NHA University
A Semester During Your Sequester
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NHA University is a weekly resource featuring videos, history topics, artifacts, transcription projects, and more. Intended to enrich at-home learning for all
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coming to your inbox every Tuesday!
This week we honor our healthcare workers on island and across the globe by sharing medical history stories we hold in our collection.
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"Medicine Aboard the Nantucket Whalers"
with Dr. Malcolm MacNab
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"Medicine on Nantucket: An Insider's View"
with Dr. Tim Lepore
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Notable Nantucket Women:
Wonoma, Wampanoag Healer and Legendary Hero
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Lydia Folger Fowler, M. D., 1822 – 1879,
First American-Born Woman to Receive a Medical Degree
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By
Jascin Leonardo Finger
Born on Nantucket on May 5, 1822, Lydia Folger was a descendant of famed island scientist Walter Folger Jr. and was related to Benjamin Franklin, Lucretia Coffin Mott, Maria Mitchell, and Phebe Coffin Hanaford. The daughter of Gideon and Eunice Folger, she was educated in Nantucket schools. She may have demonstrated a natural talent for science, as many in the Folger line did. This propensity for science was likely influenced further by what she learned in Nantucket schools, which at that time were still mainly private; public schools following the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts were not fully instituted on the island until 1838 (White 1992). In 1838, Lydia attended Wheaton Seminary in Massachusetts and taught there from 1842 until 1844 (Dixon 1993/1994).
Photo
: Lydia Folger Fowler, ca. 1860. F900.
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Digital Discovery of the Day
Guide to the Charles H. Jaggar’s
Drug and Chemical Store Prescription Books
1855-1876
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Originally located at 47 Main Street, Charles H. Jaggar’s Drug and Chemical Store pharmacy opened circa 1855, and, though having periodically changed ownership since, remained a pharmacy for over 150 years. Later known as Pitman and Congdon’s Pharmacy, the building was purchased by Seaman Schepps in 2007, and the pharmacy merged with Nantucket Pharmacy next door.
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Historic Nantucket
Read these selected articles below. Click image to open article page!
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Box of medicine vials
from Dr. Hahnemann
NHA Purchase
1973.45.1
This box holds small vials of pills given by Dr. Hahnemann, the discoverer of Homeopathy, to Mrs. John Farrar.
John C. Farrar was a professor of mathematics at Harvard and suffered from chronic ill-health. He stopped teaching in 1836, and from about 1839 on, his illness required the constant attention of his second wife, who wrote to a friend of the isolation his care imposed.
His second wife was Eliza Rotch (1791-1870), married in 1828. She was the daughter of whale-oil merchant Benjamin Rotch and Elizabeth Barker Rotch, and granddaughter of William Rotch.
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Do you know your history?
Put your knowledge to the test and take our online quiz after exploring these items from our collection.
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Learn the history of Nantucket Cottage Hospital
Click below!
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The NHA is closed to the public; this includes the Whaling Museum, Research Library, Gift Shop, and Historic Properties.
All NHA public programs and events are cancelled for the foreseeable future.
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