1-6 of 6 Results  for:

  • Medicine and health x
Clear all

Article

Bragg, Janet (1907-1993), aviator, nurse, and nursing home proprietor  

Miriam Sawyer

Bragg, Janet (24 March 1907–11 April 1993), aviator, nurse, and nursing home proprietor, was born Janet Harmon in Griffin, Georgia, the daughter of Cordia Batts Harmon and Samuel Harmon, a brick contractor. The Batts family had long been established in Griffin. Bragg's maternal grandfather was a freed slave of Spanish descent, and her maternal grandmother was a Cherokee. Bragg's grandfather had built the house in which she and her siblings were born; her mother had been born in the same house. Bragg, the youngest of seven children, had a happy childhood, enjoying sports and games and excelling at school. In an interview conducted at the University of Arizona as part of a project called African Americans in Aviation in Arizona, Bragg reminisced: “We were a very happy family. We were not a rich family, only rich in love.”...

Image

Cover Bragg, Janet (1907-1993)
Janet Bragg. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution (79-13664).

Article

Forsythe, Albert Edward (1897-1986), aviator and physician  

Miriam Sawyer

Forsythe, Albert Edward (25 February 1897–04 May 1986), aviator and physician, was born in Nassau, the Bahamas, the son of Horatio Alexander Forsythe, a civil engineer, and Lillian Maud Byndloss Forsythe. When he was three, the family moved to Jamaica. His mother died of pneumonia while Forsythe was a child. His father soon remarried, eventually fathering thirteen children. The family was comfortably middle class, employing several servants. A gifted student, Forsythe attended the Titchfield School, where he excelled in mathematics. When he was fourteen, the headmaster of the school recommended that he be sent to England to complete his education. His father preferred to send him to Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, an institution founded by ...

Article

Gilbert, Rufus Henry (1832-1885), surgeon and rapid transit pioneer  

Charles W. Carey Jr.

Gilbert, Rufus Henry (26 January 1832–10 July 1885), surgeon and rapid transit pioneer, was born in Guilford, New York, the son of William Dwight Gilbert, a county judge; his mother’s name is unknown. After completing his elementary education, he worked briefly as a druggist’s clerk and then became an apprentice machinist. When his apprenticeship expired six years later, he moved to Corning, New York, where he studied medicine for a year with a local physician. He then attended New York City’s College of Physicians and Surgeons for a year, after which he worked for two years in the office of the physician in Corning to raise enough money to complete his education. In 1853 he received his M.D. from the college and again returned to Corning, where he opened a highly successful surgical practice. He also married a Miss Maynard (the year of the marriage is unknown); they had no children....

Image

Cover Jeffries, John (1745-1819)
John Jeffries. Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine (B015712).

Article

Jeffries, John (1745-1819), physician, surgeon, and the first American to fly  

Tom D. Crouch

Jeffries, John (05 February 1745–16 September 1819), physician, surgeon, and the first American to fly, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of David Jeffries, Boston’s treasurer for more than thirty years, and Sarah Jaffrey. Jeffries was named for a wealthy uncle who arranged for his early education. He entered Harvard College in 1759, receiving his master of arts with honors in 1763. He studied medicine with ...