Martha May Eliot (April 7, 1891-February 14, 1978), was a foremost pediatrician and specialist in public health, an assistant director for WHO, and an architect of New Deal and postwar programs for maternal and child health. Her first important research, community studies of rickets in New Haven, Connecticut, and Puerto Rico, explored issues at the heart of social medicine. Together with Edwards A. Park, her research established that public health measures (dietary supplementation with vitamin D) could prevent and reverse the early onset of rickets.
Martha May Eliot shared her personal life in a long emotional and domestic partnership with Ethel Collins Dunham, also a pioneering female pediatrician, who was made the first female member of the American Pediatric Society and was awarded its highest award, the Howland Medal, in 1957.
Lilian Faderman, the landmark scholar, writes: "[At] Bryn Mawr..she met a twenty-six year old freshman, Ethel Dunham. From 1910 to Ethel's death in 1969, the two women were inseparable. As a couple, Martha Eliot and Ethel Dunham..succeeded in times that were as unsympathetic to professional women as they were to lesbians. Their domestic satisfaction crept constantly into Martha's letters back home: "E. keeps me out doors which is great. This P.M. we are going canoeing. Tonight we are having supper here - oyster omelet, a concoction of Ethel's - and apple sauce and toast and nutbread." " Their partnership nourished and sustained them through their entire adult lives. In the 1970s, during Martha's travels for WHO, they wrote day after day: "Dearest, it was hard to say goodbye and I shall miss you terribly.. Ever and ever so much love, my darling"; "How I count the time until you do arrive. I miss you my darling".
Bert Hansen writes: "While Dunham and Eliot are each worthy of individual attention, their shared personal life has such an intimate connection with their careers that a combined narrative better illustrates their close relationship of 59 years. They achieved major professional positions at Yale, at Harvard, and in government, even while they were making careful career choices to maintain the continuity of their domestic partnership. Each was also accorded public honors for leadership in pediatrics, child welfare, and public health."
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Martha invented the cure for Rickets. She tried to go to Harvard, but because women were not admitted to the medical school, went to Johns Hopkins. Dr. Martha May Eliot worked for the Children's Bureau, a national agency established in 1912 to improve the health and welfare of American children, for over 25 years. First employed as director of the bureau's Division of Child and Maternal Health, Eliot went on to become chief of the whole organization. She was the only woman to sign the founding document of the World Health Organization, and an influential force in children's health programs worldwide. Named to UN in 1952.
She died in Cambridge, Middlesex Co., MA , age at death: 86 years old. She was the daughter of Rev. Christopher Rhodes Eliot, born 20 January 1856 - St. Louis, MO, Deceased 20 June 1945 - Cambridge, Middlesex Co., MA age at death: 89 years old, so I strongly suspect she is buried in a Cemetery there with her family.
source: Find A Grave contributor Elisa Rolle
Martha May Eliot shared her personal life in a long emotional and domestic partnership with Ethel Collins Dunham, also a pioneering female pediatrician, who was made the first female member of the American Pediatric Society and was awarded its highest award, the Howland Medal, in 1957.
Lilian Faderman, the landmark scholar, writes: "[At] Bryn Mawr..she met a twenty-six year old freshman, Ethel Dunham. From 1910 to Ethel's death in 1969, the two women were inseparable. As a couple, Martha Eliot and Ethel Dunham..succeeded in times that were as unsympathetic to professional women as they were to lesbians. Their domestic satisfaction crept constantly into Martha's letters back home: "E. keeps me out doors which is great. This P.M. we are going canoeing. Tonight we are having supper here - oyster omelet, a concoction of Ethel's - and apple sauce and toast and nutbread." " Their partnership nourished and sustained them through their entire adult lives. In the 1970s, during Martha's travels for WHO, they wrote day after day: "Dearest, it was hard to say goodbye and I shall miss you terribly.. Ever and ever so much love, my darling"; "How I count the time until you do arrive. I miss you my darling".
Bert Hansen writes: "While Dunham and Eliot are each worthy of individual attention, their shared personal life has such an intimate connection with their careers that a combined narrative better illustrates their close relationship of 59 years. They achieved major professional positions at Yale, at Harvard, and in government, even while they were making careful career choices to maintain the continuity of their domestic partnership. Each was also accorded public honors for leadership in pediatrics, child welfare, and public health."
__________________________________________
Martha invented the cure for Rickets. She tried to go to Harvard, but because women were not admitted to the medical school, went to Johns Hopkins. Dr. Martha May Eliot worked for the Children's Bureau, a national agency established in 1912 to improve the health and welfare of American children, for over 25 years. First employed as director of the bureau's Division of Child and Maternal Health, Eliot went on to become chief of the whole organization. She was the only woman to sign the founding document of the World Health Organization, and an influential force in children's health programs worldwide. Named to UN in 1952.
She died in Cambridge, Middlesex Co., MA , age at death: 86 years old. She was the daughter of Rev. Christopher Rhodes Eliot, born 20 January 1856 - St. Louis, MO, Deceased 20 June 1945 - Cambridge, Middlesex Co., MA age at death: 89 years old, so I strongly suspect she is buried in a Cemetery there with her family.
source: Find A Grave contributor Elisa Rolle
Martha May Eliot (April 7, 1891-February 14, 1978), was a foremost pediatrician and specialist in public health, an assistant director for WHO, and an architect of New Deal and postwar programs for maternal and child health. Her first important research, community studies of rickets in New Haven, Connecticut, and Puerto Rico, explored issues at the heart of social medicine. Together with Edwards A. Park, her research established that public health measures (dietary supplementation with vitamin D) could prevent and reverse the early onset of rickets.
Martha May Eliot shared her personal life in a long emotional and domestic partnership with Ethel Collins Dunham, also a pioneering female pediatrician, who was made the first female member of the American Pediatric Society and was awarded its highest award, the Howland Medal, in 1957.
Lilian Faderman, the landmark scholar, writes: "[At] Bryn Mawr..she met a twenty-six year old freshman, Ethel Dunham. From 1910 to Ethel's death in 1969, the two women were inseparable. As a couple, Martha Eliot and Ethel Dunham..succeeded in times that were as unsympathetic to professional women as they were to lesbians. Their domestic satisfaction crept constantly into Martha's letters back home: "E. keeps me out doors which is great. This P.M. we are going canoeing. Tonight we are having supper here - oyster omelet, a concoction of Ethel's - and apple sauce and toast and nutbread." " Their partnership nourished and sustained them through their entire adult lives. In the 1970s, during Martha's travels for WHO, they wrote day after day: "Dearest, it was hard to say goodbye and I shall miss you terribly.. Ever and ever so much love, my darling"; "How I count the time until you do arrive. I miss you my darling".
Bert Hansen writes: "While Dunham and Eliot are each worthy of individual attention, their shared personal life has such an intimate connection with their careers that a combined narrative better illustrates their close relationship of 59 years. They achieved major professional positions at Yale, at Harvard, and in government, even while they were making careful career choices to maintain the continuity of their domestic partnership. Each was also accorded public honors for leadership in pediatrics, child welfare, and public health."
__________________________________________
Martha invented the cure for Rickets. She tried to go to Harvard, but because women were not admitted to the medical school, went to Johns Hopkins. Dr. Martha May Eliot worked for the Children's Bureau, a national agency established in 1912 to improve the health and welfare of American children, for over 25 years. First employed as director of the bureau's Division of Child and Maternal Health, Eliot went on to become chief of the whole organization. She was the only woman to sign the founding document of the World Health Organization, and an influential force in children's health programs worldwide. Named to UN in 1952.
She died in Cambridge, Middlesex Co., MA , age at death: 86 years old. She was the daughter of Rev. Christopher Rhodes Eliot, born 20 January 1856 - St. Louis, MO, Deceased 20 June 1945 - Cambridge, Middlesex Co., MA age at death: 89 years old, so I strongly suspect she is buried in a Cemetery there with her family.
source: Find A Grave contributor Elisa Rolle
Martha May Eliot shared her personal life in a long emotional and domestic partnership with Ethel Collins Dunham, also a pioneering female pediatrician, who was made the first female member of the American Pediatric Society and was awarded its highest award, the Howland Medal, in 1957.
Lilian Faderman, the landmark scholar, writes: "[At] Bryn Mawr..she met a twenty-six year old freshman, Ethel Dunham. From 1910 to Ethel's death in 1969, the two women were inseparable. As a couple, Martha Eliot and Ethel Dunham..succeeded in times that were as unsympathetic to professional women as they were to lesbians. Their domestic satisfaction crept constantly into Martha's letters back home: "E. keeps me out doors which is great. This P.M. we are going canoeing. Tonight we are having supper here - oyster omelet, a concoction of Ethel's - and apple sauce and toast and nutbread." " Their partnership nourished and sustained them through their entire adult lives. In the 1970s, during Martha's travels for WHO, they wrote day after day: "Dearest, it was hard to say goodbye and I shall miss you terribly.. Ever and ever so much love, my darling"; "How I count the time until you do arrive. I miss you my darling".
Bert Hansen writes: "While Dunham and Eliot are each worthy of individual attention, their shared personal life has such an intimate connection with their careers that a combined narrative better illustrates their close relationship of 59 years. They achieved major professional positions at Yale, at Harvard, and in government, even while they were making careful career choices to maintain the continuity of their domestic partnership. Each was also accorded public honors for leadership in pediatrics, child welfare, and public health."
__________________________________________
Martha invented the cure for Rickets. She tried to go to Harvard, but because women were not admitted to the medical school, went to Johns Hopkins. Dr. Martha May Eliot worked for the Children's Bureau, a national agency established in 1912 to improve the health and welfare of American children, for over 25 years. First employed as director of the bureau's Division of Child and Maternal Health, Eliot went on to become chief of the whole organization. She was the only woman to sign the founding document of the World Health Organization, and an influential force in children's health programs worldwide. Named to UN in 1952.
She died in Cambridge, Middlesex Co., MA , age at death: 86 years old. She was the daughter of Rev. Christopher Rhodes Eliot, born 20 January 1856 - St. Louis, MO, Deceased 20 June 1945 - Cambridge, Middlesex Co., MA age at death: 89 years old, so I strongly suspect she is buried in a Cemetery there with her family.
source: Find A Grave contributor Elisa Rolle
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