Mary Elizabeth Bass (April 5, 1876 – January 26, 1956) was an American physician, educator and

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

. She was the first of two women to become faculty members at the medical school of

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pub ...

along with Edith Ballard. Bass worked to promote the efforts of women as physicians. She worked at Tulane for thirty years.

Biography

Bass was born on April 5, 1876 in Marion County, Mississippi and was one of eight children. The family lost their property in the depression and they moved to

Lumberton, Mississippi Lumberton is a city in Lamar and Pearl River counties, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Hattiesburg, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,086 at the 2010 census. History The city was named for the local ...

. Bass worked as an assistant teacher and attended Columbia High School, where she graduated in 1893. She also earned teaching certificates in both 1892 and 1896 from

normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...

s. She worked as a teacher for some time in the public schools of

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. Bass' older brother, Charles, persuaded her and her sister, Cora, to become doctors sometime around 1899. However, schools in the

southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

wouldn't admit women into their medical programs at the time, so the sisters went north to attend school. Bass and her sister went to the

Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) was founded in 1850, and was the second medical institution in the world established to train women in medicine to earn the M.D. degree. The New England Female Medical College had been establishe ...

and they graduated in 1904. Charles Bass had a private practice in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

and the sisters began their own private practice in the same city. Because the city hospitals of New Orleans did not accept women physicians as staff members, Bass became a founder of a dispensary which would later become the New Orleans Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children (now the Sara Mayo Hospital) in 1908. Bass became a member of the Era Club of New Orleans in 1905. The Era Club helped influence the decision to allow women to enroll in Tulane University as medical students in 1914. In 1911, Bass and another physician, Edith Ballard, became the first women faculty members of the Tulane University school of medicine. By 1913, she became a salaried faculty member as an instructor in the laboratory of clinical medicine. Also in 1913, Bass became the first women elected as an active member of the Orleans Parish Medical Society. In 1915, she joined the Women Physicians of the Southern Medical Association (WPSMA). By 1920, she was a full professor and during her career at Tulane taught

pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in ...

, clinical laboratory diagnosis,

bacteriology Bacteriology is the branch and specialty of biology that studies the morphology, ecology, genetics and biochemistry of bacteria as well as many other aspects related to them. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classificat ...

and clinical medicine. She served as president of the Medical Women's National Association in 1921 and 1922. Bass retired from teaching in 1941. After retiring, she became the house physician at the Jung Hotel. She stopped practicing medicine in 1949 and spent time caring for her mother in Lumberton. Bass was honored by the

American Medical Women's Association The American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) is a professional advocacy and educational organization of women physicians and medical students. Founded in 1915 by Bertha Van Hoosen, the AMWA works to advance women in medicine and to serve as a v ...

with the Elizabeth Blackwell Centennial Medal Award in 1953. In 1956, Bass died of cancer at the Foundation Hospital in New Orleans and her body was buried in Lumberton.

Legacy

After Bass' death in 1956, friends at Tulane created the Elizabeth Bass Memorial Medical Student Loan Fund. Bass collected a large body of work by and about women in medicine. She also collected the manuscripts, papers, pictures, letters, press clippings and other ephemera created by women physicians. Bass wrote essays and histories based on her collection which now resides at the Matas Medical Library. The collection itself also "documents the obstacles women had to overcome to become physicians."

References

Citations

Sources

External links

Elizabeth Bass Collection: Women in Medicine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bass, Elizabeth 1876 births 1956 deaths People from Marion County, Mississippi People from Lumberton, Mississippi Scientists from New Orleans Tulane University faculty Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania alumni Physicians from Mississippi 20th-century American physicians 20th-century American women physicians American women academics Physicians from Louisiana