Placida Gardner Chesley (August 22, 1879 — April 9, 1966) was an American medical doctor and college professor. She was the City Bacteriologist of Los Angeles, and worked in Europe with the Red Cross during World War I.
Early life Vera Placida Gardner was born in Orange, California, the daughter of Henri F. Gardner and Emma Howard Gardner. She attended Santa Ana High School,"Two Graduates of Local High School to Go in Red Cross" Santa Ana Register (April 10, 1918): 7. via Newspapers.com and completed undergraduate studies the University of Southern California, graduating in 1910. She earned her medical degree at the University of Michigan, where she was elected to the medical honor fraternity Alpha Omega Alpha.News item, The Michigan Alumnus (June 1911): 516.
Career Gardner taught pathology, toxicology, physiology, histology, and chemistry at the University of Southern California.University of Southern California, Circular of Information (1909): 156, 165, 194. She was also on staff at Los Feliz Hospital. In January 1917 she was appointed to the office of City Bacteriologist"Woman is Appointed City Bacteriologist" Los Angeles Daily Times (January 4, 1917): 13. via Newspapers.com with the Health Department of the City of Los Angeles. She and her sister Margaret Gardner (a lawyer) went to France in 1918 with the Stanford Women's Relief Unit,"Change Necessary in Personnel of Women's Relief Unit" The Daily Palo Alto (June 3, 1918): 1, 4. along with Clelia Duel Mosher and others.Margo Baumgartner Davis, Roxanne Nilan, The Stanford Album: A Photographic History, 1885-1945 (Stanford University Press 1989): 161. Placida Gardner supervised sanitary conditions in Red Cross canteens. She described her experiences working with the Red Cross on embarkation at St. Nazaire in an essay for the Stanford Illustrated Review.Dr. Placida Gardner, "Stanford Women's Unit at St. Nazaire" Stanford Illustrated Review (June 1919): 441.
She advised on hospital and laboratory rebuilding, cholera prevention, and vaccine production as head of Red Cross Laboratories in Warsaw, Poland during the postwar period."The Pasteur Institute at Warsaw" The Trained Nurse and Hospital Review (February 1920): 135. Of the University of Warsaw Research Laboratory, which she oversaw, the Iowa Medical Society assured its members that "It is the finest in Poland, and one of the most complete and up-to-date in the world.... No gift of the American people to suffering Poland is more valuable than this great hospital laboratory.""The University of Warsaw Research Laboratory" Journal of the Iowa Medical Society (June 1920): 186.
Personal life Placida Gardner met Lt. Col. Albert Justus Chesley, a fellow American doctor,"War Romance Wins Bacteriologist" Los Angeles Daily Times (March 17, 1920): 11. via Newspapers.com while working in France."Los Angeles Doctor Army Sanitarian" California State Journal of Medicine (February 1919): 63. They married while still abroad, in 1920."Dr. Gardner Weds Abroad" Los Angeles Times (March 17, 1920): 11. After returning to the United States later that year, they lived in his hometown, Minneapolis, Minnesota."Minneapolis Surgeon Weds Co-Worker in Polish Relief" Star Tribune (March 17, 1920): 21. via Newspapers.com Their daughter Louise was born in 1924, when Placida was 45 years old. Placida Gardner Chesley was widowed when Albert died in 1955. She died in 1966, aged 86. Her remains were buried with her husband's, at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis.
The Albert J. and Placida Chesley Papers are archived at the Minnesota Historical Society.Albert J. and Placida Chesley Papers, 1900-1949, Minnesota Historical Society.
References
External links A 1920 photo of Placida Gardner Chesley with her husband Albert Justus Chesley and musician Herman Zoch, taken in Munich; in the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.