Mary Jane Safford-Blake (December 31, 1834 – December 8, 1891) was a nurse, physician, educator, and humanitarian. As a nurse in the Union Army during the American Civil War, she worked closely with Mary Ann Bickerdyke treating the sick and injured near Fort Donelson, and was nicknamed the "Cairo Angel" for her service in Cairo, Illinois. After the war, she became one of the first female gynecologists in the United States and was the first woman to perform an ovariotomy. She later taught at Boston University, and was one of the first women elected to the Boston School Committee.
Early life
Mary Jane Safford was born in Hyde Park, Vermont, the youngest of five children of Joseph Safford, a farmer, and Diantha Little Safford. She attended schools in Vermont, Illinois, and Montreal, Quebec. She then returned to Illinois, where she lived with her older brother and taught in a public school in Shawneetown.[1]
Medical career
Mary Jane Safford by Mathew Brady (between circa 1860 and circa 1865)
At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Safford volunteered as a relief worker in Cairo, Illinois, where she became known as the "Cairo Angel". It was there that she met "Mother" Bickerdyke, who trained her as a nurse. In 1862, she accompanied the army of Ulysses S. Grant during the Battle of Shiloh, where she comforted and ministered to the wounded. Later, she served aboard a pair of military hospital ships on the Mississippi, the City of Memphis and the Hazel Dell.[1] "Worn down" and frail, she left for Europe in July 1862. After visits to Great Britain and Ireland her party spent the winter in Paris and Italy.[2]
In 1872, Safford opened a private practice in Chicago, becoming one of the first female gynecologists in the United States.[3][4] She developed a plan for mass housing centered on a common service area for cooperative housekeeping to reduce drudgery for women. Later, she became Professor of Women's Diseases at the Boston University School of Medicine, where she was one of only two professors of gynecology.[5] In 1875 she was one of the first women to be elected to the Boston School Committee.[1]
As a physician in Boston's South End, Safford specialized in the care of impoverished inner-city women and girls—mostly immigrants from the North, South, and West Ends and the South Bay area.[4][6][1] Her Boston home was located at 5 Percival Street on Meeting House Hill in Dorchester.[5]
Personal life
Safford married James Blake in 1872 and adopted two daughters, Margarita and Gladys. After her marriage, she used the name Mary Jane Safford-Blake. The couple divorced in 1880.[1]
^ abDavidson, Jonathan (2014). "Mary Safford Blake". A Century of Homeopaths: Their Influence on Medicine and Health. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 14–15. ISBN9781493905270.
