Mrs. Forbes-Robertson Hale and Med-Chi

Strictly speaking, this is not a medical post, but one about a woman who once spoke here at MedChi. Her name was Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale, and she was an actress and suffragist in the first quarter of the 1900s.

At that time, many of the private schools were located in close proximity to the Faculty, so our Osler Hall would have been a prefect place for a gathering lead by a woman who was known as a champion of women!

Bryn Mawr and Roland Park Country are both all-girls schools, and the others are co-ed. It's sure that someone from Bryn Mawr knew Marcia Noyes, as their respective buildings were located across Cathedral Street from one another. 

Marcia had somewhat of a history with the suffrage movement, as evidenced in this blog post from earlier in 2024. 

I stumbled across this article from the Baltimore Sun while searching for something else.  Mrs. Forbes-Robertson Hale was lecturing at Osler Hall on Tuesday, March 2, 1926.   

We Need Your Support!

This has been a big year, for many reasons:

• In January, we started the 225th Anniversary year with a ceremony at the Maryland State House, where we were lucky enough to have the original charter documents on display. 
  
• In March, we held a reception for local non-profits, foundations and friends to show off the Museum of Maryland Medical History. 
  
• In June, on the exact 225th anniversary of the first meeting of the Founders of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty, we hosted the Grand Opening of the Museum.
  
• In September, the Director of the History of Maryland Medicine became a full-time, privately-funded, one-year position.
• In October, we launched our social media accounts on YouTube and Instagram, and reached 300,000 unique visits on this blog!
  
• In December, we are adding a significant amount of information on our portraits collection, gleaned from searching our historic Maryland Medical Journal.

This is what we've done, but now we need you to step up and help us with some funding, and with donations of items to be added to our Museum. 

Here's what we need funding for:

• The History of Maryland Medicine Director's position.
• Preservation of the art collection and archives.
• Acquisitions for items for the museum, which come up at auctions with some frequency.

Click the QR code below to make a financial donation. You will be able to select where you want your donation to be directed. 

We are also looking for material donations to the Museum.

• Items should be 100 years or older and have some relevance to our current collections. 
• Portraits of Founders or Past Presidents.
• 1700s and 1800s medical equipment.
• Pre-1900s medical books.
• Smaller medical collections.

If you would like to discuss making a material donation to the Museum, please contact Meg Fielding. 

Thank you for considering our request!

Afternoon Light

I love the afternoon light in our offices, and the way the details are highlighted.

I also love the paint color, which is called Turtleback in homage of our founding of what is now the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1807. The paint was donated to us by C2 Paint, an American-made brand comparable to Farrow & Ball.

Giving Tuesday

Black Friday.    Cyber Monday.    Giving Tuesday.

You might know what the first two are, but do you know about the third - Giving Tuesday?

Giving Tuesday is touted as a "global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world." It means giving to others, after you've shopped in person on Friday and on the internet on Monday.

We hope that you will consider a gift to the MedChi Museum of Maryland Medical History, and the MedChi Archives this Giving Tuesday!

Thank you so much!

128 Years Ago

I know this seems like the Marcia blog, but it's at this time of the year that Marcia is prominent in our history. 

It was 128 years ago this week that Dr. William Osler hired the young librarian, Marcia Crocker Noyes. And it was 50 years later, to the week, that Marcia died.

Dr. Osler was President of the Faculty in 1896 and he wanted to revitalize the library. The Faculty had moved several times in the past 20 years, and after the Civil War, the library had gone into significant decline. 

Dr. Osler was also a noted bibliophile and a good friend of Bernard Steiner, the president of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. So, of course, Dr. Osler asked his friend for advice, and Mr. Steiner recommended Marcia Noyes, who was working in the circulation department of the Pratt. 

In an article, Marcia mentions that "within two weeks, I had a new job, and I was living in a new place." This was because the librarian was required to live on the premises, so as to be available to physicians who were looking for a specific book at any and all hours of the day.

If not for Marcia and all that she accomplished during her 50 year tenure at the Faculty, we would not be the organization that we are today. 

The MedChi Museum & Archives on Social Media

After some hard work, the MedChi Museum and Archives are finally active on social media. This is a great opportunity for friends and others to keep up with the discoveries we have made in our collections.

The Museum and Archives are on YouTube as MedChi Museum and Archives (ha), and the link is HERE. Be sure and bookmark it, so that you can go back and see what new videos we have posted.

The Museum is on Instagram as @MedChiMuseum. We try and post something new each [work]day and it's mostly items from our collections. The link is HERE. We hope that you will follow to see all of the fascinating items in our collections.

Thank you!

Please Vote This Halloween!

 Marcia says the scariest thing this Halloween is not voting for President.

This year, your vote is more important than ever.

Please Vote !