Edwin C. J. T. Howard (Edwin Clarence Joseph Turpin Howard (October 21, 1846 – May 10, 1912) was an American physician and one of the first black graduates of Harvard Medical School in 1869. 1850 - 1871: African-American Trailblazers at Harvard Medical School (HMS). See “The first Black students and woman student enrolled at HMS in 1850. The three Black students, Daniel Laing Jr., Isaac H. Snowden, and Martin Robison Delany, had completed all requirements for admission. … students sent letters and petitions to the faculty, both for and against the presence of these ... students. Ultimately, … the faculty voted to allow the Black students to finish the term, with the caveat that no other students of color could attend lectures in the future. Laing, Snowden, and Delany left HMS at the end of the winter term in March (1851) ... and all three went on to practice medicine. After the Civil War, HMS changed its policy, although sources do not detail debate over the decision. Two Black students, Edwin C. J. T. Howard and Thomas Graham Dorsey, graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1869.” Harvard Medical School. Retrieved April 20, 2025.Davis, Belinda (April 28, 2017). 3 Honored at HMS 2017 Diversity Awards Ceremony. Harvard Medical School. Retrieved April 19, 2025. After graduating from Harvard, Dr. Howard worked in Charleston, South Carolina, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he played a role in establishing the first two hospitals for black patients, Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School and Mercy Hospital. He was also a co-founder of Sigma Pi Phi, one of the oldest graduate-level Greek fraternities in America.

Early life and education Edwin C.J.T. Howard was born in Boston on October 21, 1846. Perspectives of Change: Edwin Clarence Joseph Turpin Howard, MD, Class of 1869. Center for the History of Medicine at Countway Library, Harvard University. Retrieved April 18, 2025. Edwin Clarence Howard. BIRTH: 21 Oct 1846. Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA. DEATH: 10 May 1912 (aged 65). Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA. BURIAL: Eden Cemetery, Collingdale, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, USA. “Obituary in the Journal of the National Medical Association identified him as the oldest practitioner in the city of Philadelphia.” Find a Grave.com. Retrieved April 19, 2025. His father, Edwin Frederick Howard, was from Boston, and his mother, Joan Louise Turpin Howard, was from New York City. DeGrasse-Howard papers, Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved April 19, 2025. He had two sisters: Adeline Turpin Howard (1844-1922)Martin, Susan (April 4, 2023). The DeGrasse-Howard Papers: Black Families in Boston and Philadelphia. Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved April 18, 2025. and Joan Imogen Howard (1848-1937), who was the first black graduate of Girls' High School in Boston. He was a member of a prominent 19th-century African American family that included two noted doctors. Nercessian, N. N. (2004). Against all odds : the legacy of students of African descent at Harvard Medical School before affirmative action, 1850-1968. Harvard Medical School. 69-73. Retrieved April 26, 2025. His aunt and uncle were Cordelia L. Howard DeGrasse and Dr. John Van Surley DeGrasse, and he was related to Edward V. Asbury, MD, a Boston doctor in the 1850s. Ednorah NaharMajors, Monroe A. (1893). Noted Negro women, their triumphs and activities (Reprint 1971 by Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Donohue and Henneberry. 244. ISBN 0-8369-8733-0. and Georgenia Cordelia DeGrasse were two of his cousins.

He attended Boston Latin School. From 1861 to 1865, he studied at Liberia College in Monrovia, Liberia under Dr. Charles B. Dunbar. While in Liberia, he kept encrypted diaries of his activities.Webster, Crystal Lynn (August 20, 2019). Decoding Black Masculinity: Love & Medicine in the Diary Entries of Edwin Clarence Howard. Massachusetts Historical Society. He did not receive a degree from Liberia College.

In 1865, he returned to the United States and studied at Boston City Hospital.Dixon, Euell A. (May 30, 2019). Edwin Clarence Joseph Turpin Howard (1846-1912). Blackpast.org. Retrieved April 19, 2025. He was a Harvard Medical School student in the summer of 1866, and during the 1866-1867 winter session. The Harvard University catalogue (1860/61-1867/68). Medical Students: Winter Session of 1866-1867. “Howard, Edward Clarence Joseph Turbin. Monrovia, Liberia. Harvard Med. School”. #731 (p. 89). Retrieved April 20, 2025. In 1869, he graduated from Harvard Medical School. His thesis was on puerperal fever, a reference to bacterial infections that women may get following childbirth or miscarriage. He and Thomas Graham Dorsey were the first African American physicians to graduate from Harvard Medical School.

As part of his medical education, he spent time as an observer and student at hospitals and institutions in England and France.

Career After graduating from Harvard, Howard first practiced medicine in Charleston, South Carolina. He later moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a throat specialist. In 1870, he treated patients in Philadelphia during the global smallpox epidemic. Records indicate that he had a “zero patient mortality rate” during the epidemic.

In 1895, he was part of the “Founding Fathers” of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School, Founding Fathers. Group photo includes: Dr. Strickland, Dr. James, Dr. Hilton, Dr. Cherry, Dr. Warrick, Dr. Abele, Dr. Boyer, Dr. Minton, Dr. Jackson, Dr. Howard, Dr. Hinson, and Dr. Coates. Box 22. Photo 30. Mercy-Douglass Hospital records, Barbara Bates Center for The Study of The History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved April 19, 2025. the first hospital for black patients and doctors in Philadelphia. He was part of the first staff of physicians and the first chairman. He was also a lecturer and chairman of the Nurses' Training School that was part of the hospital.

Between 1905 and 1907,Schauffler, Moyra (October 2, 2020). The Rise and Decline of African-American Hospitals in Philadelphia. See “In 1905, Dr. Eugene Hinson and a group of other black physicians working at Douglass Hospital were unsatisfied with Dr. Mossell’s leadership and founded their own medical care facility. This new institution, Mercy Hospital, opened in 1907 at 17th and Fitzwater Streets and was the second Black-controlled hospital in Philadelphia.” Hidden City. Retrieved April 19, 2025. he worked with a group of fellow physicians to establish Mercy Hospital, the second black-managed medical institution in Philadelphia. In 1948, Douglass and Mercy merged to become the Mercy-Douglass Hospital. The hospital closed in 1973.

He was one of eight black men commissioned into the United Medical Corps and served with the 12th Infantry Regiment in Pennsylvania, rising to the ranks of major and surgeon general.

Community

In 1888, Howard was elected a member of the Philadelphia Board of Education (Public School Board of the Seventh Ward) for eleven years.

In 1904, he was of the first four members Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity A Historical Overview: “Sigma Pi Phi’s founders were six extraordinary Black American men: (1) Henry M. Minton, Ph.G.; (2) Algernon B. Jackson, M.D.; (3) Edwin C.J.T. Howard, M.D.; and (4) Richard J. Warrick, D.D.S. … Having consented to establish Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, these men agreed to meet again in two weeks to approve the Fraternity's constitution and ritual and elect its initial officers. During that two-week interval, they also added two men to the group: (5) Eugene T. Hinson, M.D.; and (6) Robert J. Abele, M.D. Sigma Pi Phi. Retrieved April 19, 2025. of Sigma Pi Phi, the first and oldest black Greek fraternity in the United States. Sigma Pi Phi, also known as “The Boule”, is a graduate-level and professional fraternity and does not have college chapters. Sigma Pi Phi. Retrieved April 19, 2025.

He was a president and member of the Citizens Republican Club.

He was a multiple level Mason, and the first Master of Alban Lodge No. 57 (now St. Alban Lodge No.35), Prince Hall Masons.

He was a member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the Pennsylvania State Medical Society, and the American Medical Association.

Personal Howard never married. He was a Vestryman and later Warden of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia.

Howard died of diabetes on May 10, 1912, in his home in Philadelphia. He is buried with his sisters in Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.

Legacy Harvard Medical School hosts annually the Howard, Dorsey, Still Lecture and Diversity Awards in recognition of the school's first three black graduates. 2025 Howard, Dorsey, Still Lecture & Diversity Awards Ceremony. Harvard Medical School. Howard’s diaries are part of the DeGrasse-Howard papers collection at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

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