LETTERS and BOOKS: Battle Creek Sanitarium: Lectures and Brochures on the Hygienic Movement.
Two Female Doctors in The Hygienic Movement
Curing Women’s Ailments Naturally
[Health issues]. Autograph letter signed, “Susanna W. Dodds,” to Dr. Heald, March 7, 1887; two leaves of the Dodds’ “Hygienic Physicians” letterhead; rectos and versos; creased; small stain on the verso of the first leaf and the recto of the second leaf. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
Boxed together with:
Autograph letter signed, “Susanna W. Dodds,” to Dr. Heald, April 5, 1887; two leaves of the Dodds’ “Hygienic Physicians” letterhead; rectos and versos; creased.
Boxed together with:
Dodds, Susanna M.D. and Mary Dodds, M.D. Curing by Hygiene. No Medicines. 2826 Washington Ave., St. Louis, MO. [n.d.].
4to.; folded to make four pages; creased.
Two copies of this printed flyer.
Boxed together with:
[Anonymous]. Winter at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Battle Creek: Michigan, Gage Printing Company, Ltd., [n.d.].
4to.; last page torn twice at the top; endpapers foxed; brown wrappers bound with string; upper panel stamped in brown; edgeworn.
Twenty-four-page advertisement for the Battle Creek Sanitarium; with 57 black and white photographs and five illustrations. Photographs, illustrations and text printed in black and white on light green blocks.
Boxed together with:
[Anonymous]. Valley Park Sanitarium. Meramec Station, Nasby P.O., St. Louis Co., MO. [n.d.].
8vo.; folded to make four pages; creased.
Printed leaflet; with engraving of the Sanitarium on the first page.
Boxed together with:
[Anonymous]. The Graefenberg Gazette. Published periodically by the Graefenberg Company. Vol. 1 No. 2. New York: The Graefenberg Company, January, 1847.
4to.; foxed; text on first page faded; several nicks and small closed tears; edgeworn; creased.
Four-page newspaper; printed in red ink.
Archive of literature on the Hygienic Movement that gained popularity in the latter part of the 19th century. In her letters, Dr. Susanna Dodds updates Dr. Pusey Heald on the progress of the school she is in the process of establishing, the St. Louis Hygienic College of Physicians and Surgeons. Addressing him familiarly in the second letter as “Dear Friend,” she is humorous, lighthearted, and optimistic in both letters. She is eager to have him participate in the school in some capacity; in the first letter, she writes,
we shall expect you to be President of the Board of Instructors, and Professor of Pathology and Therapeutics – or Theory and Practice; we will not call it ‘Materia Medica.’ You certainly know that there are scarcely three persons living, who are able to teach Hygeio-Therapy; you also know that, barring physical disability, Pusey Heald not only understands this science and art, but he can teach the same to others.
In 1871 Heald had founded Heald’s Hygeian Home (1871-1886) in Delaware.
The second letter is similarly themed. She informs him that the Charter for the school has been drawn up; expresses optimism for the effect she hopes the school will have on the community; and asks if Heald would like to be listed as one of the incorporators of the College. She is anxious to find “competent teachers,” and she expands on the type of person she wishes to employ at the College. “It has therefore been suggested that we invite hygienists outside to join with us; particularly physicians that are known to be true to the ‘faith;’ in fact, we do not want any other kind.” In closing, she requests anatomical or physiological charts, and a skeleton, for the lecture room, and asks if he would be able to donate them or suggest a place where they could be bought. Despite the energies of its founder and initial support from outsiders, the St. Louis Hygienic College closed in 1893 due to lack of necessary funds.
Dodds was one of the top 1866 graduates of the HygeioTherapeutic College in New York. She and her sister-in-law, Mary – also a doctor – lived in St. Louis, advertise
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