Ellen Culver Potter

Ellen Culver Potter (August 5, 1871 – February 9, 1958) was an American physician and public health official.

Ellen Culver Potter
A young white woman wearing her hair center-parted and dressed back away from face; she is wearing eyeglasses, a starched shirt collar, and a necktie.
Ellen Culver Potter, from a 1911 yearbook.
BornAugust 5, 1871
New London, Connecticut
DiedFebruary 9, 1958
Philadelphia
Occupation(s)Physician, public health official

Early life

Potter was born in New London, Connecticut, the daughter of Thomas Wells Potter and Ellen Harris Culver Potter.[1][2] She studied art as a young woman in Boston and New York City, and Europe.[3] She worked at a settlement house in Chinatown, and started a settlement house in Norwich, Connecticut.[4]

Potter graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1903,[5] and was an officer in the school's alumnae association.[6]

Career

Potter taught gynecology courses at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania,[6] and was medical director of the school's hospital. She also taught social hygiene at Bryn Mawr College. She worked in the Philadelphia school system as a medical inspector, and in 1920 became head of the Division of Child Health for the state of Pennsylvania. From 1921 to 1923, she served as head of the state's Bureau of Children.[4][7] Potter was appointed Pennsylvania's Secretary of Welfare in 1923, by governor Gifford Pinchot, and was the first American woman to hold a secretary position in a state governor's cabinet.[3][8] Her department oversaw public childcare,[9] state hospitals, county jails,[10] and other institutions.[11] She served in this position until 1927.[4]

In New Jersey, she was medical director of the New Jersey Training School from 1927 to 1937, medical director of the State Department of Institutions and Agencies from 1930 to 1946),[12] and deputy welfare commissioner from 1946 to 1949. She was also superintendent of the Woman’s Reformatory and State Home for Girls.[4][13] She was president of the New Jersey Welfare Council.[2]

On the national level, Potter was president of the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) from 1929 to 1930, and served on the President’s Commission on Social Security.[14] She consulted for the Wickersham Commission on prisons and parole.[2][15] She was a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association. She was active in the League of Women Voters and the YWCA.[3] She testified several times at Congressional hearings, on maternal health in 1921[16] and on medical staff shortages in 1941.[17]

In 1936, Potter received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Rutgers College.[2] She won American Public Welfare Association's W. S. Terry Memorial Award in 1948.[15] From 1941 to 1943, she was acting president of her alma mater, the Woman's Medical College.[15]

Personal life

Potter died in 1958, aged 86 years, at the Woman's Medical College Hospital in Philadelphia.[18][19][20] Her papers are the archives of the Drexel University College of Medicine.[21]

References
  1. Potter, Charles Edward (1888). Genealogies of the Potter Families and Their Descendants in America to the Present Generation: With Historical and Biographical Sketches. A. Mudge & Son. p. 11.
  2. Myers, William Starr (2000). Prominent Families of New Jersey. Genealogical Publishing Com. pp. 153–154. ISBN 978-0-8063-5036-3.
  3. Moss, Margaret Steel (1941). "Ellen C. Potter, M.D., F. A. C. P." Public Administration Review. 1 (4): 351–362. doi:10.2307/972908. ISSN 0033-3352. JSTOR 972908.
  4. Miller, Janet (2000). "Potter, Ellen Culver (1871-1958), physician, public health administrator, and welfare reformer". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1200734. ISBN 978-0-19-860669-7. Retrieved 2020-09-17.
  5. Leonard, John William (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada. American Commonwealth Company. p. 656.
  6. Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (1911). Scalpel : the 1911 yearbook of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Archives and Special Collections Drexel University College of Medicine Legacy Center. [Philadelphia, PA : Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania]. pp. 28, 131, 138.
  7. "NEW WELFARE DEPARTMENT; Three Public Agencies Are Consolidated in Pennsylvania". The New York Times. 1921-11-13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-17.
  8. "300 Men and Women of City and Dunmore Honor Dr. Potter at Luncheon". The Times-Tribune. 1923-04-28. p. 7. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Praises Work of Day Nursery". Lancaster New Era. 1926-12-31. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Delays Jail Inspection". The York Dispatch. 1923-09-20. p. 20. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. Stern, Elizabeth G. (November 8, 1925). "WOMAN SUCCEEDS IN STATE OFFICE; Dr. Ellen C. Potter, Head of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Achieves Notable Results". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-09-17.
  12. "Dr. Ellen C. Potter to Open N. J. C. Volunteers' Institute". The Central New Jersey Home News. 1944-10-18. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy (2003-12-16). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge. p. 1046. ISBN 978-1-135-96343-9.
  14. "Dr. Ellen C. Potter Gets Federal Job". The Courier-News. 1933-07-21. p. 14. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. "Deputy Head of State Agency Given Award for Social Work". The Central New Jersey Home News. 1948-12-19. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. Protection of Maternity: Hearing Before the Committee on Education and Labor, United States Senate, Sixty-seventh Congress, First Session on S. 1039, a Bill for the Public Protection of Maternity and Infancy and Providing a Method of Cooperation Between the Government of the United States and the Several States, April 25, 1921 ; Printed for the Use of the Committee on Education and Labor. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1921. pp. 128–130.
  17. Migration, United States Congress House Select Committee Investigating National Defense (1941). National Defense Migration: Hearings Before the Select Committee Investigating National Defense Migration, House of Representatives, Seventy-seventh Congress, First[-second] Session, Pursuant to H. Res. 113, a Resolution to Inquire Further Into the Interstate Migration of Citizens, Emphasizing the Present and Potential Consequences of the Migration Caused by the National Defense Program. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 5655–5665.
  18. Baumann, F. (July 1958). "Memorial to Ellen Culver Potter (1871-1958)". Journal of the American Medical Women's Association. 13 (7): 296–297. ISSN 0091-7427. PMID 13563235.
  19. "Ellen C. Potter, M.D., 1871-1958". Social Service Review. 32 (3): 301–302. 1958-09-01. doi:10.1086/640521. ISSN 0037-7961. S2CID 225090910.
  20. "Funeral Tomorrow for Dr. Ellen C. Potter". Public Opinion. 1958-02-10. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. "George A. Hay collection of administrative files of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1890-1970". Philadelphia Area Archives Research Portal. Retrieved 2020-09-17.
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