DR. S. JOSEPHINE BAKER,
pioneering public health physician, born (d: 1945); Jo, as she
preferred, was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1873 to a middle class
Unitarian or Quaker family. When she was sixteen, her father and brother
died from typhoid, which left her family with no means of support.
Early in her
career, she had helped to twice catch Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid
Mary. Mary Mallon was the first known healthy carrier of typhoid who
infected countless people through her job as a cook. Mallon was not the
only repeat offender in being a typhus-contagious cook, but she was the
only one put in isolation for the rest of her life. It may have been
relevant that the other offenders were male, or that they were not of
Irish heritage.
Josephine Baker
was becoming famous, so much so that New York University Medical School
asked her to lecture there on children’s health, or 'child hygiene', as
it was known at the time. Baker said she would if she could also enroll
in the School. The School had to give in because there was no one else
who could give the lectures. So in 1917 Baker graduated with a doctorate
in public health. After the United States entered WWI, Baker became
even better known. Most of this publicity was generated from her comment
to a NY Times reporter. She told him that it was safer to be on the
front lines than to be born in the United States because the soldiers
died at a rate of 4%, whereas babies died at a rate of 12%. She was able
to start a lunch program for school children due to the publicity this
comment brought. Over the years of her career, she made intelligent use
of the press to advance the goals she had for public health. She made
use of the publicity around the high rate of young men being declared 4F
(not eligible for draft due to poor health) as a motivating factor for
support in her work on improving the health of children.
Josephine Baker
was now known across the world. She was offered a job in London as
health director of public schools, a job in France taking care of war
refugees, and a job in the United States as Assistant Surgeon General.
Baker became the first woman to hold a federal government position when
she accepted the position as Assistant Surgeon General of the United
States. In 1923 she retired, but she didn't stop working.
Josephine Baker
became the first woman to be a professional representative to the League
of Nations when she represented the United States in the Health
Committee. Many government positions, departments, and committees were
created because of her work including the Federal Children's Bureau
and Public Health Services (now the Department of Health and Human
Services) and child hygiene departments in every state. She was also
active in many groups and societies including over twenty-five medical
societies and the New York State Department of Health. She also became
the President of the American Medical Women’s Association and wrote 250
articles (both professional and for the popular press), 4 books, and her
autobiography before her death in 1945.
Josephine Baker
wrote very little about her personal life, however her partner for much
of the later part of her life was Ida Alexa Wylie, a novelist and
essayist from England, and self-identified as a 'woman-oriented woman'.
I.A.R. Wylie is best know for the novel "The Daughter of Brahma", and
"Life with George", an autobiography. When Baker retired in 1923, she
started to run their household while writing her autobiography. In 1935,
Baker and Wylie decided to move to Princeton, NJ, together with their
friend Louise Pearce, M.D.. Pearce was a biological researcher at the
Rockefeller Institute, working on animal models for trypanosoma (African
Sleeping sickness) and syphylis, and the testing of treatments. Pearce
later became the President of the Women’s Medical College of
Philadelphia. While Baker and Pearce left little documentation of their
personal lives, Wylie was open about her orientation. But she did not
identify either Baker or Pearce in her writings. Wylie's papers,
including some personal letters, were donated to the Women's Medical
College of Philadelphia (now the Medical College of Philadelphia), where
they are now available in the college's archives.
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