Sara Josephine Baker
Sara Josephine Baker (November 15, 1873 – February 22, 1945) was an American physician notable for making contributions to public health, especially in the immigrant communities of New York City. Her fight against the damage that widespread urban poverty and ignorance caused to children, especially newborns, is perhaps her most lasting legacy.[1] In 1917, she noted that babies born in the United States faced a higher mortality rate than soldiers fighting in World War I, drawing a great deal of attention to her cause.[2] She also is known for (twice) tracking down Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary.
"Sara Baker" redirects here. For the American-born French entertainer, see Josephine Baker. For other uses, see Sarah Baker (disambiguation).
Sara Josephine Baker
November 15, 1873
February 22, 1945 (aged 71)
New York Infirmary Medical College
Assistant Surgeon General,
first woman appointed as Professional Representative to the League of Nations
Early life[edit]
Baker was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1873 to a wealthy Quaker family. After her father and brother died of typhoid, Baker felt pressure to support her mother and sister financially.[3][4] So, at the age of 16, Baker decided on a career in medicine.[5][6]
After studying chemistry and biology at home, she enrolled in the New York Infirmary Medical College, a medical school for women, founded by the sisters and physicians Elizabeth Blackwell and Emily Blackwell.[7] The only class she failed—"The Normal Child", taught by Anne Daniel—led to her fascination with the future recipient of her attention, "that little pest, the normal child".[1] Upon graduation as second in her class in 1898, Baker began a year-long internship at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston.[1][8]
Baker began practicing as a private physician in New York City following her internship.[9] In 1901, Baker passed the civil service exam and qualified to be a medical inspector at the Department of Health, and worked as a part-time inspector in 1902.[10] Known as "Dr. Joe," she wore masculine-tailored suits and joked that colleagues forgot that she was a woman.[11]
Professional recognition[edit]
Josephine Baker was becoming famous, so much so that New York University Medical School asked her to lecture there on children's health, or "child hygiene", as it was known at the time. Baker said she would if she could also enroll in the school. The school initially turned her down, but eventually acquiesced after looking unsuccessfully for a male lecturer to match her knowledge.[4][19] In 1917, Baker became the first woman to receive a doctorate in public health.[20]
After the United States entered World War I, Baker became even better known. Most of this publicity was generated from her comment to a New York Times reporter. She told him that it was "six times safer to be soldier in the trenches of France than to be a baby born in the United States."[21] She was able to start a lunch program for school children due to the publicity this comment brought. She made use of the publicity around the high rate of young men being declared 4F (not eligible for draft due to poor health) as a motivating factor for support in her work on improving the health of children.
Baker was offered a job in London as health director of public schools, a job in France taking care of war refugees, and a job in the United States as Assistant Surgeon General.[19]
Personal life[edit]
Baker spent much of the later part of her life with Ida Alexa Ross Wylie, a novelist, essayist, and Hollywood scriptwriter from Australia who identified as a "woman-oriented woman". When Baker retired in 1923, she started to run their household while writing her autobiography, Fighting For Life. In 1935 and four years before her autobiography was published, Baker and Wylie decided to move to Princeton, New Jersey, with their friend Louise Pearce.[22] Based on the similarity of tone and phrasing of Fighting for Life to Wylie's memoir, My Life with George, writer Helen Epstein postulates that Wylie may have helped Baker write her autobiography.[1] Beyond the memoir, little is known about Baker's life, as she "appears to have destroyed all her personal papers."[1][23]
Retirement[edit]
In 1923, Baker retired, but she did not stop working.[22][24] She became the first woman to be a professional representative to the League of Nations when she served on the Health Committee for the United States from 1922 to 1924.[4] She was also active in many groups and societies including over twenty-five medical societies and the New York State Department of Health. She became the president of the American Medical Women's Association and wrote four books, an autobiography, and 250 articles across the professional and popular press.[13][25]
Sara Josephine Baker died from cancer on February 22, 1945, in New York City.[4][24]
