Charlotte Blake Brown (1846 – April 19, 1904) was an American physician. She was one of the first female doctors to practice on the West Coast of the United States and was a co-founder of the Pacific Dispensary for Women and Children, and San Francisco Hospital for Children and Training School for Nurses.

Early life and education

Charlotte Amanda Blake was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, in 1846. Both her parents were from

Brewer, Maine Brewer is a city in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. It is part of the Bangor metropolitan area. The city is named after its first settler, Colonel John Brewer. The population was 9,672 at the 2020 census. Brewer is the sister city ...

, and Brown subsequently attended high school in

Bangor, Maine Bangor ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The city proper has a population of 31,753, making it the state's List of municipalities in Maine, third-most populous city, behind Portland, Maine, Portland ...

while living with relatives. After graduating from high school, she entered

Elmira College Elmira College is a private college in Elmira, New York, United States. Founded as a Timeline of women's colleges in the United States#First and oldest, college for women in 1855, it is the oldest existing college granting degrees to women that ...

Elmira, New York Elmira () is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in and the county seat of Chemung County, New York, United States. It is the principal city of the Elmira, New York, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Chemung County. ...

, graduating in 1866. She married Henry Adams Brown, and in 1872 attended the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia, graduating with an MD in 1874.

Career

In 1875, Brown oved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, and founded the Pacific Dispensary for Women and Children with Dr. Martha Bucknell. A third female physician, Dr. Sara E. Brown, subsequently joined them, and the institution was reorganized as the San Francisco Hospital for Children in 1878. Brown lived in California once before. Her father went to San Francisco at the height of the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

in 1849, and the family joined him in 1851. In 1854, they moved to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, where her father, a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

minister, ran a mission for Scottish miners until 1854, when they returned to

. Brown's first application to join the San Francisco Medical Society was rejected on account of her gender. In 1876, however, she was one of four women admitted into the California Medical Society, causing the San Francisco physicians to re-consider and grant her membership two years later. In 1880, Brown and her colleagues organized within their hospital the first nurses' training school on the West Coast. Brown wrote 18 articles for medical journals in addition to carrying on a busy practice and raised three children, two of whom also became physicians.

Death

Brown died in 1904, aged 58 years, in

. Elizabeth A. Follansbee
"Death of Noted Medical Woman"
''Southern California Practitioner'' (May 1904): 180-181.

Legacy

Children's Hospital merged with another institution to become

California Pacific Medical Center Sutter Health California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) is a general medical/surgical and teaching hospital in San Francisco, California. It was created by a merger of some of the city's longest established hospitals and currently operates three ...

in 1991.

References

External links