Esther Loring Richards

Esther Loring Richards
A white woman with short dark hair, wearing eyeglasses and a white lab coat
Esther Loring Richards, from a 1924 newspaper
BornJune 6, 1885
Holliston, Massachusetts
DiedJuly 6, 1956 (aged 71)
Baltimore, Maryland
OccupationChild psychiatrist

Esther Loring Richards (June 6, 1885 – July 6, 1956) was an American physician and child psychiatrist, based in Baltimore. She was on the faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and psychiatrist-in-charge of the outpatient department at the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic from 1920 until 1951.

Early life and education

Richards was born in Holliston, Massachusetts,[1] the daughter of David Jay Richards and Esther (Etta) Coffin Loring Richards.[2][3] Her father was a Harvard-educated teacher and farmer.[4][5] She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1910, and completed her medical degree at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1915.[6]

Career

Richards was on the faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and psychiatrist-in-charge of the outpatient department at the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic from 1920 until 1951. Much of her work focused on child psychiatry, and on studies of mental hygiene.[7] She was also consulting physician for the Baltimore City Hospitals.[8]

Richards presented at the First International Congress on Mental Hygiene in 1930, in Washington, D.C.[9] She opposed the Eighteenth Amendment, and joined the Woman's Organization for National Prohibition Reform in 1931,[10] saying "prohibition, whether of the use of alcohol or anything else we may want or wish to do, will never develop in us or any people self control, a sense of social responsibility, or the ability to make wise choices for ourselves."[11]

In 1946, Richards and ten other women, including Lise Meitner, Virginia Gildersleeve, and Agnes de Mille, were honored by the National Press Club as the outstanding women of 1945.[12]

Publications

Richards published several books, and her work appeared in academic journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine,[13] Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry,[14] The Journal of Pediatrics,[15] The American Journal of Nursing,[16] American Physical Education Review,[17] The Pacific Coast Journal of Nursing,[18] The Public Health Nurse,[19] and American Journal of Public Health.[20]

  • "A Study of the Invalid Reaction" (1919)[21]
  • "Psychopathological Observations in a Group of Feeble-Minded" (1919)[22]
  • "Some adaptive difficulties found in school children" (1920)[23]
  • "Mental Hygiene Problems of Normal Childhood and Youth" (1921)[24]
  • "The role of situation in psychopathological conditions" (1921)[25]
  • The elementary school and the individual child (1923)[26]
  • "The Trail of Mental Hygiene in Public Health Nursing" (1924)[19]
  • "Conservation of Social Energy" (1924)[27]
  • "The Interdependence of Body and Mind in Health and Sickness" (1926)[18]
  • "Mental Hygiene and the Student Nurse" (1928)[28]
  • "Mental Aspects of Play" (1929)[17]
  • Behaviour aspects of child conduct (1932)[29]
  • "All Men are Not Equal" (1934)
  • "Practical Features in the Study and Treatment of Anxiety States" (1934)[13]
  • "Nursing: A Profession or a Technic?" (1935)[16]
  • "Relationship of Declining Intelligence Quotients to Maladjustments in School Children" (1937)[14]
  • "Following the hypochondriacal child for a decade" (1941)[15]
  • Introduction to psychobiology and psychiatry, a textbook for nurses (1941, 1946)[30]
  • "Psychological Aspects of the Menopause" (1941)
  • "A History of Medical Psychology" (1942)[31]

Personal life

Richards died in 1956, at the age of 71, at her Baltimore home.[20] Her papers are in the Chesney Archives at Johns Hopkins.[6] Her personal letters to zoologist Abby Howe Turner are in the collection of Mount Holyoke College.[32] The Esther Loring Richards Children's Center in Owings Mills, Maryland, was opened in 1958, and named in her memory.[33]

References

  1. ^ "Nurses to Hear Dr. Richards at Fall Graduation". Harrisburg Telegraph. 1935-08-26. p. 11. Retrieved 2022-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Esther Loring Richards MD". The Evening Sun. 1956-07-07. p. 11. Retrieved 2022-09-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ Pope, Charles Henry (1917). Loring Genealogy. Murray and Emery Company. p. 294. ISBN 978-0-598-99969-6.
  4. ^ David Richards Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
  5. ^ Harvard College Class of 1876 (1916). Ninth Report of the Secretary. The University Press. pp. 121–122.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b "Esther L. Richards Collection". Chesney Archives. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  7. ^ "Helping the Backward Child to Go Forward". The Baltimore Sun. 1924-09-21. p. 85. Retrieved 2022-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Dr. Esther L. Richards to Get Honorary Degree". The Baltimore Sun. 1951-06-10. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Williams, Frankwood Earl (1932). Proceedings of the First International Congress on Mental Hygiene: Held at Washington, D.C., U.S.A., May 5th to 10th, 1930. International Committee for Mental Hygiene.
  10. ^ Walsh, Michael T. (2017-12-11). Baltimore Prohibition: Wet and Dry in the Free State. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4396-6357-8.
  11. ^ "Woman Scientist Decries Dry Law; Dr. Esther Richards, Psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins, Joins Reform Organization". The New York Times. 1931-04-12. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  12. ^ "Atom Scientist Honored as Foremost Woman of 1945". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1946-02-10. p. 23. Retrieved 2022-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b Richards, Esther Loring (1934-03-22). "Practical Features in the Study and Treatment of Anxiety States". New England Journal of Medicine. 210 (12): 633–637. doi:10.1056/NEJM193403222101204. ISSN 0028-4793.
  14. ^ a b Richards, Esther Loring (1937-04-01). "Relationship of Declining Intelligence Quotients to Maladjustments in School Children". Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. 37 (4): 817. doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1937.02260160117012. ISSN 0096-6754.
  15. ^ a b Richards, Esther Loring (1941-04-01). "Following the hypochondriacal child for a decade". The Journal of Pediatrics. 18 (4): 528–537. doi:10.1016/S0022-3476(41)80244-3. ISSN 0022-3476.
  16. ^ a b Richards, Esther Loring (1935). "Nursing: A Profession or a Technic?". The American Journal of Nursing. 35 (12): 1165–1173. doi:10.2307/3412018. ISSN 0002-936X. JSTOR 3412018.
  17. ^ a b Richards, Esther Loring (1929-02-01). "Mental Aspects of Play". American Physical Education Review. 34 (2): 98–100. doi:10.1080/23267224.1929.10652371.
  18. ^ a b Richards, Esther Loring (April 1926). "The Interdependence of Body and Mind in Health and Sickness". The Pacific Coast Journal of Nursing. 22 (4): 202–204.
  19. ^ a b Richards, Esther Loring (January 1924). "The Trail of Mental Hygiene in Public Health Nursing". The Public Health Nurse. 16 (1): 11–19.
  20. ^ a b Fairbank, Ruth E.; Muncie, Wendell (1956-12-01). "Esther Loring Richards, M.D." American Journal of Psychiatry. 113 (6): 576–576–1. doi:10.1176/ajp.113.6.576. ISSN 0002-953X.
  21. ^ Richards, Esther Loring (July 1919). "A study of the invalid reaction". Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. 2 (1): 393–413. doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1919.02180100026004.
  22. ^ Richards, Esther Loring (January 1919). "Psychopathological Observations in a Group of Feeble-Minded". American Journal of Insanity. 75 (3): 379–391.
  23. ^ Richards, Esther Loring (1920). "Some adaptive difficulties found in school children". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  24. ^ National Conference of Social Work (U S. ) Annual Session (1921). Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work at the ... Annual Session Held in ... The Conference. pp. 351–355.
  25. ^ Richards, Esther Loring (1923). The role of situation in psychopathological conditions. New York.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  26. ^ Richards, Esther Loring (1923). The elementary school and the individual child. New York City: National Committee for Mental Hygiene.
  27. ^ "Conservation of Social Energy". Hospital Social Service. 9 (5): 278–288. May 1924.
  28. ^ Richards, Esther Loring (1928). "Mental Hygiene and the Student Nurse". The American Journal of Nursing. 28 (2): 159–170. doi:10.2307/3408768. ISSN 0002-936X. JSTOR 3408768.
  29. ^ Richards, Esther Loring; Child Study Association of America (1936). Behaviour aspects of child conduct. New York: The Macmillan company.
  30. ^ Richards, Esther Loring (1941). Introduction to psychobiology and psychiatry, a textbook for nurses. St. Louis: The C.V. Mosby company.
  31. ^ Richards, Esther Loring (June 1942). "A History of Medical Psychology". American Journal of Public Health and the Nation's Health. 32 (6): 659. doi:10.2105/AJPH.32.6.659-a. ISSN 0002-9572.
  32. ^ "The Esther Richards Letters, 1921-1932". Mount Holyoke College. Retrieved 2022-09-27.
  33. ^ "Psychiatric Unit Dedication Held". The Baltimore Sun. 1958-09-12. p. 42. Retrieved 2022-09-27 – via Newspapers.com.