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Mary Phylinda Dole

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Mary Phylinda Dole
Born(1862-08-31)August 31, 1862
Shelburne, Massachusetts
DiedFebruary 23, 1947(1947-02-23) (aged 84)
Shelburne, Massachusetts
Alma materMount Holyoke College
Occupationphysician

Mary Phylinda Dole (August 31, 1862 – February 23, 1947)[1] was an American physician who practiced medicine in New England and was the first to earn a bachelor's degree at Mount Holyoke College.[2] She is thought to be the first female physician to have practiced at Franklin County Public Hospital, now known as Baystate Franklin Medical Center.[3]

Early life and education

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Mary Phylinda Dole was born in 1862 to George Carpenter Dole, a farmer, and Philinda Field Dole in Shelburne, Massachusetts.[4] After the deaths of both parents, in 1871 she moved to live with a relative in Ashfield, Massachusetts, where she attended a local school and then Sanderson Academy.[4] She attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary between 1881 and 1884 before graduating in 1886.[2] Dole then studied medicine at the Women's Medical College of Baltimore from 1886 to 1888, earning her M.D. in just two years.[2] She attended Mount Holyoke again, now Mount Holyoke College, from 1888 to 1889 after the school received its college charter and became the first graduate to complete a Bachelor of Science degree there.[2] Dole spent additional time studying at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France and visited medical clinics in Berlin and Dresden, Germany from 1894 to 1896.[2]

Mary Phylinda Dole named a number of influences in her life and career, including Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska,[5] her mentor Cornelia Clapp,[6] and Elizabeth Blackwell.[5]

Medical practice

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After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, Dole practiced medicine for a short time in Shelburne Falls, MA before accepting an internship and working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston until 1891.[7][8] At that time, she opened a private practice in the Hovey House, which is now the Greenfield Public Library in Greenfield, Massachusetts.[9] Dole supported Mount Holyoke College as a trustee from 1901 to 1907, and remained involved in the college community for many years.[8] She served as a traveling "country doctor" to the area until she moved to New Haven, Connecticut in 1906 and established a new practice.[2] She moved back to Massachusetts in 1919 and practiced medicine in Northampton until 1927.[8]

Later life

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Dole's career was cut short by health issues, and she retired from medicine in 1927 at age 65.[10] She began a secondary career in hand-weaving, and became successful in this field as well.[2] She worked with the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework.[11] Dole used the funds obtained from selling her work to create a fellowship to support the education of female medical students at Mount Holyoke.[10] The scholarship exists today as the Dr. Mary P. Dole Medical Fellowship.[12] Funds for the scholarship were also provided by the sale of her autobiography.[2] Dole died in her home in Shelburne in 1947 and is buried in the East Shelburne Cemetery.[4][13]

Honors

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In 1902, Dole was elected as a member of the Franklin District Medical Society.[14]

She was President of the Mount Holyoke Club of Franklin County and Honorary President of the Mount Holyoke Club of New Haven[15]

In 1937, she became one of the fourteen first recipients of Mount Holyoke College's Medal of Honor for her service to the college as an alumna.[16]

Autobiography

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She privately published her autobiography, A Doctor in Homespun, in 1941.[2] It chronicles her life and her medical practice, focusing on her time as a "country doctor".[17]

References

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  1. ^ Ancestry.com. U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current (database on-line). Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Mullally, Sasha. ""Everlastingly Sticking At It" A Country Doctor Helps to Change the Face of Medicine" (PDF). Mount Holyoke College. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  3. ^ L., Higgins, Thomas (2016). Baystate Franklin Medical Center. Campbell, Sandra W.,, Campbell, Gina O. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing Inc. ISBN 9781439657126. OCLC 969064644.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ a b c "Dole papers, 1885-1947". Five College Archives & Manuscript Collections. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  5. ^ a b Sirridge, Marjorie S. (1996-10-01). "Daughters of Aesculapius: A Selected Bibliography of Autobiographies of Women Medical School Graduates 1849-1920". Literature and Medicine. 15 (2): 200–216. doi:10.1353/lm.1996.0027. ISSN 1080-6571. PMID 8923437. S2CID 1382241.
  6. ^ Rota, Tiziana., "Between 'true women' and 'new women' : Mount Holyoke students, 1837 to 1908." (1983). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 1394.
  7. ^ "Digital Collection -Dr. Mary P. Dole". www.americancenturies.mass.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-24.
  8. ^ a b c "Dole papers, 1885-1947". Five College Archives & Manuscript Collections. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  9. ^ L., Higgins, Thomas (2016). Baystate Franklin Medical Center. Campbell, Sandra W.,, Campbell, Gina O. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing Inc. ISBN 9781439657126. OCLC 969064644.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ a b Sirridge, Marjorie S. (1996-10-01). "Daughters of Aesculapius: A Selected Bibliography of Autobiographies of Women Medical School Graduates 1849-1920". Literature and Medicine. 15 (2): 200–216. doi:10.1353/lm.1996.0027. ISSN 1080-6571. PMID 8923437. S2CID 1382241.
  11. ^ Morton, E. (2011). The Object of Therapy: Mary E. Black and the Progressive Possibilities of Weaving. Utopian Studies, 22(2), 321-340.
  12. ^ "Alumnae Fellowships – Alumnae Association". alumnae.mtholyoke.edu. Retrieved 2018-04-24.
  13. ^ L., Higgins, Thomas (2016). Baystate Franklin Medical Center. Campbell, Sandra W.,, Campbell, Gina O. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing Inc. ISBN 9781439657126. OCLC 969064644.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ C., Swedlund, Alan (2010). Shadows in the valley : a cultural history of illness, death, and loss in New England, 1840-1916. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 9781558497207. OCLC 286423296.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ "Dole papers, 1885-1947". Five College Archives & Manuscript Collections. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  16. ^ "Alumnae Medal of Honor Recipients". Mount Holyoke College. 2012-04-18. Retrieved 2018-04-24.
  17. ^ Mullally, S. (2005). Unpacking the Black Bag: Rural Medicine in the Maritime Provinces and Northern New England States, 1900–1950, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
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