One Rhode Island Family

Rhode Island medical history

The Rhode Island Medical Society has published the Rhode Island Medical Journal for over 100 years. Every issue is interesting and might contain something helpful such as a mention or obituary if your ancestor was part of the medical community.

But one special section, “Heritage,” offers stories of Rhode Island’s medical past, on subjects that might easily include our broader set of ancestors: early hospitals, medical education, fresh-air schools, sanitariums, and military medical service. Maybe an article will give you insight into the experience of your ancestor.

The issues containing the articles listed below are located on the R.I. Medical Society website by using the “Archives” link on the Rhode Island Medical Journal page. Issues since 2001 are available there. All of this material is, of course, copyright protected. Some additional copies of this journal may be found at Archive.org.

For some early out-of-copyright issues, see this link on Hathitrust. For an earlier journal, also called the Rhode Island Medical Journal, 1900-1917, see this page on Hathitrust.

Stories of interest to genealogists

Stories of interest to genealogists in the last two decades are listed below. Click through to the journal, go to Archives, and find the issue.

• 100 Years Ago – Dr. Harriet Alleyne Rice of Newport: The struggles of an African-American physician. Her brother George pursued medicine in Scotland under Dr. Joseph Lister. By Mary Korr. 98:1 (Jan 2015)
  • Dr. Rice was the first African-American woman to graduate from Wellesley College, in 1887

• The Purloined Corpse: A Winter’s Tale. By Mary Korr. 98:2 (Feb 2015)
  • A 1799 death was followed by grave robbing and a far-ranging Rhode Island scandal

• Ramon Guiteras, MD: Surgeon, Statesman, Big-Game Hunter. Bristol native founded the American Urological Association. By Mary Korr. 98:3 (Mar 2015)
  • A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr Guiteras had a marital connection to the Wardwells

• 100 Year Ago – July 1915: A Floating Hospital for Children Launches in Narragansett Bay: Chair of RIMS pediatric section heads the medical effort. By Mary Korr. 98:7 (Jul 2015)
  • A day trip for city children and their mothers launched The Floating Hospital Association and, eventually, a summer camp called “Sunshine Island.”

• A Century Ago, Fresh Air Camp Opens for Consumptives in Foster. By Mary Korr. 98:8 (Aug 2015).
  • The story of Pine Ridge Camp, opened in 1903

• Charles V. Chapin, MD: ‘Dean of City Health Officers.’ By Mary Korr. 98:9 (Sep 2015).
  • Dr Chapin, Providence’s second superintendent of health beginning in 1884, is a recognizable name to genealogists, but he was also an influential force in the field of public health

• 1780: American dentistry had its roots in RI during the Revolution. By Mary Korr. 98:11 (Nov 2015).
  • At a military hospital in Brown’s University Hall, a French dentist trained two Rhode Islanders in the art of dentistry

• The early physicians of Washington and Kent Counties: They fought in Civil War, served on Supreme Court, rounded on horseback. By Mary Korr. 99:1 (Jan 2016).
  • Tales of some early physicians, including a few women

• The Leper Boy of Pawtucket: Mass. leper colony off nearby New Bedford, Mass., refuses to accept patient. By Mary Korr. 99:2 (Feb 2016).
  • Massachusetts refused to treat Harry Sheridan of Darlington, so Rhode Island placed the boy in the empty Pawtucket Pest House for the remainder of his life

• 1916: RI doctors mobilized on Mexican border in hunt for Pancho Villa. By Mary Korr. 99:3 (Mar 2016).
  • R.I. National Guard units served in the Mexico Punitive Expedition

• Haines State Park: The Fresh-Air Legacy of Dr. George B. Haines. By Mary Korr. 99:2 (Feb 2016).
  • A Valley Falls doctor leaves a lasting legacy with his retirement home in Barrington

• The graduates of the first medical school at Brown: 1811–1826. By Mary Korr. 99:5 (May 2016).
  • Some background, pictures, and reference to a helpful issue of Rhode Island Historical Tracts

• A Last Hurrah: Memorial’s Nurse Alumni Association Celebrates Centennial. By Susan McDonald. 99:6 (Jun 2016).
  • Includes photographs and details of the nursing school in Pawtucket, Rhode Island

• 1915: Poison Pies on the Fourth of July Create Panic in Westerly & Stonington, CT. By Mary Korr. 99:7 (Jul 2016).
  • Mysterioius deaths resulted from eating pie at Alexander Ray Gavitt’s restaurant

• Fighting TB with Fresh-Air Schools: RIMS’ doctors launch a movement. By Mary Korr. 99:9 (Dec 2016).
  • Doctors Mary S. Packard and Ellen A. Stone launched the nation’s first fresh air schol for tubercular children in Providence, 1908

Some 2017 issues featured a section of historical ads, news, and stories from the past.

• Some highlights:
  • A Chronology of Rhode Island Hospitals. Also, Rhode Island’s First Hospitals By Stanley Aronson. 100:1 (Jan 2017)
    • A look at the formation of each Rhode Island hospital
  • Unique hospitals dotted RI medical land and seascapes in 1917. By Mary Korr. 100:2 (Feb 2017)
    • Some private facilities and even a quarantine vessel are detailed
  • Poster for the U.S. Army Medical Department, 1917. 100:3 (Mar 2017)
  • American Red Star Animal Relief forms first branch in Providence. By Mary Korr. 100:4 (Apr 2017)
    • Caring for sick and disabled Army horses and mules; image of poster included
  • Hopeworth Sanitarium in Bristol offered rest and work cures: Founder grew up in Civil War field hospitals, orphan asylum. By Mary Korr. 100:6 (Jun 2017).
    • The story of a Bristol private sanitarium
  • Images from the Past. 100:7 (Jul 2017).
    • Features nurses marching on Arminstice Day, 1923, and the 1920’s dining hall of the Cranston State Hospital
  • Practicing Medicine in 1917 Rhode Island. by Todd M. Olszewski, PhD. 100:12 (Dec 2017)
    • Highlights of Rhode Island medicine during an eventful era

• December 1917: RI Medical Teams Rush to Halifax Disaster: Described as the most devastating pre-atomic blast ever recorded. By Mary Korr. 101: 9 (Nov 2018)
  • Dr. Darrell Harvey led a team of medical personnel to his hometown of Halifax

• Remembering Isaac Ray, MD, as Butler launches its 175th anniversary celebration: Past president of RIMS was pioneer in medical jurisprudence. By Mary Korr. 102:3 (Apr 2019)
  • The story of Dr. Isaac Ray

• Vintage Ambulances: From horse-drawn to airborne. 102:4 (May 2019)
  • A photo collection

• A Walking Cane Leads Down Memory Lane to Dr. Lewis Leprilete Miller. By Mary Korr. 102:6 (Aug 2019)

• Martha H. Mowry, MD: Pioneer in Medicine, Suffrage Movement. By Mary Korr. 103:1 (Feb 2020)

• Quarantine & Infection Control: From the ‘Black Death’ to the 21st Century. By Mary Korr. 100:3 (Apr 2020)
  • Highlights of early quarantine practices

Other sources of information

• Some copies of the earlier Transactions of the Rhode Island Medical Society are available on Hathitrust.
• The Providence Medical Journal is on Hathitrust.
• Sketches of Rhode Island physicians deceased prior to 1850 by Parsons, Usher, 1788-1868; Rhode Island Medical Society, 1859.
• The Rhode Island Historical Society Mary Robinson Research Center holds numerous books, manuscripts, organizational records, and directories pertaining to the Rhode Island medical community.
• Peirce’s colonial lists : civil, military and professional lists of Plymouth and Rhode Island colonies, comprising colonial, county and town officers, clergymen, physicians and lawyers ; with extracts from colonial laws defining their duties. 1621-1700 by Peirce, Ebenezer Weaver, 1822-1903. 1881.
• Physicians’ and dentists’ directory of the New England states : Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut, 1910.
• The 1905  issue of The Providence Society Blue Book including Suburbs in Rhode Island together with Fall River and the Attleboros, Mass.  Some sanitariums and treatment venues are advertised in the Blue Book.
• “The Bonesetter Sweets of South County, Rhode Island” by Martha R. McPartland, Yankee Magazine, January, 1968. I have seen some copies of this article reproduced around the web.