From our friend, member, and physician, Harry Knipp, MD:
I recently found an old book that dad, Harry Lester Knipp, MD, had
given me years ago. It was on the shelf at 4116 Edmondson Avenue when they were
packing up the office in 1977 to move to Frederick Villa. The book is a 1930
2nd edition printing of Aequanimitas, Dr William Osler's addresses to medical students,
nurses, and other practitioners of medicine, originally published in 1904.
The inside front cover had two inscriptions. The uppermost was
that the book had been given to Gertrude B. Knipp (GBK) of 1821 Park Avenue in
Baltimore by Donald and Grace [Belt] in 1932. Donald Belt was GBK's
nephew, more on that below. The second inscription was dated Dec. 31, 1949,
when GBK gave the book to my grandfather: “For Dr. George A. Knipp with
much love, GBK.” Squeezed in between those lines, as an afterthought might
appear, she added our dad, Dr. Harry Lester Knipp, who was a new medical student
at University of Maryland at the time.
I had not heard much if anything about Gertrude Knipp growing up,
probably because she passed away in 1952 and had never married, so there were
no ongoing relatives. This got me to do some digging…
Gertrude Bitzel Knipp (GBK) was the 2nd daughter
and 2nd child of John Jacob Knipp, Jr (1833-1909) and his wife
Elizabeth Bitzel. Jacob, Jr. was the first child and eldest son of
the first Knipp to come to Baltimore from Germany in 1832, John Jacob Knipp,
Sr. and his wife Anna Gengnagel Knipp. Jacob, Jr. worked in a dry goods
store at 33 N. Howard Street.
Donald (1891-1960) was the son of Jacob, Jr’s third child Mary
(Mazie) Knipp (the next child after GBK), and her husband William Belt. It was
Donald Belt, who gave GBK the above-mentioned book.
Mazie and William's oldest child, Donald's big sister, who never
married, was Mabel Knipp Belt, M.D. (1888-1927). She graduated from Western
High School, received her AB from Goucher, and was Phi Beta Kappa in 1910, and
M.D. from Hopkins in 1914.
Dr. Mabel Knipp Belt was a Med Chi member and also the American Association of
University Women. She had a private medical practice in the Arundel Apartments
at Charles Street and Mt. Royal Avenue and was school examiner for a number of
high schools, including Friends.
GBK graduated from Goucher College with an AB degree in 1897. She
immediately began working as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, and was only the
second female reporter they had hired (confirmed in commentary by them in her
1952 obit).
GBK remained at the Sun until 1905 and then moved to the Baltimore
News American for another 2 years. Her biggest scoop at the Sun was in 1901,
breaking the news well before it was announced publicly that Dr. Daniel Coit
Gilman would be retiring as President of Johns Hopkins University. Amazingly,
she had overheard Hopkins staff discussing it on the streetcar, attributing her
scoop to “sheer dumb luck!”
For this scoop, she was awarded a solid gold coin. Her Sun
salary was $10/week. It is interesting that the inscribed book that started my
search is dedicated by Dr. Osler to Dr. Daniel Gilman, the “ex-President of
JHU, for his guidance in those happy days in 1889 when Johns Hopkins Hospital
was organized and opened.”
GBK also got to interview Baltimore's Cardinal Gibbons.
In Sept. 1907, GBK was the press representative for the
International Congress on tuberculosis. After her newspaper career, GBK went on
to be the Executive Secretary of the American Association for the Study and
Prevention of Infant Mortality (AASPIM). She played a major role in that
organization and attended many national meetings. Her offices were in the
Medical & Chirurgical Faculty’s building on Cathedral Street.
She is even mentioned in a 1919 edition of the Charlotte Medical
Journal, noting the election of officers at the AASPIM’s annual meeting in
Chicago. She was an editorial assistant at the Maryland Board of Health
for many years. In 1939, she took a position with the Maryland Department of
Health as Chief of the Division of Public Health Education (confirmed in the
Maryland Manual) and was there for many years.
GBK lived in Reservoir Hill in a big beautiful 1910 townhouse at
1821 Park Ave, near the corner of Lennox Street. There are terrific pictures of
the house and its renovated interior on real estate websites on-line if you search the address. She passed away at
her home on October 27, 1952 after an illness of several months. Her funeral
was held at the historic Tickner's Funeral Home on the corner of North and
Pennsylvania Avenues where Dr. George Knipp’s services were held in 1964. GBK
is buried in Loudon Park Cemetery where most of the family has been interred.
Some additional commentary: Interesting that after four years as
DHMH (Dept of Health and Mental Hygiene), the state health department went back
to its earlier, more compact name, the Maryland Dept of Health (MDH).
By the way, speaking of long-term “employment” at DHMH/MDH, I
worked there in an official capacity pro bono for a total of 27 years – 17 as a
founding member of the Radiologic Technology Committee of the Board of
Physicians Quality Assurance, going back to 1983-84 when it was still the Board
of Medical Examiners, and through the short period of the Commission on Medical
Discipline; then another 10 years at the Maryland Board of Physicians,
including two terms as chair and ten years as chair on the Investigative Review
Panel.
As to Hopkins Hospital... organized in 1889, the year George A. Knipp,
MD was born, the University of Maryland School of Medicine began in 1807 and
University Hospital was born in 1823 as the Baltimore Infirmary, the nation’s
first medical school teaching hospital. I bet if you ask the general public,
they'll say Hopkins is older.
Hopkins did beat Maryland in graduating women
physicians. Our cousin Mabel Knipp Belt, MD, as above, graduated from there in
1914. She had her offices in the Arundel Apartments, formerly on the south-east corner of Charles Street and Mt. Royal Avenue.
The first female grad of UMSOM was in my grandfather's class of 1923, Dr
Nancy Snaith. In a shocker, Dr. Mabel Belt died of a sudden heart
attack at age 39 while in a store at 303 N. Charles Street, (in family history
while listening to a record of "The Lost Chord").
As
to Goucher, our Dr. Minnie B. Knipp (b1896), my great aunt and older sister to
Dr. George A. Knipp, also received her undergrad degree at Goucher in 1915 and
went on to get a masters from Cornell and then her doctorate from Hopkins, thus
beginning her long career as a professor of education at Washington College in Chestertown. In the May 1923, Goucher Alumni Quarterly, there's a nice article on Dr. and
Mrs. Goucher written by alum GBK!
Submitted by:
Harry Knipp, MD
May 23, 2022
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