Hannah Glidden Myrick (1871–1973)
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Hannah Glidden Myrick graduated from Girls' Latin School in Boston (1892), and Smith College (1896), and received her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University (1900). She practiced medicine in Boston, where for ten years she was superintendent of the New England Hospital for Women and Children. She was subsequently a physician at Schraffts Candy Co. A prizewinning amateur photographer, Myrick was credited with developing some of the first X-ray film used at New England Hospital for Women and Children.
Myrick's letters to "Dear Alice" (who may have been her sister) and to her father and other family members offer vivid accounts of her medical training and work at the dispensary at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. She discusses the sparse number of women medical students, her experiences attending numerous births, and the case of a "professional" prostitute whose plight attracted a great deal of attention from the interns, and she describes the impossibility of understanding medical lectures in German while participating in an exchange program in Switzerland.
The digitzed collection consists of correspondence, 1896–1905 (folder 2 of Myrick's Papers, 1892–1971 [inclusive]) from Myrick mostly to Alice, describing her training at Johns Hopkins and some of her patients there, including a prostitute, and her practice in Boston. Includes a one-page, handwritten summary of the correspondence's content dated "11/12/87" and signed "Alice B.H. to Bruce" as well as short, individual summaries of each letter written on slips, apparently prepared by the same person.
Browse Archival Materials Digitized for Women Working
- Hannah Myrick's correspondence, 1896-1905 (160 pp.).
Full Collection Citation
Hannah G. Myrick Papers. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Finding Aid
Unpublished finding aid.
The manuscript and archival materials selected for Women Working can be used for research, for the creation of class projects, or to illustrate secondary works. In some cases the items are drawn from larger collections at Harvard. Most of the digitized selections from collections contain a range of materials providing a broader context for understanding the subject.
