Dr. Frances Sage Bradley (1862--1949) was a mediating force
between the urban world of her own education and experience, and
that of rural Americans. As a widow with four young children,
Bradley ...trained as a doctor and became one of the first women to
graduate from Cornell University Medical School. During the height
of the Progressive Era, she left her private practice to do
significant field work for the newly-created Children's Bureau,
working mainly in the Appalachian South.
In this timely biography, Barbara Barksdale Clowse details the
story of this physician, reformer, and writer, and her efforts to
extend access to healthcare to rural communities. Clowse describes
Bradley's important innovations in the field of public health,
including physical exams or "conferences" for children and infants
which simultaneously educated parents and local medical
practitioners, and her advocacy for improved nutrition and modern
medicine in rural areas. Finally, Clowse illustrates how Bradley's
work regarding maternal mortality and morbidity in America was
instrumental in demonstrating the need for what became the
Sheppard--Towner Act of 1921, also known as the Maternity and
Infancy Protection Act.
A century has passed since Bradley lived out her commitment to
social justice in healthcare, yet many of the issues that she faced
still plague the United States today. A Doctor for Rural
America presents a balanced portrait of an overlooked pioneer
and her work to establish healthcare as an obligation that the
government owed to its citizens.
1928–1949 Barbara Barksdale Clowse
A Doctor for Rural America,
10/2020
Book Chapter
Throughout the summer of 1928 Bradley watched the issue of the Sheppard-Towner Act become embroiled on Capitol Hill. Grace Abbott, who had already negotiated a compromise to extend the law’s funding ...through that year, was now ill and on medical leave. Other bureau administrators and advocacy groups lobbied to keep its provisions going on some basis. Despite its virulent opponents, the law had set strong precedents for improving child and maternal health. Over three thousand maternal and child health centers were operating, many in rural areas. Its supporters never doubted that—if Sheppard-Towner should end—similar initiatives would evolve from
1921–1922 Barbara Barksdale Clowse
A Doctor for Rural America,
10/2020
Book Chapter
In early March 1921 the bureau staff received word that Bradley had made her first foray into the trans-Mississippi South. The impetuous doctor arrived in Arkansas ahead of schedule and her baggage. ...Moreover, she found Little Rock, the capital, overrun with legislators, making it impossible to find a place to live. The State Board of Health had offices in the capitol building, but these were so crowded that Bradley could find no room even for the films and one army trunk. Her typewriter was broken. She exclaimed, “Woe is me,” to Washington but was, in fact, bursting with undiminished enthusiasm:
1896–1900 Barbara Barksdale Clowse
A Doctor for Rural America,
10/2020
Book Chapter
“Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not.” To these words on a sultry July day a ...shocked and sorrowful throng witnessed the burial of Horace Bradley in the Old Dutch Churchyard in Ridgefield, New Jersey. The weeks of desperate struggle to halt his decline had ended. Family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues watched, then walked away from the fresh grave back to their routines.
A sense of loss among them was overpowering. Some had
1917–1918 Barbara Barksdale Clowse
A Doctor for Rural America,
10/2020
Book Chapter
Throughout the spring of 1917 the doctor assembled the various parts of the North Carolina report for publication in Washington and waited to learn where she would travel next. She gave no indication ...that she regretted relinquishing her fifteen-year Atlanta life or wanted a permanent residence anywhere. The gregarious soul seemed at home wherever she landed. If she wished to see Atlanta family and friends, she never lacked a comfortable place to stay. She knew all about the doings of her mother, cousins, Horace’s sisters, and a wider circle there. She visited her sister Eva’s family in Alabama and New
