Florence Rena Sabin Papers, American Philosophical Society

Table of contents

Abstract

Correspondence, reports, etc., relating principally to medical research (tuberculosis, cancer, lymphatic system, pernicious anemia), writings and publications. There is material of note on the following organizations: American Assoc. of Anatomists, American Assoc. of University Women, American Woman's Assoc., Henry Strong Denison Medical Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (re. fellowships), Hall of Fame for Great Americans, Institute for Advanced Study, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Medical Aid to China, Medical Aid to Spain, Naples Table Association (this existed to promote laboratory research by women: there are folders of correspondence, 1919-1931; applications; General Committee minutes, 1915-1932), National Academy of Sciences, National Tuberculosis Assoc., Peking Union Medical College, Rockefeller Institute, Ellen Richards Prize (awarded by the Assoc. to Aid Scientific Research by Women), Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, University in Exile (i.e. New School for Social Research), White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, and the World Center for Women's Archives. There are abstracts and notes of unpublished scientific papers, and also materials for her biography of Franklin Paine Mall, 1934.

Background note
Scope & content
Administrative information
Additional information
- Related material
Added entries
Contact information
Collection inventory
- Series I. Correspondence
- Series II. Photographs

Background note

Born in the mining town of Central City, Colorado, as the daughter of an engineer, Florence Rena Sabin was raised in New England and carved out a career of firsts in developmental biology and anatomy.

Receiving a bachelor's degree from Smith College in 1893, Sabin entered the three year old medical school at Johns Hopkins University in 1896, becoming the first woman graduate from the school with the class of 1900. At Hopkins, Sabin became the protégé of Franklin P. Mall, who encouraged her research interests in anatomy. By any reckoning, her talent for medical investigation was enormous, earning her an internship at Hopkins Hospital, followed by a special fellowship in the Department of Anatomy from the Baltimore Association for the Advancement of University Education of Women. By 1917, Sabin was made a member of the faculty in the Department of Histology, the first woman at the University to be promoted to the status of full professor.

Her early research centered on the embryological origins of the lymphatic system, and she later worked on the origins of blood, blood cells, and blood vessels, on the histology of the brain, and on the pathology and immunology of tuberculosis.

In September, 1925, Sabin accepted the invitation to head the Department of Cellular Studies at the Rockefeller Institute, becoming the first woman faculty member there, and continuing her work on tuberculosis. She retired to Colorado in 1938, but emerged six years later at the request of the governor to chair a subcommittee on public health and help reform and modernize the state's public health system. She retired a second time in 1951 and died October 3, 1953.

Honors accrued to Sabin throughout her career, including a number of firsts. In addition to being the first female graduate of Hopkins medical school, the first full professor there, and the first at Rockefeller, she was the first president of the American Association of Anatomists (1924) and the first woman member of the National Academy of Sciences (1925). She was selected as one of two representatives for the state of Colorado in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.

Scope and content

The Papers of Florence Rena Sabin, a pioneer in women's role in medical research, consist of 13.5 linear feet of correspondence, notes, and publications pertaining to her research in anatomy and embryology. The collection is rich in detail on her work on tuberculosis, cancer, the origins of the lymphatic system, and pernicious anemia, as well as her involvement with a number of professional organizations.

Administrative information

Restrictions

None.

Provenance

Gift of the Rockefeller Institute, 1964.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Florence Rena Sabin Papers, American Philosophical Society.

Additional information

Related material

Additional Sabin material is located in the Alan Mason Chesney Papers at Johns Hopkins University, at Smith College, and the archives of the Rockefeller Institute in Tarrytown, N.Y.


Series I. Correspondence
	A	1930 - 38
	Aagard, Otto	1922 - 23
	Abbott, Maude E.	1917 - 28
	Abel, John Jacob	1932 - 39
	Abels, Jules C.	1939 - 41
	Abstracts - Unpublished Papers	n.d.
	Academy of Political Science	1937
	Adams, Emma M.	1931
	Adams, Frances	1934 - 35
	Adams, Roger	1931
	Addis, T.	1930, 1939
	Addresses: Invitations to Speak	n.d.
	Adelhelm, C. Edgar	1938
	Adler, Eleanor L.	1932
	Alber, Mrs. Karl	1936
	Albert-Weil, Jean	1932
	Allen, Esther C.	1926
	Alpha Springs Company	1936
	Altschul, F. J.	1932
	Amberson, James Burns, Jr.	1925 - 42
	American Association for the Advancement of Science	1927 - 44
	American Association for the Advancement of Science - Elections	1907 - 09
	American Association of Anatomists	1923 - 38
	American Association of University Women	1923 - 39
	American Chemical Society	1934 - 37
	American Eugenics Society	1926 - 36
	American Friends of Spanish Democracy	1937
	American Geographical Society	1933 - 37
	American Journal of Physiology	1936
	American Library in Honor of Pasteur	1931 - 32
	American Men of Science	1931 - 32
	American Museum of Natural History	1927 - 26
	American Scholar	1934
	American Society for the Control of Cancer	1938 - 45
	American Society of Medical Technologists	1937
	American University Club	1931 - 32
	American Woman's Association	1926 - 39
	American - Soviet Friendship, Inc.	1944