Margaret Irving Handy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1889 |
| Died | 1977 |
| Alma mater | Goucher College Johns Hopkins School of Medicine |
| Known for | Pioneer of pediatric medicine, established the firstmothers' milk bank at Delaware Hospital |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Physician |
| Institutions | Delaware Hospital |
| Sub-specialties | Pediatrics |
Margaret Irving Handy (1889–1977) was an American pioneeringmedical doctor who was one of the first to specialize inpediatric medicine.[1][2] In 1945, she established the firstmothers' milk bank at Delaware Hospital (nowWilmington Hospital) inWilmington, Delaware.[3][4]
She was born inSmyrna, Delaware, the daughter ofL. Irving Handy, aU.S. Representative.[5] She attendedGoucher College andJohns Hopkins University School of Medicine from which she graduated in 1916.[1] She was the first native-born female Delawarean to become a doctor and was also the state's first pediatrician.[5]
In 1918, during an outbreak ofSpanish influenza in the Wilmington area, Handy was asked by theBoard of Health to open a paediatricward at People's Settlement staffed by volunteers and with very little equipment.[6] She subsequently established a pediatric clinic and became Assistant Chief, and in 1921, Chief, of Pediatrics at Delaware Hospital where she set up a nursery for premature babies.[5]
Handy collected surplusbreast milk in the community to feed the babies of mothers who could not breast feed, and in 1945 founded the Mother's Milk Bank with Margaret Trentman, a hospital board member whose baby son had died because she was unable to nurse him.[4][5] The bank supplied breast milk to mothers throughout the United States as well as for research purposes, for 40 years.[7]
She helped to establishophthalmology as a speciality in Delaware, with Norman Cutler becoming the first state-certifiedophthalmologist in 1947.[8]
Handy received a number of awards including theNew York Eye and Ear Infirmary's Elizabeth Blackwell Citation (honoring female doctors) and theAnnie Jump Cannon medal fromWesley College as well as the 1953 Josiah Marvel Cup for outstanding contributions to the state and to society in the field of children's medicine.[5][9]
TheMargaret Handy Lectureship at Christiana Hospital inNewark, Delaware is named for her.[citation needed]
Andrew Wyeth paintedThe Children's Doctor, a "votive-like" portrait of Handy, in 1949 after she treated his son Nicholas at his remote farm.[2][10] Wyeth painted another portrait,From the Capes, in 1974 and gave herLenape Barn, awatercolour, as a gift in 1961.[11][12]
Andrew Wyeth's portrait of Dr. Margaret Handy (1949, Brandwyne River Museum, Chadds Fords, Pennsylvania, not shown) is a votive-like portrait of the famous pediatrician who called on the artist's sick son in his distant farm; it is based on photography and on the visual language of The Country Doctor.