Draft:Dr. Helen Putnam

Helen Cordelia Putnam was born September 14, 1857, in the small town of Stockton, Minnesota. She was the daughter of Herbert Asa Putnam and Celintha T. Gates. Her parents were some of the first settlers to cross the Mississippi River in 1855. Helen Putnam Graduated from Vassar College in 1878. After this, she enrolled in Harvard University’s Sargent School of Physical Training and graduated in 1883. Upon Graduating, Helen returned to Vassar College as director of physical education. Helen would then go on to serve as vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Physical Education from 1885 to 1888.

Afterward, she joined the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, focusing on obstetrics and women's health issues, and obtained her doctorate in medicine in 1889. After completing her internship at Boston's New England Hospital for Women and Children between 1890 and 1891, she relocated to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1892, where she pursued a career in gynecology for the next forty-three years.

Medical Reformation

Putnam fought hard for medical reformation. She promoted prenatal care for poor mothers. She also lobbied the government against dairies and milk-bottling plants, calling for them to be inspected. She strived to improve baby survival rates after attending an international conference in London in 1907. While serving as the president of the American Academy of Medicine, Dr. Putnam assisted in planning a conference discussing infant mortality. This would lead to the founding of the American Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality. In several articles she wrote between the years 1909-1912 for Child-Welfare Magazine, she encouraged parents to have a more active role in supporting hygienic schools for all children. These articles would become the foundation for Dr. Putnam’s book School Janitor, Mothers and Health, emphasizing the importance of physical education for children. It also encourages clean education areas for children. In 1923, Dr. Putnam co-founded the American Child Health Association with Dr. Abraham Jacobi. This organization promoted clean schools and pediatric care and taught about health and sex education with parental involvement. Dr. Putnam focused on the medical welfare of children and women. Dr. Putnam also participated in activism, serving on Rhode Island’s board of women’s suffrage and as secretary for a conference promoting women’s prison reform. She also served on the National Education Association’s committee on Racial Well-being. Other boards she served on include the Playground Association of America, the International Union for the Protection of Infants, the American School Hygiene Association, the American Public Health Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Legacy

Putnam retired in 1935, and she donated most of the sizable inheritance she received to Providence’s Butler Hospital and the Rhode Island School of Design in 1939. She assisted in establishing the Helen Putnam Fellowship for Advanced Research at Radcliffe College. Dr. Punam authored School Janitors, Mothers and Health. Dr. Putnam died on February 3, 1951, at the age of 93.

References

•  This article incorporates public domain material from "Changing the Face of Medicine | Helen Cordelia Putnam". cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov. U.S. National Library of Medicine.
• Putnam, H. C. (1913, January 1). School Janitors, Mothers and Health. http://books.google.ie/books?id=siTZkJdny2kC&q=School+Janitors,+Mother+and+Health&dq=School+Janitors,+Mother+and+Health&hl=&cd=1&source=gbs_api