The Melnick Medical Museum is pleased to partner with the Mahoning Valley Historical Society to present a lecture by Betsy Estilow called “Overlooked and Undervalued: The role of African Americans in Civil War Medicine.”
The lecture will take place at the Tyler History Center (325 West Federal Street, Youngstown, OH) on Wednesday, April 30th at 7:00pm. The lecture is free and open to the public.
African American men and women joined the war effort working at hospitals, on battlefields, and with relief efforts in both the North and South. Serving as surgeons, nurses, hospital attendants, cooks, and laundresses with the Union Forces, they challenged the prescribed notions of race and gender. In the South, hundreds of African American men and women, both free and enslaved, played crucial roles in medical service. Their stories serve as inspiration to future generations.
The audio recording (mp3 format) of this lecture is available here.
Betsy Estilow is a professor emeritus of biology at Hood College in Frederick, MD, where she also serves as a lecturer in Civil War history and health professions advisor. Betsy received her Bachelor of Science degree from Albright College and her Master of Science degree in Medical Technology specializing in medical microbiology from West Virginia University. Thirty years ago, she began researching the role of women in the Civil War. Combining her interest in medical care and women has led her to an intense study of Civil War medicine. She serves as the President of the Board of Directors for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, MD where she also helped in the research and design of the exhibits. She is also the co-founder of the Society for Women in the Civil War, a national group dedicated to recognizing the role of women from 1861 to 1865. She is the author of the book Doing My Duty: The wartime experiences of John S. Hard (1992).
Melnick Medical Museum 