Frances Van Gasken

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frances Van Gasken
An older white woman with white hair in an updo, wearing pince-nex glasses on a lanyard, and a dark dress or academic robe, photographed in profile
Frances Van Gasken, from a 1921 yearbook
Born
Frances Culbreth Van Gasken

May 24, 1860
Smyrna, Delaware, U.S.
DiedOctober 24, 1939 (age 79)
Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupations
  • Physician
  • educator
  • suffragist

Frances Culbreth Van Gasken (May 24, 1860 – October 24, 1939) was an American physician and suffragist, based in Philadelphia.

Early life and education[edit]

Van Gasken was born in Smyrna, Delaware,[1] the daughter of John Van Gasken and Harriet Van Gasken. Her mother died in 1863, and she was raised by her stepmother, Rachel English Van Gasken. She graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1890.[2] She later made postgraduate studies in Vienna. Her brother Joseph practiced medicine in Texas.[3]

Career[edit]

Van Gasken was one of the first women interns at Philadelphia General Hospital.[1] In 1893 she was an inspector for the city's Bureau of Health,[3][4] and addressed the Civic Club of Philadelphia on health conditions in the city's tenement houses.[5][6] She was resident physician at the College Settlement House in Philadelphia until 1896,[7] when she became physician for the women's department of the Philadelphia Municipal Court.[8] She was removed as medical inspector by the mayor in 1899, sparking a protest from her colleagues.[9] She was a professor of clinical medicine at the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia from 1918 until she resigned as part of a faculty protest over Alice Weld Tallant's dismissal in 1923.[8][10]

Van Gasken was known to wear a "Votes for Women" pin while teaching, and in January 1915 she was part of a delegation of Pennsylvania suffragists who spoke on the subject at the White House with Woodrow Wilson.[11][12] She exhorted women medical students in 1917 to take on professional responsibilities and join in the war effort,[13] saying "Who is there to fill these places but women? Is it not your day? Does opportunity not call to you?"[14][15]

Personal life and legacy[edit]

Van Gasken died in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, in 1939, at the age of 79.[1][16] She left money to her sister and Camp Onawa in Piscataquis County, Maine, to her nephew;[17] her estate also funded a scholarship in her father's name, at a high school in her hometown.[18]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Native of Smyrna, Early Interne, Dies". The Morning News. 1939-10-25. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-04-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Woman Doctor Died". Standard-Speaker. 1939-10-25. p. 11. Retrieved 2024-04-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b "Medical News and Miscellany". Texas Medical Journal. 9 (3): 140. September 1893.
  4. ^ Sutherland, John F. (1975). "The Origins of Philadelphia's Octavia Hill Association: Social Reform in the "Contented" City". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 99 (1): 24. ISSN 0031-4587. JSTOR 20090920.
  5. ^ Phillips, Harlan B. (1952). "A War on Philadelphia's Slums: Walter Vrooman and the Conference of Moral Workers, 1893". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 76 (1): 47–62. ISSN 0031-4587. JSTOR 20088325.
  6. ^ Kahan, Michael B. (2013-10-01). "The Risk of Cholera and The Reform of Urban Space: Philadelphia, 1893". Geographical Review. 103 (4): 517–536. Bibcode:2013GeoRv.103..517K. doi:10.1111/j.1931-0846.2013.00018.x. ISSN 0016-7428.
  7. ^ College Settlements Association (1892). Annual Report. p. 36.
  8. ^ a b "Prominent Woman Doctor, Native of Smyrna, is Dead". The News Journal. 1939-10-25. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-04-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Want Dr. Van Gasken Reappointed". The Philadelphia Times. 1899-04-25. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-04-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ Peitzman, Steven Jay (2000). A New and Untried Course: Woman's Medical College and Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1850-1998. Rutgers University Press. pp. 133–134, 150. ISBN 978-0-8135-2816-8.
  11. ^ "Dr. Van Gasken and Miss Paul Comment". Maryland Suffrage News. 1915-01-09. p. 2. Retrieved 2024-04-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Democratic Women Will Ask President for Suffrage Help". The Washington Herald. 1915-01-04. p. 6. Retrieved 2024-04-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ Jensen, Kimberly (1993). "Uncle Sam's Loyal Nieces: American Medical Women, Citizenship, and War Service in World War I". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 67 (4): 670–690. ISSN 0007-5140. JSTOR 44445837. PMID 8312707.
  14. ^ "Not Waiting for the Call: American Women Physicians and World War I". Falvey Library Exhibits. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  15. ^ Mandell, Melissa (January 18, 2017). "The Hippocratic Vote". The Smart Set. Retrieved 2024-04-17.
  16. ^ "A Worthy Woman". The Morning News. 1939-10-27. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-04-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ "Sister Gets Bulk of $30,000 Estate". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1939-11-04. p. 11. Retrieved 2024-04-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Smyrna Club Picks Officers". The News Journal. 1952-03-31. p. 10. Retrieved 2024-04-17 – via Newspapers.com.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frances_Van_Gasken&oldid=1220400920"