Love Rosa Gantt
A white woman, standing, wearing a dark dress with a square neckline
Rosa H. Gantt, from a 1921 publication
Born(1875-12-29)29 December 1875
Camden, South Carolina, US
Died16 November 1935(1935-11-16) (aged 59)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Alma materMedical College of South Carolina (M.D.)
SpouseRobert Joseph Gantt
Scientific career
FieldsMedicine
InstitutionsWinthrop College

Love Rosa Hirschmann Gantt (December 29, 1875 – November 16, 1935), was an American physician based in South Carolina.

Early life and education

Love Rosa Hirschmann was born in Camden, South Carolina, the daughter of Solomon Hirschmann and Lena Nachman Hirschmann. Her family was Jewish; her father was an immigrant from central Europe.[1]

Educated in the Charleston, South Carolina public schools, she was one of the first two women to graduate from the Medical College of South Carolina when she finished her medical degree there in 1901.[2] She then trained at the New York Ophthalmic and Aural Institute under the supervision of Jacob Hermann Knapp, and at the New York University Eye and Ear Clinic.[3]

Career

Upon her return to South Carolina, Hirschmann briefly became the staff physician at Winthrop College before leaving to marry Robert Joseph Gantt. She set up a private practice in 1905 in ophthalmology and otolaryngology[4] and began a second career of public service.[3] She was the second woman physician in the United States to become board-certified.[5]

As president of the American Medical Women's Association, Gantt persuaded their associated American Women's Hospitals Service to start a mobile public health service in the southern Appalachians, working with Hilla Sheriff[6] to bring vaccinations, nutritional education, prenatal care, dental examinations, and preventive health screenings to remote places in the South.[2][7] Gantt served on the South Carolina Board of Public Welfare for five years and was legislative chairman of the South Carolina Equal Suffrage League.[1]

Gantt "organized and headed the Spartanburg Health League, the Spartanburg Anti-Tuberculosis Association, and the public health and legislation committees of the South Carolina Federation of Women’s Clubs."[3] During World War I, she organized Liberty Loan drives, served on a draft board, directed recreation at Camp Wadsworth, and was commissioned as a medical examiner for Air Force pilots.[1][2][8] She founded the Sisterhood of Temple B'nai Israel, and was president of the South Carolina Federation of Temple Sisterhoods.[1][9]

Personal life

In 1905, Hirschmann married Robert Joseph Gantt, an attorney.[2] In 1935, she died at the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia from an embolism after surgery for uterine cancer, at the age of 59.[3][10] There is a historic marker about Rosa H. Gantt located near the site of her medical office in Spartanburg's Morgan Square.[4]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Rosa Hirschmann Gantt: Pioneering Doctor and Suffragette". Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Love Rose Hirschmann Gantt, M.D." Women at the Medical University of South Carolina. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Ogilvie & Harvey, pp. 976–77
  4. 1 2 "Dr. Rosa H. Gantt". William G. Pomeroy Foundation. 2021-08-05. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  5. ↑ Bartley, George B.; McGowan, Meghan (July 2022). "Celebrating Pioneers: The First Board-Certified Women in American Medicine". Ophthalmology. 129 (7): 737–741. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2022.04.001.
  6. ↑ Hill, P E (April 1995). "Go tell it on the mountain: Hilla Sheriff and public health in the South Carolina Piedmont, 1929 to 1940". American Journal of Public Health. 85 (4): 578–584. doi:10.2105/AJPH.85.4.578. ISSN 0090-0036. PMC 1615107. PMID 7702129.
  7. ↑ Leffler, Christopher T.; Bartley, George B.; McGowan, Meghan (February 2023). "Re: Bartley et al.: Celebrating Pioneers: The First Board-Certified Women in American Medicine (Ophthalmology. 2022:129:737-741)". Ophthalmology. 130 (2): e6–e7. doi:10.1016/j.ophtha.2022.10.012.
  8. ↑ "Medical Woman Leader in War Activities and Reconstruction Work" Medical Woman's Journal 28(January 1921): 20.
  9. ↑ "Gantt, Love Rosa Hirschmann". South Carolina Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  10. ↑ "Dr. Rosa H. Gantt". The Item. 1935-11-19. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-04-04 – via Newspapers.com.

References

  • Ogilvie, Marilyn & Harvey, Joy, eds. (2000). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the mid-20th Century. Vol. 1: A-K. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-92039-6.
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