A poster on display at the 2022 AAP National Conference & Exhibition beckoned visitors to uncover the identities of the only three female pediatricians known to have attended the first AAP annual meeting June 12-13, 1931, in Atlantic City, N.J.
It was a year after the AAP’s founding. Of 304 total members, about 93 attended the conference and posed for this historic portrait. The three mystery women stand together in the last row.
Early pioneers in the field, the female attendees are thought to be three of the following: Drs. Margaret I. Handy, Amy Richter, Maud Loeber, Emily P. Bacon and/or Louise Taylor Jones. Their various roles included heading a pediatrics department, serving as a tenured professor, organizing a children’s ward and running a pediatric hospital for the Red Cross during World War I.
Three of the five graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. One was the first pediatrician in her state.
All were among the first women to be certified in pediatrics. The mystery photo is below. To view the whole poster, visit https://downloads.aap.org/AAP/PDF/FAAPSsmall.pdf.
AAP archivist Allison Seagram, M.L.I.S., C.A., of the Gartner Pediatric History Center researched the female pediatricians for the poster display. If you have insight into their identities, email her at [email protected].
