Anna Elizabeth Rude (September 3, 1876 – June 20, 1960) was an American physician and suffragist, based in California. She was director of the Child Hygiene division of the

United States Children's Bureau The United States Children's Bureau is a federal agency founded in 1912, organized under the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. Today, the bureau's operations involve improving child a ...

Early life and education

Rude was born in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

, and was the daughter of Daniel Rude and Amelia Nattinger Rude. Her mother died when Anna was very young; her father, a Civil War veteran from Massachusetts, died in 1887. She graduated from the state normal school (now

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...

) in San Jose in 1895, and earned a medical degree at

Cooper Medical College The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fran ...

(now Stanford University School of Medicine).

Career

Rude served an internship at the Children's Hospital of San Francisco in 1906 and 1907. She worked at

Fabiola Hospital The Fabiola Hospital (also known as, ''Oakland Homeopathic Hospital and Dispensary Association'') is a defunct American hospital in Oakland, California. Named after Saint Fabiola, it was founded in 1876 by 18 women. The medical staff was composed ...

in Oakland and taught at Cooper Medical College. Rude was active in the women's suffrage movement in California. She was treasurer of the College Equal Suffrage League of Northern California beginning in 1911. She attended the Democratic National Convention in 1920 as a representative of the

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a nonpartisan American nonprofit political organization. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include Voter registration, registering voters, providing voter information, boosting voter turnout and adv ...

.Hoyt, Hailey
"Biography of Anna Elizabeth Rude, 1875-1960"
''Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890–1920'', Alexander Street. Rude testified at a 1920 Senate hearing on maternal and infant health, and worked for passage of the Sheppard-Towner Act. In the 1920s, Rude was director of the Division of Child Hygiene of the United States Children's Bureau from 1918 to 1924, giving presentations throughout the United States on child health policies and practices; she also answered letters from worried parents. From the late 1920s into the 1940s, she was director of the Bureau of Maternal and Child Hygiene in the Los Angeles County Health Department. In 1930, she became chair of the health committee of the California Conference of Social Work.

Publications

While Rude was at the Children's Bureau, she wrote articles for the ''

American Journal of Public Health The ''American Journal of Public Health'' is a monthly peer-reviewed public health journal published by the American Public Health Association that covers health policy and public health. The journal was established in 1911 and its stated mission ...

'' and ''

JAMA ''JAMA'' (''The Journal of the American Medical Association'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of b ...

''. * "The Children's Year Campaign" (1919) * "Status of State Bureaus of Child Hygiene" (1920) * "The Sheppard-Towner Act in Relation to Public Health" (1922) * "The Midwife Problem in the United States" (1923)

Personal life

Rude died in 1960, in her eighties, in San Francisco.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rude, Anna Elizabeth 1876 births 1960 deaths Stanford University alumni American physicians Suffragists from California People from San Jose, California San Jose State University alumni