A note on verso reads, "Group for a baby and preschool conference in one of our nice districts. A number of these mothers and children are pellagrins." AWHS, Rural Services administered healthcare and health education to rural Southern states during the 1920s and 1930s.
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The American Women’s Hospitals at Home: Public Health in Depression-Era Appalachia
The American Women’s Hospitals (AWH) was founded by women physicians in 1918 to provide medical care to the people of war-torn France during World War I. AWH subsequently established hospitals in other parts of Europe and Western Asia, continuing to provide medical care to devastated populations after wars and conflicts had officially ended. Appalachia is a rural, mountainous region spanning several states, including parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, West Virginia, Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. AWH concentrated their efforts in Tennessee, the Carolinas, and Kentucky. Even before the Depression, Appalachia was relatively poor, rural area of the country and was geographically isolated with few roads or means of transportation in or out of the area. The economic crisis of the Great Depression only increased the severity of the region’s existing poverty and lack of quality education and healthcare.
This photo depicts some of the impoverished people in the Appalachia region that the AWH aided.
Creator: American Women's Hospitals Service
Language: english
Item Number: a144_197
Pages: 1
Size: 11.4 x 7.1 cm
Physical Collection: Records of American Women`s Hospitals 1917-1982, ACC-144
Finding Aid: http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/pacscl/detail.html?id=PACSCL_DUCOM_WMSC144
Link to OPAC Record: http://innopac.library.drexel.edu/search/c?SEARCH=ACC-144
Cite this source: Title of document, date. The American Women’s Hospitals at Home: Public Health in Depression-Era Appalachia. 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. doctordoctress.org/islandora/object/islandora:1859
American Women's Hospitals Service
Women's health services
Child welfare
Pellagra
Rural health services
Appalachian Region, Southern