Harriet Jane Lawrence
Harriet Lawrence (1883-1974) was physician and among the earliest pathologists in the United States, being the first woman known to practicce pathology in Oregon.[1]
Life and education[edit]
Harriet Jane Lawrence was born on September 13, 1883, in Kingsbury, Maine.[2]
While paying her tuition by teaching, Lawrence attended college and medical school.[2] She was one of six women graduated from Boston University School of Medicine in 1912.[2] She later received the 1963 Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University in acknowledgment of her contributions to medicine and work to advance women in the field.[3]
Census records from 1920, 1930, and 1940 show Lawrence by her birth name and those records indicate that she had a daughter named Elizabeth.[4]
Work in Portland[edit]
She moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1912 and began to work with Ralph Matson, who was a tuberculosis specialist.[3] The next year, Lawrence opened her own laboratory in the Selling Building, where she worked for the next 50 years as a “microbe hunter".[3] Lawrence lived on Peacock Lane in Portland, Oregon, where at one point she kept more than 200 guinea pigs for use in experimentation with serums.[5]
Lawrence became a fellow with the newly formed American Society of Clinical Pathologists in 1927.[2] The goal of the organization was to advance the field of clinical pathology and to ensure it was on equal ground with other specialized areas of medicine.[6] She was a member of the Medical Club of Portland and the Philanthropic Educational Organization (P.E.O.) Sisterhood, which was an international organization that worked to provide educational opportunities for women.[2] She helped Dr. Alan L. Hart in his 1917 transition to male and provided a professional recommendation for him for a position as a physician at the Albuquerque Sanatorium.[6][7]
Work on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic[edit]
She successfully created a serum therapy to treat those infected with the 1918 Flu Pandemic and helped distribute it.[6][8] She used an influenza culture provided by the Oregon State Board of Health that had been obtained from a navy yard in Bremerton, Washington.[2] It wasn't known at the time that influenza was caused by a virus. Lawrence's serum targeted the secondary bacterial infection instead. President Woodrow Wilson honored Lawrence for her work.[3][2]
Death[edit]
She retired in 1967 and died in Portland on February 28, 1974.[2][9]
References[edit]
- ^ “Peacock Lane Historical District,” National Register of Historic Places, United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, October 30, 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Harriet Lawrence (1883-1974)". www.oregonencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
- ^ a b c d "Doctor Honored by University". The Oregonian. December 9, 1963.
- ^ "United States Federal Census". ancestry.com. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
- ^ "Oregon Historic Sites Database". heritagedata.prd.state.or.us. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
- ^ a b c Carr, Sujittra Avery. "Beyond Suffrage: Giving Voice to Oregon's Unsung Women in Medicine". ir.library.oregonstate.edu. Tiah Edmunson-Morton, Natalia Fernandez, Kallie Hagel, Emma Pattee. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
- ^ "Queering OHSU: Honoring Our LGBTQ+ History | OHSU". www.ohsu.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
- ^ "Vaccine Preparing to Check Influenza". Morning Oregonian. October 23, 1918.
- ^ "Oregon, U.S., Death Index, 1898-2008 for Harriet Jane Lawrence". ancestry.com. Retrieved March 9, 2021.