Lydia Allen DeVilbiss (1882–1964) was an American physician, and author. She wrote on topics such as birth control, public health, and eugenics.
Early life Lydia Allen DeVilbiss was born in Hoagland, Indiana, one of seven children born to William Fletcher DeVilbiss and Naomi Ridenour DeVilbiss.
She received a medical degree at the Indiana Medical College in 1907.Homer E. Moyer, Who's who and what to see in Florida (Current Historical Company of Florida 1935): 91. She did her postgraduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.
Career Public health, birth control and eugenics
DeVilbiss was a "surgeon reserve" with the United States Public Health Service, the first woman appointed by the Surgeon General to work on child hygiene;"Woman is Assigned by the Surgeon General to Assist Georgia in Growing Fine Babies" Washington Herald (July 28, 1920): 5. via Newspapers.com she also wrote reports on child welfare.Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, Child Welfare in Syracuse N. Y.; a report to the Child Welfare Committee (Syracuse 1919). During World War I she worked on establishing quarantine guidelines and procedures for preventing sexually-transmitted disease.Edith L. Ballard, "People and Things" Miami News (October 27, 1944): 15. via Newspapers.com
She served as medical director of the "Better Babies" Department at the magazine Woman's Home Companion. DeVilbiss was head of child health at the New York Board of Health, where she made public pronouncements on healthful dress (for example, "Nature knows whether you are well dressed, whether you know it or not")."New Law of Clothes" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (January 3, 1915): 15. via Newspapers.com
In 1915, she was appointed head of child hygiene for the Kansas State Board of Health."Get Child Hygiene Expert" St. George News (May 14, 1915): 2. via Newspapers.com There, she created the Kansas Mother's Book, a popular publication that went through several editions. She also brought the Little Mothers League education program to Kansas from New York.R. Alton Lee, From Snake Oil to Medicine: Pioneering Public Health (Greenwood Publishing): pages 106-110; She worked in public health in Kansas during the 1918 flu pandemic, during which she recommended people refrain from handshakes to prevent spreading the virus."Flu Come Back Feared; Doctor Gives Advice" The Leavenworth Times (April 11, 1919): 2. via Newspapers.com
She was the author of the book Birth Control: What Is It? (1923).Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, Birth Control: What Is It? (Small, Maynard & Company 1923). She also lectured on the Chautauqua circuitAdvertisement, Lyceum Magazine (July 1922): 8. and wrote articles on the subject for journals such as Birth Control ReviewLydia Allen DeVilbiss, "Medical Aspects of Birth Control" Birth Control Review (December 1921): pp. 12-14, 19. Public Health Reports,Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, "National Health Legislation of Interest to Women" Public Health Reports (March 11, 1921): 519-523. and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.Lydia Allen DeVilbiss, "Preliminary Report on Sterilization of Women by Intrauterine Coagulation of Tubal Orifices" American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 29(4)(April 1935): 563-565. She had a contentious professional relationship with editor and fellow birth control advocate Margaret Sanger."Foam Powder and Sponge: The Quest for Doctorless Birth Control" The Margaret Sanger Papers Project Newsletter (Spring 1997).
In 1928, DeVilbiss opened a maternal health clinic in Miami, Florida. There, she advised women on family planning and ran clinical trials on sponge-based methods of birth control; she also performed surgical sterilizations on the mothers (often black women) that she deemed too undisciplined or uneducated to manage other measures.Linda Gordon, The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America (University of Illinois Press 2002): 217.
She briefly worked with local African-American groups to create a branch clinic for black women in Miami, but withdrew funding over disagreements.Cathy Moran Hajo, Birth Control on Main Street: Organizing Clinics in the United States, 1916-1939 (University of Illinois Press 2010): 117. She was the founder and president of the Miami Mothers Health Club."Woman Doctor Pursues Ideal" Miami News (January 21, 1934): 28. via Newspapers.com
In 1944, she was credited with suggesting educational booklets for pregnant military wives during World War II. In 1959, she wrote an article for the American Mercury magazine arguing for premarital blood tests to prevent the genetic transmission of sickle cell anemia, and discouraging the use of black donors' blood in white patients.Keith Wailoo, Drawing Blood: Technology and Disease Identity in Twentieth-Century America (Johns Hopkins University Press 2002).
Suffrage and clubwork DeVilbiss was president of several organizations, including the Shelby Equal Franchise Association, her county's Woman's Suffrage Association, and her local Anti-Tuberculosis Society. She was also an officer of the Shelby Medical Society, and a member of the Shelby Socialist organization.Sara Catherine Lichon, "Behind Closed Doors: The Divorce Case of Dr. Lydia Allen DeVilbiss" (March 30, 2018), The Jane Addams Papers Project, Ramapo College of New Jersey. In 1915, she spoke to the Topeka Federation of Women's Clubs about unhealthy conditions at the county's poor farm."Crime to Society" Topeka State Journal (November 4, 1915): 5. via Newspapers.com
Personal life DeVilbiss married Albert K. Shauck in 1906. They lived in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She sued for divorce in 1912, with accusations of cruelty on both sides; the divorce suit was dropped in 1913,"Shauck Case Is Dismissed" News-Journal (December 13, 1913): 8. via Newspapers.com but they did eventually end the marriage before she married again in 1920, to a fellow doctor, George Henry Bradford."DeVilbiss-Bradford Wedding" The Chanute Daily Tribune (April 8, 1920): 4. via Newspapers.com Widowed in 1945, she died in Sarasota, Florida, in 1964, aged 82.
References