Annie L. Alexander papers
Scope and Contents
The collection includes letters she wrote to her father, Dr. John Brevard Alexander, while a student and intern at the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia (1884-85); patient records; financial accounts; essays on medical topics; and newspaper clippings. Also includes a few civic-related and personal items.
Materials documenting Alexander's position as a eugenicist can be found in Essays and Fiction: Medical (Box 1, Folder 3) - "Eugenics Comparably a New Word" and Women's Issues (Box 1, Folder 5) - "Womans Aid in Civics".
Dates
- 1881 - 1929
Creator
- Alexander, Annie Lowrie (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Some material may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections.
Biographical / Historical
Dr. Annie Lowrie Alexander was born January 10, 1864 near Cornelius in Mecklenburg County, N.C. Her parents were Dr. John Brevard Alexander (1834-1911) and Ann Wall Lowrie Alexander (1834-1893).
Alexander graduated from Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia in 1884. After a year as an intern at the college, she became an assistant teacher of anatomy at the Woman's Medical College of Baltimore, Maryland. She returned to North Carolina in 1887 to practice medicine. Although it is widely claimed that she was the first woman to practice medicine in the South, there is no documentation to prove or disprove this claim. It is more likely that she was the first Southern-born, graduate physician licensed in the South.
Although a supported of advanced education for woman as a general principles, Alexander's focus was always directed towards women not dissimilar to herself. She was also a proponent of eugenics, with her belief in, and support of, eugenics readily supported by numerous documents in the collection.
In 1909 she was elected to her first of several terms as president of the Mecklenburg County Medical Society. She also served on the staffs of St. Peter's Hospital (now Carolinas Medical Center) and Presbyterian Hospital and on the boards of the Charlotte YWCA, the Florence Crittendon Maternity Home, the Associated Charities, and the Cooperative Nursing Association. During World War I, Alexander became a first lieutenant in the army and worked in North Carolina with the U.S. Health Service, serving as acting assisting surgeon at Camp Greene in Charlotte. For 23 years, she served as the physician to the Presbyterian College for Women (now Queens College).
In 1919, Alexander adopted a three-year old orphaned boy and raised the seven children of her deceased brother, Robert. Alexander never married. She died October 15, 1929 in Charlotte from pneumonia, alledgedly contracted from a patient. She is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Charlotte.
For a detailed biography of Annie Alexander, see:
Alsop, J. (2009). Narratives of Class, Gender and Medicine in the American South: The Dr. Annie Alexander Story Gender Forum, (25), 1. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/narratives-class-gender-medicine-american-south/docview/212044979/se-2
Extent
1 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Annie Alexander was born in Mecklenberg County, NC in 1864 and graduated from Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia in 1884. She returned to North Carolina in 1887 as the first woman to practice medicine in the South. The collection includes letters she wrote to her father, Dr. John Brevard Alexander, while a student and intern at the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia (1884-85); patient records; financial accounts; essays on medical topics; and newspaper clippings.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into three series, with several files not belonging to any series. The three series are: Essays and Fiction, Patient Records and Oversize Material (1884, undated).
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Mary Alexander Way, 1997.
Processing Information
Processed by Joanna Goltzman, November, 1997.
- Alexander, Annie Lowrie
- Alexander, J. B. (John Brevard)
- Charlotte (N.C.) -- History -- 19th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Eugenics Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Goodnight, Barbara A.
- Mecklenburg County (N.C.) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Medical care -- North Carolina -- History -- 19th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Physicians -- North Carolina -- History -- 19th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Women physicians -- North Carolina -- 19th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Women's health services -- 19th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Annie L. Alexander papers
- Status
- Completed
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the Manuscript Collections, J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections and University Archives, UNC Charlotte Repository
Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte
9201 University City Blvd
Charlotte NC 28223 United States
spec-coll@uncc.edu
