’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary (announcements and catalogs, 1870-1899). These publications illustrate the infirmary’s charitable mission as the first American hospital to provide medical treatment to women and children, staffed and run entirely by women, and provide insight into the student’s curriculum, admissions, clinical activities, as well as listing the names of faculty, students, and graduates. In addition, publications from the Bloomingdale Asylum (annual reports, 1827-1961), and the New York Hospital (annual reports, 1797-1833) include statistical charts on types of disease treated, information about the treatment and services provided, patient demographics (nativity), as well as narrative reports summarizing yearly activities. Together with other MCA publications already online, this digitized corpus of materials will be a rich resource to researchers studying the history of medicine, women’s history, social history, and more.