Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008

Exhibit on women doctors opens today in Kennewick library

By John Trumbo, Herald staff writer

A traveling exhibit about how women doctors have made a difference in American medicine opens today at the Mid-Columbia Library's Kennewick branch on Union Street.

The exhibit consisting of 28 panels and two interactive computer kiosks shows how women first entered a male-dominated medical profession and pioneered changes in the U.S. since 1849.

About a dozen outstanding women physicians are featured in the exhibit, which is being displayed at 61 libraries across America and only two in Washington, said Michael Huff, the library's collections director.

A formal reception for the exhibit is planned at 5:30 p.m. at the library, 1620 S. Union St., with several guest speakers, including Dr. Celestia S. Higano from the University of Washington and the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

Huff said the traveling display was created by the National Library of Medicine, the National Institute of Health Office of Research on Women's Health and the American Medical Women's Association.

Sponsors from the Mid-Columbia include AdvancedMed Hanford, Columbia Valley Daybreak Rotary, the Tri-City Herald, Kadlec Medical Center and Friends of Mid-Columbia Libraries.

The exhibit, which runs through Sept. 24, will feature several special events. All events are free and will be at the library.

Films about women in medicine will be shown at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Fridays, Aug. 29 and Sept. 5, 12 and 19.

Three performances by professional actresses depicting the lives of pioneering women in medicine are scheduled for 2 p.m. Sept. 7 about Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, 7 p.m. Sept. 8 about Florence Nightingale and 7 p.m. Sept. 23 for Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell.

Dr. Blackwell was the first woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S., obtained in 1849 at Geneva Medical School in New York.

Nightingale was famous for her work in caring for wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War in 1854.

Dr. Walker was a Civil War doctor who is the only woman to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Huff said a discussion panel featuring women physicians from the Tri-Cities will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 10.

Viewers of the exhibit will learn about women doctors in America who overcame prejudice and gender bias such as Matilda Evans, who founded the first black hospital in Columbia, S.C., in 1901, and Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American woman to graduate from medical school and later care for 1,300 Omaha on the reservation in Nebraska where her father was chief.

More recent leaders among women in medicine in America include Helen Taussig, the first woman president of the American Heart Association in 1965, and Antonia Novello who President George H.W. Bush selected as U.S. Surgeon General in 1990, the first woman and first Hispanic to hold that office.

* John Trumbo: 582-1529; jtrumbo@tricityherald.com