{"id":3244,"date":"2014-02-27T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2014-02-27T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=3244"},"modified":"2022-06-30T11:06:23","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:06:23","slug":"ossie-davis-at-freedmens-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2014\/02\/27\/ossie-davis-at-freedmens-hospital\/","title":{"rendered":"Ossie Davis at Freedmen’s Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alexsandra Mitchell ~
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Four<\/a>
Ossie Davis with a group of patients at Freedman’s Hospital
National Library of Medicine #101447096<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This undated image of civil rights activist, actor, playwright, poet, author, and director, Ossie Davis is just one of the \u2018hidden treasures\u2019 within the Images from the History of Medicine (IHM) online image collection here at the National Library of Medicine\u2019s History of Medicine Division.<\/p>\n

Davis, born Raiford Chatman Davis in Cogdell, Clinch County, Georgia in 1917, is one of Howard University\u2019s most notable and esteemed alumni (though he did not officially graduate from the university, he received an honorary degree in 1973).<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019s visit to the children\u2019s ward of the historic Howard University Freedmen\u2019s Hospital of Washington, D.C., was an act in character with his rich legacy of giving back to the community.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Freedman’s Hospital, circa 1970
National Library of Medicine #<\/a><\/em>101446066<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Freedmen\u2019s Hospital is a pillar in the history of medicine for the Black community. Beginning in 1863, Freedmen\u2019s provided medical care to former slaves and other aged and disabled African Americans in the Washington, D.C. area. Five years after it opened, Freedmen\u2019s Hospital became the official teaching hospital for the Howard University College of Medicine.<\/p>\n

Many notable African American doctors have taught and been trained within the walls of Freedmen\u2019s Hospital, which was relocated and renamed Howard University Hospital in 1975.\u00a0 These pioneers include: Lt. Colonel Alexander T. Augusta, M.D.<\/a> (the first African American to head a hospital in the United States); Charles R. Drew, M.D.<\/a>; Montague Cobb M.D., Ph.D; and contemporary pioneers in academic surgery such as Dr. Patricia E. Bath<\/a>.\u00a0 Patricia Bath\u2014ophthalmologist, inventor, and founder of the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness\u2014created the Laserphaco Probe, a device invented to aid in the efficient removal of cataracts.<\/p>\n

\"Women<\/a>
African American nurses at the entrance to the Freedmen’s Hospital.
National Library of Medicine #101446067<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To learn more about the history of Freedmen\u2019s Hospital, other pioneers, and contemporary surgeons within the realm of African American medicine, please visit our online exhibition: Opening Doors: Contemporary African American Academic Surgeons<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"portrait<\/a>Alexsandra Mitchell was a 2013 Association of Research Libraries Career Enhancement Program<\/a> Fellow in the History of Medicine Division and a Brooklyn based international research scholar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alexsandra Mitchell ~ Freedmen\u2019s Hospital is a pillar in the history of medicine for the Black community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605840,"featured_media":24100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12763,4940351],"tags":[168941,143923596,38746],"class_list":["post-3244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collections","category-prints-photographs","tag-african-american-history","tag-freedmans-hospital","tag-hospitals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/a018026_feature.jpg?fit=900%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3xcDk-Qk","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3244"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24102,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3244\/revisions\/24102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}