History: Dr. Daniel Hale Williams
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1856-1931)
the founder of Provident Hospital was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. His
father was a barber who was deeply religious and imparted a sense of pride in
his eight children. When his father died of tuberculosis, Daniel was nine years
old. His mother, Sarah Price Williams moved the family to Baltimore to live
with relatives. Daniel was apprenticed to a shoemaker in Baltimore for three
years. By age 17, he had also studied and become a successful barber and lived
with the Anderson family in Janesville, Wisconsin where he worked in their
barber-shop. He attended high school and later an academy where he graduated at
the age of twenty-one.
He began his studies of medicine as
an apprentice under Dr. Henry Palmer, a prominent surgeon. Dr. Palmer had three
apprentices and all were accepted in 1890 into a three-year program at the
Chicago Medical School, which was affiliated with Northwestern University. It
was considered one of the best medical schools. Daniel graduated with an M.D.
degree in 1883.
Dr. Williams' began practice in
Chicago at a time when there were only three other black physicians in Chicago.
He secured an appointment at the South Side Dispensary, where he could practice
medicine and surgery. He had appointments with the City Railway Company and the
Protestant Orphan Asylum. He also maintained his affiliation with Northwestern
University Medical School for four years while serving as an anatomy
instructor.
Considered a thoughtful and skilled
surgeon, Dr. Williams' practice grew as he treated both black and white
patients. But he was acutely aware of the limited opportunities for black
physicians. In 1889, he was appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health
(now known as the Illinois Department of Public Health), and worked with
medical standards and hospital rules. He was aware of the prejudice against
black patients in hospitals and the inferior treatment that was often
dispensed. In 1890, Reverend Louis Reynolds, whose sister Emma was refused
admission to nursing schools because she was black, approached Dr. Williams for
help. This led to the founding of the Provident Hospital and Nursing Training
School in 1891. The first years of the hospital were challenging, but successful.
Dr. Williams insisted that his physicians remain abreast of emerging medical
discoveries. He himself earned widespread renown as a surgeon in July 1893 when
a young man named James Cornish entered the Hospital with chest stab wounds.
Dr. Williams performed a new type of surgery to repair a tear in the heart
lining, saving his life.
While proud of his accomplishments
at Provident Hospital and those of the staff, Dr. Williams recognized that the
hospital would need to grow to accommodate patients. In 1896, with substantial
volunteer support, a new 65-bed hospital was opened.
In 1893, a friend, Judge Walter Q.
Grisham, requested that he apply for the position of surgeon-in-chief at
Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C. He served at Freedmen's Hospital from
1894 until 1898. He established a model internship program for graduate
physicians and helped guide other improvements leading to a decline in the
hospital mortality rate and a large number of surgical cases. In December 1895,
he helped organize the National Medical Association (NMA), which was, at the
time, the only national organization open to black physicians. He was selected
to serve as its first vice president.
In 1898, he married Alice Johnson, a
school teacher that he had met in Washington D.C., and they returned to
Chicago. He returned to Provident where he became chief of surgery and in 1902
performed another breakthrough operation, successfully suturing a patient's
spleen. He continued to develop his private practice in Chicago and to expand his
involvement in community affairs.
Despite his national prominence, Dr.
Williams faced differences with Provident's administrators and other
physicians, principally over hospital privilege issues. Yet, he continued
working at Provident and maintained an active national travel schedule until
1912, when he resigned from Provident after being appointed attending staff
surgeon at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago (now known as Rush-Presbyterian St.
Luke's Medical Center). He served as an attending surgeon at St. Luke's
Hospital until 1926. He remained in active practice in Chicago until he
suffered a stroke in 1926. He then moved to Idlewild, Michigan where he lived
in retirement until his death in 1931.
Dr. Williams received many honors,
including being named a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons (1913) and
being awarded an honorary degree from Howard University School of Medicine. At
his death, he left donations to many organizations he had supported including
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Meharry Medical
College, Howard University and other institutions. These gifts helped provide
expanded medical education opportunities for black students.
The provident foundation,2012,25-12-2012,http://www.providentfoundation.org/history/williams.html
The provident foundation,2012,25-12-2012,http://www.providentfoundation.org/history/williams.html
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