Harriet Jane Lawrence

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Harriet Lawrence was one of the first female pathologists in the United States and the first known female pathologist in Oregon.[1]

Life and education[]

Harriet Jane Lawrence was born on September 13, 1883 in Kingsbury, Maine.[2]

Lawrence attended college and medical school and paid her tuition by teaching.[2] She was one of six women in her class when she 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 that she was never married, but did have a daughter named Elizabeth.[4]

Work in Portland[]

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 over 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 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 from female to male and provided a recommendation for a position at the Albuquerque Sanatorium.[6][7]

Work on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic[]

She successfully created and helped distribute a serum therapy to treat those infected with the 1918 Flu Pandemic.[6][8] She used a culture of the virus provided by the Oregon State Board of Health they obtained from a navy yard in Bremerton, Washington.[2] It wasn't known at the time that the influenza was caused by a virus and Lawrence's serum targeted the secondary bacterial infection instead; however, President Woodrow Wilson honored Lawrence for her work.[3][2]

Death[]

She retired in 1967 and died in Portland February 28, 1974.[2][9]

References[]

  1. ^ “Peacock Lane Historical District,” National Register of Historic Places, United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, October 30, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Harriet Lawrence (1883-1974)". www.oregonencyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
  3. ^ a b c d "Doctor Honored by University". The Oregonian. December 9, 1963.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ "United States Federal Census". ancestry.com. Retrieved March 8, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ "Oregon Historic Sites Database". heritagedata.prd.state.or.us. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ "Queering OHSU: Honoring Our LGBTQ+ History | OHSU". www.ohsu.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
  8. ^ "Vaccine Preparing to Check Influenza". Morning Oregonian. October 23, 1918.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ "Oregon, U.S., Death Index, 1898-2008 for Harriet Jane Lawrence". ancestry.com. Retrieved March 9, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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