Robert Latou Dickinson (1861–1950) was an American obstetrician and

gynecologist Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined area ...

, surgeon, maternal health educator, artist, sculptor and medical illustrator, and research scientist.

Early life

Robert Latou Dickinson was born on February 21, 1861, in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.eddy drove the metal prow into Dickinson's abdomen, gashing it deeply. Holding the two sides of the wound together and some internal organs inside, Dickinson dragged himself to shore; his injury was stitched by a lay person, but it took a long time to heal and a scar remained for the rest of his life. Thereafter, Dickinson determined to become a doctor. He attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and schools in Germany and Switzerland, sketching and studying classical art all the way. After his return, Dickinson studied at the Long Island College Hospital, and received his medical degree in 1882.

Career

Dickinson practiced obstetrics and

gynecology Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined are ...

in Brooklyn. He became Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Brooklyn Hospital and at

Methodist Episcopal Hospital NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital is located in Park Slope in Brooklyn, New York, between 7th and 8th Avenues, on 6th Street. The academic hospital has 591 beds (including bassinets) and provides services to some 42,000 inpatients ...

. During the First World War, he was Assistant Chief of the Medical Section of the Council of National Defense, and Medical Advisor on the General Staff. He served a turn as President of the

American College of Surgeons The American College of Surgeons is an educational association of surgeons created in 1913.American College of Surgeons Online "What is the American College of Surgeons?"/ref> See also *American College of Physicians The American College o ...

, which he had helped to create, President of the American Gynecological Society, and Chairman of the Obstetrics section of the American Medical Association. Dickinson won the Lasker Award in 1946 for his work in human fertility. Dickinson was one of the first physician-scientists to obtain detailed sexual histories of his patients. A painstakingly accurate pen-and-ink artist, he made many drawings and sketches during a patient interaction. Such sketches included drawings of the patients' genitalia. Over his career he collected about 5,200 sexual case histories. Dickinson was the medical illustrator for many medical publications and textbooks. He used electric

cauterization Cauterization (or cauterisation, or cautery) is a medical practice or technique of burning a part of a body to remove or close off a part of it. It destroys some tissue in an attempt to mitigate bleeding and damage, remove an undesired growth, or ...

for the treatment of cervicitis and for intrauterine ablation for sterilization. In the twenties he closed his practice and focused on sexual research and contraception and other public health education. In 1923 Dickinson founded the

National Committee on Maternal Health National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

. This society addressed problems of infertility, birth control, and sexual behavior. Dickinson was particularly interested in homosexual desire in women, which he believed was a threat to heterosexual procreation and marriage. Over the years Dickinson changed his assumptions about what constituted perverse sexual behavior. By 1934 he would write that homosexuality "has been stressed far beyond its numerical significance or its importance as a harmful interference with normal response. Physiology is teaching us that we are all in some degree bisexual and that we possess some sex traits other than those characteristics of our overt type, with two series of stages between extreme masculinity and complete femininity." He said that "To stamp emale homosexualitya 'perversion,' instead of a deviation or deprivation, is to lack a sense of proportion, if not sound judgment." He also said, though, that women's "non-marriage and non-mating" was a "social and biological thwarting," constituting "the frustration of love-comradeship, child-rearing and home-making." He expressed no awareness of how women were faced with the male-dominant legal requirements for marriage, assigning women responsibilities for child-rearing and home-making from which men were exempt, and no awareness on the impact to children of this distortion. As an ardent supporter of birth control and the eugenics movement, he gave professional support to

Margaret Sanger Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control ...

, but opposed her in the question who should control birth control: Dickinson thought that physicians should be in charge of the process. He studied the coital interaction, published his research, and debunked sexual myths such as that the penis and cervix would interlock during human copulation. Publication of his writings was hampered by the Comstock laws until 1931. Dickinson's work strongly influenced Alfred Kinsey. Much of Dickinson's later work concerned human homosexuality, including his 1935-1941 human study in New York, funded by the Committee for the Study of Sex Variants, in which he attempted to locate the psychogenic and biological source of homosexuality. Dickinson believed that in finding the sources, he might be able to intervene and prevent homosexual desire from manifesting as a social problem. His collaboration with the sculptor Abram Belskie resulted in the creation of many life-size medical models. Their ''Birth Series,'' depicting the processes of gestation and delivery, was displayed at the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...

and may be seen at the Science Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. In later years the two artists worked with plastic and latex—pioneering work in medical modeling. At the time of Dickinson's death, the Dickinson/Belskie studio was full of engaging models of women and children, including a sculpture of the (then) "largest baby in the world" with the "smallest viable baby in the world" seated on its lap. According to the eulogy given by his grandson, Dickinson was responsible for many standard practices in medicine. One such practice is that of tying off the umbilical cord after a birth before severing the cord.

Personal life

Dickenson married Sarah Kidder Truslow, who worked with many New York City human services organizations, including the Young Women's Christian Association and the Traveler's Aid Society. They had three children: Dorothy, Jean, and Margaret, who died in infancy. Dorothy married George Barbour and had three sons, Hugh Barbour,

Ian Barbour Ian Graeme Barbour (1923–2013) was an American scholar on the relationship between science and religion. According to the Public Broadcasting Service his mid-1960s '' Issues in Science and Religion'' "has been credited with literally creating ...

and Freeland, who died in medical school. Jean married Truman Squire Potter and had four children, Frances, David, Lincoln and Mary. Throughout his life Dickinson fascinated family and friends with his constant sketching; some sketches, including those for the ''Washington Walk Book'', are at the Library of Congress.Se
Library of Congress
/ref> Thousands of Dickinson sketches are of places, trees, vistas, figures, and boats, notably in parks, on mountain trails, at Squam Lake in New Hampshire, and in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. One of Dickinson's folios was full of colored sketches of gaily painted Chinese junks. Many sketches became frontispieces and cards. Dickinson and his wife and family walked and hiked, sailed and canoed all over the world, in China, in Europe, in Washington, DC (where he was briefly Acting Surgeon General) on Squam Lake in New Hampshire, and in New York. He illustrated many editions of the ''New York Walk Book'' and published ''Palisades Interstate Park'', written and illustrated by him in 1921 for the American Geographical Society of New York. Dickinson was, all his life, a vigorous outdoorsman. He enjoyed swimming and diving, doing backflips at Squam Lake well into his eighties. He also worked for many hours a week, improving hiking trails at Squam and helping friends and family with outdoor projects. He was particularly sensitive to color and shadow, throughout the seasons and in different lighting, and took great joy in observations and sketches of "small things" like a gnarly tree root or an exceptional spray of pine needles. A man of deep

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

faith, he was associated with Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn for more than fifty years, before he moved to Manhattan. Robert Dickinson died on November 29, 1950, at the home of his daughter Jean Dickinson Potter, in

Amherst, Massachusetts Amherst () is a New England town, town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,263, making it the highest populated municipality in Hampshire County (althoug ...

. Until the day he died he was revising sketches for a new edition of ''The New York Walk Book''.

Publications

Books by Robert Latou Dickinson include: * ''The American text-book of obstetrics for practitioners and students'' (1903), with James Chalmers Cameron and Richard Cooper Norris * ''Palisades Interstate Park'', 1921 * ''The New York Walk Book'', many editions in the 1920s - present. Early editions by Torry, Place and Dickinson. * ''The Safe Period as a Birth Control measure'', 1927. * ''The Birth Control Movement'', 1927 * ''Control of Conception: An Illustrated Medical Manual'' (Medical Aspects of Human Fertility), 1931 * ''Human Sex Anatomy'', 1932 and 1949 and 1971 * ''Thousand Marriages: A Medical Study of Sex Adjustment'', 1933 and 1970 * ''The Single Woman: A Medical Study in Sex Education'', by Robert Latou Dickinson and

Lura Beam Lura Beam (1887–May, 1978) was an American educator, writer, and researcher. Her interests included the poor, minorities, women, education, and the arts. She co-authored two books discussing medical studies on sex adjustment and sex education wi ...

, 1934 * ''Techniques of Conception Control'', 1942 and 1950 * ''Atlas of Human Sex Anatomy'', 1949 * ''Birth atlas: Of twenty four sculptures on fertilization, steps of growth, stages of labor and involution'' (Dickinson series of teaching models), 1953, 1960 and 1968

Papers

The Robert Latou Dickinson Papers were donated to the

Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine The Boston Medical Library (est. 1875) of Boston, Massachusetts, was originally organized to alleviate the problem that had emerged due to the scattered distribution of medical texts throughout the city. It has evolved into the "largest academic ...

and the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research by Dickinson's daughter, Dorothy Dickinson Barbour. The Robert Latou Dickinson Papers, 1881-1972, and 1883-1950, record much of Dickinson’s work on anatomical models at the New York Academy of Medicine. They document some of his professional involvement in the Birth Control Federation of America, National Committee on Maternal Health, and the Euthanasia Society of America. The collection contains some of Dickinson's correspondence, research and writing files; patient case records, illustrations, some lantern slides from his research and professional activities in the birth control movement, and dozens of the sketches for which he was so well known.

References

External links

* *The Birth Series may be seen at th
Museum of Science in Boston
* Some of his sketches are in the Harvard Medical School Countway Library, and some may be found on the Internet

"The Dickinson Report," 1945
Robert Latou Dickinson papers, 1881-1972 (inclusive), 1926-1951 (bulk). H MS c591. Harvard Medical Library, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Boston, Mass.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dickinson, Robert Latou 1861 births 1950 deaths American gynecologists SUNY Downstate Medical Center alumni American sexologists American eugenicists Medical illustrators