Mary Harley (December 20, 1865 – May 31, 1962) was an American physician. She taught physiology and hygiene at Sweet Briar College from 1906 to 1935. The student health center at Sweet Briar is named for her.
Mary Harley | |
|---|---|
 Mary Harley, from a 1922 yearbook. | |
| Born | December 20, 1865 Newark, New Jersey |
| Died | May 31, 1962 (aged 96) Lynchburg, Virginia |
| Occupation(s) | Physician, college professor |
| Known for | Taught at Sweet Briar College from 1906 to 1935 |
Early life
editHarley was born in Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of Joseph Harley, an English-born dentist. Harley earned her medical degree at the New York Medical College for Women.[1][2]
Career
editMary Harley went to Florida as a medical volunteer during the Spanish–American War in 1898.[3] She was on the staff of the Hudson River State Hospital[4] and school physician at Vassar College after medical school.[2] She also spent time as a clinic physician at the Penn School in South Carolina.[5]
For most of her career, Harley was on the faculty of Sweet Briar College, where she was the school physician, and taught physiology and hygiene classes, from the school's first term in 1906 to her retirement in 1935.[6][7] During the 1918 influenza pandemic, she oversaw the campus quarantine and treated students who became ill.[8] She and Anna S. Thatcher chaperoned a student trip to Iceland, Norway, and Germany in 1922.[9]
Harley was a member of the Medical Society of Virginia.[10] She spoke at an international conference of physicians in New York City in 1919.[11] In 1927, she presented the prize at a "baby contest" for Amherst County.[12]
Personal life
editIn retirement after 1935, Harley traveled internationally, and studied paleontology for six months at a museum in Pretoria, South Africa. To celebrate her 88th birthday in 1954, Harley donated autographed volumes on paleontology to the Sweet Briar library.[13] Harley died in 1962, aged 96 years, in Lynchburg, Virginia. The Mary Harley Health and Wellness Center at Sweet Briar College is named for her.[14][15]
References
edit- ^ Jalenak, Maia. "Helen M. Turner, American Impressionist" (M. A. Thesis, Sweet Briar College 1988): 67.
- ^ a b "New Buildings at Vassar". New-York Tribune. 1900-09-02. p. 9. Retrieved 2021-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "More Red Cross Nurses". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 1898-07-05. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-03-18.
- ^ "A Female Physician". Democrat and Chronicle. 1899-01-20. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Cooley, Rossa B. (Rossa Belle); Lankes, Julius J. (1926). Homes of the freed. New Republic. pp. 42–45 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Laukhuff, Perry (Fall 1982). "Vintage First Things, Part II: The Sweet Briar Faculty". Alumnae Magazine. 53: 11 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "Sweet Briar Faculty". The Washington Post. 1906-07-20. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Marshall, Edith Durrell. "Friendly Strength and Beauty: 1916-1926". Alumnae Magazine. 72: 30 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "Sweet Briar Faculty Members to Go Abroad". Roanoke World News. May 20, 1922. p. 13. Retrieved March 17, 2021 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
- ^ Transactions of the Medical Society of Virginia. 1914. p. 334.
- ^ "Men and Women Physicians of World Note Gather at New York Conference". The Lexington Herald. 1919-10-16. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Baby Contest on Program for Amherst County Day". The Times Dispatch. 1927-05-13. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Books Presented to Library at Sweet Briar by Dr. Harley". The Times Dispatch. 1954-02-18. p. 19. Retrieved 2021-03-18 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Sweet Briar College, Health and Wellness Center". Recovery Resource Hub. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
- ^ Harnsberger & Associates (1997). Sweet Briar College Historic Structures Report. Sweet Briar College. Sweet Briar College – via Internet Archive.
External links
edit- "Dr. [Mary] Harley and some Patients, 1906", a photograph in the Penn School Papers, University of North Carolina Libraries.
