Marie K. Formad (1860 – February 21, 1944) was a Russian Empire-born American physician based in Philadelphia.
Marie K. Formad | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1860 Russia |
| Died | February 21, 1944 Philadelphia |
| Occupation | Physician |
Early life edit
Formad was born in Russia. She moved to the United States in 1883.[1] Her older brother (sometimes mistakenly referred to as her father) Henry F. Formad was a pathology professor on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, and served as Coroner's Physician in Philadelphia.[2] Another brother, Robert Julius Formad, was also a pathologist, an expert on veterinary oncology.[3]
Marie Formad graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1886,[4] with a thesis titled "Some Notes on Criminal Abortion".[2]
Career edit
Formad was elected to the post of vaccine physician for Philadelphia's Eleventh District in 1887.[5] She worked for 52 years at Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, as a teaching surgeon, gynecologist, and pathologist.[6][7][8] She was the first woman member of the Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia.[9] With Calista V. Luther and two other women doctors, she ran an evening dispensary, the Medical Aid Society for Self-Supporting Women, to treat working women at a more convenient time than other clinics.[10] She retired in 1938.[4]
During World War I, Formad accepted a commission as a surgeon in the French army in 1917.[11] She served fourteen months, from January 1918 to March 1919, in a Women's Overseas Hospital (WOH) unit in France.[12][13] She directed and performed surgery a 125-bed refugee hospital at Labouheyre,[14] supported by the National Woman Suffrage Association,[15] working alongside doctors Laura E. Hunt[16] and Mabel Seagrave.[17] The hospital grew under Formad's direction, and served about 10,000 refugees during its existence;[18] two of the American nurses at Labouheyre, Winifred Warder and Eva Emmons, died from influenza there.[19] After the armistice, Formad went to Nancy to work as a surgeon caring for repatriating French civilians.[20][21][22] She received the Medaille d'honneur from the French government for her wartime service.[23]
Personal life edit
Marie Formad cared for her older brother Henry in his last months; he died in 1892.[24][25] She died in 1944, aged 83 years, in Philadelphia.[4] She left her estate mainly to her two nieces, Marie and Charlotte.[26]
References edit
- ^ "Dr. Formad's Rites Set for Tomorrow". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1944-02-24. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Fulton, R. E. (2017-02-07). ""Buried with Doctor's Certificate": Reading the Uses and Abuses of Bodies in a Medical School Thesis". Nursing Clio. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
- ^ Formad, Robert Julius; Agriculture, United States Department of (1926). Tumors of Domestic Animals. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- ^ a b c "DR. MARIE K. FORMAD; Russian Immigrant, Physician in Philadelphia 52 Years". The New York Times. 1944-02-24. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
- ^ "Divided Sanitarians". Philadelphia Inquirer. February 9, 1887. p. 2.
- ^ "Clinical Instructors" The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania 53rd Annual Commencement, 1902-1903.
- ^ "Sly Thief Routed by Woman Doctor". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1928-04-14. p. 2. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Dr. Marie K. Formad Ill". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1932-05-08. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ History, Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia.
- ^ Morantz-Sanchez, Regina (2005-10-12). Sympathy and Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-8078-7608-4.
- ^ "Women Surgeons to France". The La Crosse Tribune. 1917-10-29. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Women Surgeons to Go to France". Arizona Republic. 1917-10-05. p. 30. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Woman Doctor Home from War". The News Journal. 1919-04-01. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
- ^ Curry, Anne Hirst (June 22, 1918). "The Back Yard of the War". The Woman Citizen. 3: 68.
- ^ Noble, Nellie S. (February 1921). "The Work of Women Physicians During the War". Journal of the Iowa State Medical Society. 11: 45 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "12 Nurses Caught in Thick of Battle". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1918-04-14. p. 27. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "American Women Physicians in World War I: Service in the War". American Medical Women's Association. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
- ^ "The untold story of women who risked their lives to do good -- and get their rights" CNN (August 16, 2020).
- ^ "The Women Doctors of World War I: A Q&A with Kate Clarke Lemay About Wartime Service and Suffrage". Women at the Center. 2020-05-07. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
- ^ Blackwell, Alice Stone (May 3, 1919). "With the W. O. H. at Nancy". The Woman Citizen. 3: 1046.
- ^ Curry, Anne Hirst (September 14, 1918). "Repatriate Mothers of France". The Woman Citizen. 3: 310–311.
- ^ "U. S. Women Doctors Still Busy at Rheims". New-York Tribune. 1919-05-19. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Why Not a Ballot?". The Chickasha Daily Express. 1919-07-07. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Dr. Formad Dead". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1892-06-06. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Necrology: Henri F. Formad". Journal of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Archives. 13: 447–448. April 1892.
- ^ "2 Nieces to Share $106,000 Left by Dr. Marie Formad". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1944-03-02. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-09-14 – via Newspapers.com.
External links edit
- An undated portrait of Marie Formad, in the collection of the Drexel University College of Medicine Archives and Special Collections.
