Adeline Portman

Adeline Elwell Portman was born in Ottawa, Illinois on February 27, 1860. She graduated from Mount Vernon College in Illinois in 1876, and received her medical degree from the University of Iowa in 1887. She completed her post-graduate studies at Iowa in 1888. She spent time in the New Mexico territory where in 1893, she met and married her husband, Captain Arthur Fitzharding Berkeley Portman, who was British.

In 1894, she did post-graduate work in London. The Portmans moved back to the US and settled in Washington, DC. Dr. Portman became the Chief of Eye, Ear and Throat Department of the Women’s Clinic and an Assistant in the Eye and Ear Department of the Emergency Department and Central Dispensary Clinic. She was one of two women, along with Dr. Ada R. Thomas to be a clinical assistant in ophthalmology. Both women were affiliated with the hospital for ten years.

In 1896, Dr. Portman became a member of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland, which was open to members who lived in Maryland, but worked in Washington, as Dr. Portman did. She authored at least one paper for a scientific journal, “Late Implanting of a Glass Ball in Orbit, and Epithelial Lip Grafts Transplanted to Orbit.” She also lectured at medical societies and hospitals around the country, as evidenced by contemporary newspaper accounts.

In addition to practicing medicine, Dr. Portman was active in a number of clubs and organizations, both on a local and national level. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, indicating her family had been in the States before the War. She wrote short stories for a monthly writing club, the Short Story Club, in Washington, and seemingly through that interest, became involved in the National Women’s Press Association. She served on the board, eventually becoming vice-president and then as acting president. She was also a board member at the Federated Women’s Clubs.

In 1903, Dr. Portman was one of a group of women who founded the American Institute of Applied Politics, organized to teach, by correspondence and otherwise, history, political science, social economics and international relations.

A 1907 article in an Atlanta newspaper talked about Dr. Portman and gave some interesting biographical information:

One of the most interesting women who came south with this party was Dr. Adeline E. Portman of Washington, DC. Dr. Portman enjoyed renewing old associations during her day in Atlants, ahving been a guest of honor at the American Medical Association, which met here a number of years ago. Dr. Portman, though having been a practicing physician for twenty years, has had time for a good deal of literary work, being an officer in the district Federation of Washington, DC, and is greatly interested in the reforms which the Federated Clibs have taken up on the lines of sanitation, tuberculosis, and other important subjects.

Dr. Portman is a graduate of the University of Iowa and of the London Royal Post-Graduate School. She has the distinction of having been the only woman in the world who has ever appeared before the ophthalmology section of the American Medical Association. Dr. Portman was accompanied by her husband, Capt. Portman, a retired English naval officer.

Although evidence exists that Dr. Portman spent time in New Mexico, which was still a territory, it is never mentioned what she did there., We might only infer that she was practicing medicine between 1888 when she graduated from medical school and when she met her British husband there “by appointment” and married him in White Oaks in 1893. But in the announcement, she is listed as Adeline Elwel [sic] Metcalf of Iowa City, Iowa. In 1894, she is listed on the roster at the AMA Conference in San Francisco as Dr. Portman, from White Oaks, NM. In 1906, Dr. Portman gives a paper on New Mexico. Her “long residence there made her familiar with the conditions and history.”

It also took a lot of hunting to actually realize that the Portmans were married because in later DC-based articles, they are never listed as a couple, rather as Capt. Portman, Dr. Portman. I only saw once instance where they were listed as Capt. and Dr. Portman. Adding to the confusion is another well-known man in England with the exact same name who was a writer of horses and hounds, and who did during the Blitz in London.

By 1911, Dr. Portman had disappeared from the pages of the newspapers, and did not re-appear until 1922, when her estate was probated. She had died at her home in Chevy Chase, Maryland on May 6, 1922. Her husband died the following year. There were no children.