Leona Baumgartner
In this letter, Dr. Leona Baumgartner, the first female health commissioner in New York City history, was asked to help make another medical first happen, the first African American physician at the Bromley-Heath Family Medical Center. In 1967, Dr. Eva Salber took on the task of developing and directing the Bromley-Heath Family Medical Center, now known as the Martha Eliot Community Health Center. In her role as director, she promoted a partnership between health care providers and the community they served. This request, written by Dr. Robert C. Buxbaum, Director of Medical Clinics at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, is an example of that partnership. Dr. Buxbaum is currently an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.
Throughout her career at Harvard, Dr. Baumgartner was contacted by members of the medical community to provide guidance to young women hoping to get into the field of medicine. The letter from Dr. Buxbaum above, resulted in a meeting with just such a young woman. This letter from Shirley Williams is to thank Dr. Baumgartner for her advice and counsel.
In her letter, Ms. Bici Forbes Hendricks asked Dr. Baumgartner if she would provide guidance to a young woman interested in medical school. She plainly stated the obstacles “an attractive young woman” faced getting into medical school at the time, “…everywhere she goes she is confronted with a blank wall of ‘statistics’ –which are loaded heavily against the acceptance of women, as you know, for fear of marriage/pregnancy, and the waste of the school’s time/space”
Bici Forbes Hendricks, now known as Nye Ffarrabas, is a writer and an artist. She has been part of the FLUXUS art movement since the 1960s. Benjamin Genocchio, of the New York Times newspaper, describes FLUXUS as an “anarchistic art phenomenon of the 1960s,” whose members did collaborative projects in non-gallery spaces. She wrote this letter on behalf of Graham, a family friend. Dr. Baumgartner’s daughter-in-law was Bici’s sister, Midge.
Following her introduction from Bici Hendricks, Lani Graham wrote this letter to Dr. Baumgartner soliciting her advice regarding gaining entry into medical school. Ms. Graham wrote, “As you are not doubt aware, my age and to some extent my sex are also handicaps. I have talked with one medical school Dean, but did not feel that I was very successful in convincing him that I would complete my studies and not drop out on the grounds of marriage or pregnancy.” Dr. Baumgartner replied immediately and agreed to see her. She ended her letter to Ms. Graham with the following, “Cheer up, there is many a good girl who goes through medical school. Actually, I think most medical schools do not think females have handicaps at all.”
Ms. Graham went on to get her degree at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. She is considered a leader in public health in her native Maine, where she has served as the Director of the Division of Disease Control at the Maine Bureau of Health, and as the Director of the Maine Bureau of Health, Maine Department of Human Services. Dr. Graham is featured as a “Local Legend” on the companion website to the National Library of Medicine’s Changing the Face of Medicine exhibit.