Doctor or Doctress?

Explore American history through the eyes of women physicians

A portrait of Dr. Mary Bruins Allison.

Get the story...

“Why I Want to Go to Arabia”: Early Medical Missionaries in the Middle East

Mary Bruins Allison graduated in 1932 from Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania.  Mary had dreamed of becoming a missionary, but because she was a woman, could not become a minister.  Instead, she chose to become a doctor, inspired by stories she heard at church and from her family.  She studied Arabic from 1933-34 at Hartford Theological School in preparation of her missionary life.  In 1934, she did her second internship at the University of Illinois at Chicago because her first internship had not included obstetrics, which she need in her career as a medical missionary in the Middle East.  In 1934, Allison traveled to Kuwait to work as a doctor.  She made house calls to women who were ill and eventually ran a women’s clinic.  She treated women of all social classes.  Allison wrote letters home, and in her later years composed a memoir about the time she spent as a medical missionary in Kuwait.

Dr. Mary Bruins Allison spent most of her life working as a medical missionary in the Middle East.

Language: english

Item Number: a215_190

Pages: 1

Size: 18X23.5

Physical Collection: Papers of Mary Bruins Allison, M.D., 1934-1985, ACC-215

Finding Aid: http://archives.drexelmed.edu/collect/inventories/a215_inventory.pdf

Link to OPAC Record: http://innopac.library.drexel.edu/search/c?SEARCH=ACC-215

Cite this source: Title of document, date. Early Medical Missionaries in the Middle East: Why I Want to Go to Arabia. Doctor or Doctress?: Explore American history through the eyes of women physicians. The Legacy Center, Drexel University College of Medicine Archives & Special Collections. Philadelphia, PA. Date of access. http://lcdc.library.drexel.edu/islandora/object/islandora:1862

Allison, Mary Bruins, 1903-

Missionaries, Medical--Kuwait

Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania--Alumni and alumnae