Diary of Dr. Anna B. Taylor, of Cambridge, MA.
383 mss pages, diary format is one page per entry, measures 2 1/2” x 3 3/4", bound in limp brown leather, pocket at rear of diary has come apart, edges of binding rubbed, scuffed, and worn. Of the 365 day entry pages, only 4 were left blank; the extra pages are memorandum notes and cash accounts that are filled in at rear of diary. The entries are written in ink and pencil, in a legible hand, and dated 1 Jan to 31 Dec, 1886.
The front blank page of the diary is signed "Dr. Anna B. Taylor, 86 High Street, Charlestown, Mass, 1886." There are other clues within the diary entries that give the writer's identity as well, such as numerous medical entries, an obvious female writer, and the entry for November 14th, 1886, when the author writes that it is her birthday. An online genealogy at Ancestry.com confirms that is dale is indeed Taylor's birthday, as does a book on New Hampshire women (listed below).
The diary offered here is from 1886, kept when Taylor was thirty-five years old, still single, and living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She had just graduated two years previous from Boston University's Medical School and had set up a practice in Cambridge. The diary shows her receiving patients, making house calls, as well as prescribing treatments and medications. The names of the patients are stated. The 12 pages of cash accounts in the rear of diary gives further names and costs to the patients. Overall, an interesting diary showing the medical practice of a woman doctor in mid-1880s Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Anna Betsey Taylor was the daughter of Joseph Lovell Taylor (1807-1891) & Laura Gove (1813-1886). She was born 14 Nov 1851 in Sugar Hill, in northern New Hampshire. She was the tenth in a family of twelve children and was educated in Whitefield, NH where her parents lived and owned a farm.
She attended Western Massachusetts Normal School, working for her board, and she "graduated in a dress which she had worn nearly three years, rather than going into debt for a new one.” She then taught school for three years. Following the illness of someone close to her, she decided to devote her life to the relief of human suffering.
She studied medicine at Boston University, paying for same through nursing and hospital work. Even after being left partially deaf from diphtheria, she continued her studies and graduated with honors in 1884. She settled in medical practice in Charlestown, MA, but moved to Somerville, MA in 1890 where she established an extensive practice and specialized in the diseases of women.
Anna B. Taylor married 31 March 1894 in Somerville, MA to Herbert Asa Cole, the widower son of Erastus & Harriet (Whitcomb) Cole. He was born 8 May 1849 in Somerville, MA. Herbert was listed as a bridge builder, and at the time of his marriage, a clerk. In 1915, Dr. Taylor-Cole is found donating money to the New England Watch & Ward Society, an organization dedicated to remove temptations to vice and crime.
Anna died on 10 May 1931 in Somerville, MA, her husband died not long after on 2 Jan 1932. In religion, Taylor was a Universalist and a member of many societies and organizations including Massachusetts Homeopathic Medical Society, Boston Medical Society, Boston Surgical and Gynecological Society, Women's College Club, Professional Women's Club, and the New Hampshire Club of Somerville.
References:
New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various w Life. Concord, NH: The New Hampshire Publishing Co., 1895. Pp. 137.
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