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Caroline Still Wiley Anderson |
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Dr. Caroline Still Wiley Anderson, 19th Century African American Physician
by Gloria H. Dickinson
Caroline Still Wiley Anderson (1848-1919) was born to abolitionists William and Letitia Still of Philadelphia. Her famous father was best known as a founder of the antebellum Philadelphia Underground Railroad and Vigilance Committee; he was also the author of The Underground Railroad.
Caroline received her education at Mrs. Henry Gordon's Private School, the Friends Raspberry Alley School and the Institute for Colored Youth. In 1874 she left Philadelphia to matriculate at Oberlin College. Although Oberlin had been one of the first schools to admit blacks, Anderson was the only black woman in the class of 46.
Upon graduation, Anderson married a black classmate; after his premature death, she moved to Washington, D.C. where she taught music and gave instruction in drawing and elocution at Howard University. She completed one term at the Howard University Medical School before her 1876 entry to Women's Medical College in Philadelphia. In 1880 she married Mathew Anderson, a prominent minister arid educator.
Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania was established in 1850 as the first regular medical school for females. Caroline Still Wiley Anderson was the second of a dozen black women who graduated between 1867 and 1900. Like most of the early black women physicians, Anderson was the product of a socially privileged black family. It is speculated that many of these families encouraged their daughters' pursuit of education because it would protect them from menial labor or domestic servitude. Nevertheless, it was impossible to completely protect these pioneers from either racism or sexism.
Anderson was at first refused admission to the New England Hospital for Women and Children on account of her race, but was later admitted as an intern. The tenacity and perseverance shown in her subsequent application and admission to other medical schools was an early indicator of the hard work and fortitude that would mark Anderson's professional career. In his 1982 publication Women of Distinction: Remarkable in Works and Invincible in Character, L.A. Scruggs noted that contemporaries hailed Anderson as a wife, mother, physician, teacher, clubwoman and co-laborer in the work of the Lord with her husband.
In addition to their private practices, some black women physicians in the late 19th century founded hospitals, nursing training schools and/or social service agencies. Still combined her private practice with the dispensary and clinic operated in conjunction with the Berean Presbyterian Church, of which her husband was the pastor. The clinic was founded to care for women and children in the neighborhood, and Anderson managed the Berean Dispensary for forty years.
Many of these physicians also combined private medical practice with community service work among black and white women. Anderson played a major role in establishing the first black YWCA in Philadelphia. She also served as treasurer of the Women's Medical College Alumnae Association, was a member of the Women's Medical Society and for several years served as president of the Berean Women's Christian Temperance Union. She performed all of these tasks while maintaining her positions of assistant principal and instructor in elocution, physiology and hygiene at the Berean Manual Training and Industrial School. Anderson also managed to find time to remain current in her field by researching and reading papers at medical conventions.
Representative of her race, her class and her few peers in the medical profession, Caroline Wiley Still Anderson carried on the legacies of super achievement, activism, humanitarianism and community service evidenced by her parents' and husband's families. While struggling against both race and gender bias, she managed to provide outstanding medical care and community leadership. Meanwhile, she was praised by family and community members as a devoted wife and mother.
Like her peers, Anderson served as an integral part of the black community in which she practiced. Her self-reliance and commitment helped her to "go the extra mile," as she sought to serve others. This remarkable woman left a mark on her community, her family and her profession that warrants inclusion in our analyses of 19th century American life.
Examination of the Caroline Still Wiley Anderson papers, which are housed in the Charles L. Blockson archives of the Temple University library, proved very disappointing. Yet, they provided considerable support for arguments about how scholarly research on blacks, women and, most particularly, black women, is hampered by both racism and sexism. It is now evident that Anderson's letters were saved for their relevance to her husband's and her father's biographers. Indeed, the letters in the collection were written either to her father or to her husband. It seems likely that each set had been saved by a man whose papers were deemed important enough to save.
Reading Anderson's letters was tantamount to listening to 1990's telephone conversations. The pithy, informative thought-provoking observations anticipated by the researcher were nowhere to be found. Indeed, had we a record of the letters that Caroline saved, it would undoubtedly reveal a good deal more about her personality, concerns and interests. The three boxes of well over 100 letters record the day to day concerns of a working mother attempting to cope with toddlers alone.
In an undated letter numbered 187, Caroline begins by inquiring about her husband's persistent cough. She goes on to bemoan her difficulties keeping up with baby Willie who has recently begun to crawl. Discussions about the train trip to the church picnic, how well-behaved everyone was, and summer vacation plans make up the rest of the text. A few earlier letters to her mother and father contain requests for new clothes common to all college students.
Because researchers, archivists, scholars and lay persons for so long deemed women's works/words unimportant, few women's documents are extant. Even fewer pertaining to African American women exist. Thus, the prospect of so many letters written by an African American physician/activist was extremely exciting. What has been discovered is that even community-activist professional women's activities didn't warrant chronicling. Thus, we find boxes pertinent to research on her famous father and husband, but of little importance to Caroline's biographers.
The letters collected are nevertheless revealing. They show a woman whose concerns as a working wife and mother are no different than those of American women today. Indeed, If one were to transcribe atypical two-career family workday telephone conversation, it would vary from the texts of Anderson's letters minimally.
Caroline Still, college student, has the same concerns as any female freshman in the class of 1994. Caroline Still Wiley Anderson, working mother, would empathize with any article published in a 1990 edition of Working Woman. Dr. Anderson would most likely continue her memberships in the African American and women's medical societies founded to counter exclusion from segregated organizations. Caroline Still Wiley Anderson, physician/community activist/pastor's wife, would undoubtedly be in the forefront of movements to combat spousal and child abuse, promote literacy, fight aids and substance abuse, and treat "boarder babies. "
It is evident that the most revealing aspect of these letters is how closely aligned Anderson is to her 1990's counterparts. Would that the documents revealed more about her, for she could undoubtedly provide guidance to the millions of women trying to accomplish only one-tenth of what Anderson did within the parameters of both her private and professional lives.
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