Lydia Allen DeVilbiss

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Lydia Allen DeVilbiss
Lydia Allen DeVilbiss in uniform as a member of the United States Public Health Service, 1922
BornSeptember 3, 1882
Hoagland, Indiana, U.S.
DiedDecember 5, 1964 (aged 82)
Sarasota, Florida, U.S.
CitizenshipUnited States
EducationM.D.
Alma materIndiana Medical College
OccupationPublic health surgeon
EmployerUnited States Public Health Service
Known forEugenics, birth control
Spouse(s)Albert K. Shauck (m. 1906; divorced)
George Henry Bradford (m. 1920)
Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, from a 1922 publication.

Lydia Allen DeVilbiss (1882-1964) was an American physician, and an author on birth control and eugenics.

Early life[edit]

Lydia Allen DeVilbiss was born in Hoagland, Indiana, one of seven children born to William Fletcher DeVilbiss and Naomi Ridenour DeVilbiss. She earned her medical degree at the Indiana Medical College.[1]

Career[edit]

Public health, birth control and eugenics[edit]

DeVilbiss was a "surgeon reserve" with the United States Public Health Service, the first woman appointed by the Surgeon General to work on child hygiene;[2] she also wrote reports on child welfare.[3] During World War I she worked on establishing quarantine guidelines and procedures for preventing sexually-transmitted disease.[4]

She served as medical director of the "Better Babies" Department at the magazine Woman's Home Companion. DeVilbiss was head of child health at the New York Board of Health, where she made public pronouncements on healthful dress (for example, "Nature knows whether you are well dressed, whether you know it or not").[5]

In 1915, she was appointed head of child hygiene for the Kansas State Board of Health.[6] There, she created the Kansas Mother's Book, a popular publication that went through several editions. She also brought the Little Mothers League education program to Kansas from New York.[7] She worked in public health in Kansas during the 1918 flu pandemic, during which she recommended people refrain from handshakes to prevent spreading the virus.[8]

She was the author of the book Birth Control: What Is It? (1923).[9] She also lectured on the Chautauqua circuit[10] and wrote articles on the subject for journals such as Birth Control Review[11] Public Health Reports,[12] and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.[13] She had a contentious professional relationship with editor and fellow birth control advocate Margaret Sanger.[14]

In 1928, DeVilbiss opened a maternal health clinic in Miami, Florida. There, she advised women on family planning and ran clinical trials on sponge-based methods of birth control; she also performed surgical sterilizations on the mothers (often black women) that she deemed too undisciplined or uneducated to manage other measures.[15]

She briefly worked with local African-American groups to create a branch clinic for black women in Miami, but withdrew funding over disagreements.[16] She was the founder and president of the Miami Mothers Health Club.[17]

In 1944, she was credited with suggesting educational booklets for pregnant military wives during World War II.[4] In 1959, she wrote an article for the American Mercury magazine arguing for premarital blood tests to prevent the genetic transmission of sickle cell anemia, and discouraging the use of black donors' blood in white patients.[18]

Suffrage and clubwork[edit]

DeVilbiss was president of several organizations, including the Shelby Equal Franchise Association, her county's Woman's Suffrage Association, and her local Anti-Tuberculosis Society. She was also an officer of the Shelby Medical Society, and a member of the Shelby Socialist organization.[19] In 1915, she spoke to the Topeka Federation of Women's Clubs about unhealthy conditions at the county's poor farm.[20]

Personal life[edit]

DeVilbiss married Albert K. Shauck in 1906. They lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She sued for divorce in 1912, with accusations of cruelty on both sides; the divorce suit was dropped in 1913,[21] but they did eventually end the marriage before she married again in 1920, to a fellow doctor, George Henry Bradford.[22] Widowed in 1945, she died in Sarasota, Florida, in 1964, aged 82.[19]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Homer E. Moyer, Who's who and what to see in Florida (Current Historical Company of Florida 1935): 91.
  2. ^ "Woman is Assigned by the Surgeon General to Assist Georgia in Growing Fine Babies" Washington Herald (July 28, 1920): 5. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  3. ^ Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, Child Welfare in Syracuse N. Y.; a report to the Child Welfare Committee (Syracuse 1919).
  4. ^ a b Edith L. Ballard, "People and Things" Miami News (October 27, 1944): 15. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  5. ^ "New Law of Clothes" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (January 3, 1915): 15. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  6. ^ "Get Child Hygiene Expert" St. George News (May 14, 1915): 2. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  7. ^ R. Alton Lee, From Snake Oil to Medicine: Pioneering Public Health (Greenwood Publishing): pp. 106-110; ISBN 9780275994679
  8. ^ "Flu Come Back Feared; Doctor Gives Advice" The Leavenworth Times (April 11, 1919): 2. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  9. ^ Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, Birth Control: What Is It? (Small, Maynard & Company 1923).
  10. ^ Advertisement, Lyceum Magazine (July 1922): 8.
  11. ^ Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, "Medical Aspects of Birth Control" Birth Control Review (December 1921): pp. 12-14, 19.
  12. ^ Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, "National Health Legislation of Interest to Women" Public Health Reports (March 11, 1921): 519-523.
  13. ^ Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, "Preliminary Report on Sterilization of Women by Intrauterine Coagulation of Tubal Orifices" American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 29(4)(April 1935): 563-565.
  14. ^ "Foam Powder and Sponge: The Quest for Doctorless Birth Control" The Margaret Sanger Papers Project Newsletter (Spring 1997).
  15. ^ Linda Gordon, The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America (University of Illinois Press 2002): 217. ISBN 9780252095276
  16. ^ Cathy Moran Hajo, Birth Control on Main Street: Organizing Clinics in the United States, 1916-1939 (University of Illinois Press 2010): 117. ISBN 9780252077258
  17. ^ "Woman Doctor Pursues Ideal" Miami News (January 21, 1934): 28. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  18. ^ Keith Wailoo, Drawing Blood: Technology and Disease Identity in Twentieth-Century America (Johns Hopkins University Press 2002). ISBN 9780801870293
  19. ^ a b Sara Catherine Lichon, "Behind Closed Doors: The Divorce Case of Dr. Lydia Allen DeVilbiss" (March 30, 2018), The Jane Addams Papers Project, Ramapo College of New Jersey.
  20. ^ "Crime to Society" Topeka State Journal (November 4, 1915): 5. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  21. ^ "Shauck Case Is Dismissed" News-Journal (December 13, 1913): 8. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  22. ^ "DeVilbiss-Bradford Wedding" The Chanute Daily Tribune (April 8, 1920): 4. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
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