42nd Annual Nursing and Healthcare History Conference
Wilmington, NC
October 16-18, 2025
Eleanor Herrmann Keynote Speaker
Vanessa Northington Gamble, MD, PhD
University Professor of Medical Humanities, Professor of Health Policy and American Studies, Professor of Medicine
The George Washington University
“A Wide Field is Open Before Her, and Many of Her Sisters”: Discovering Early African American Women Physicians.
On March 1, 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler, a former nurse, received her medical degree from the New England Female Medical College, becoming the first African American woman physician. At her commencement one speaker commented, “A wide field is open before her, and many of her sisters.” Over 160 years after Crumpler’ trailblazing achievement, the history of African American women physicians is an under-researched area of scholarship. For many years, I have been on a professional and personal quest to excavate the stories of these women and add them to the historical record. In this lecture, I will analyze the lives and careers of African American women physicians who practiced in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I will examine how in the face of race and sex discrimination these “sisters of a darker race” crafted careers that combined medicine, racial justice, and activism and made plain that medicine was Black women’s work. In this lecture I will weave history with my own narrative as an African American woman physician.
Support AAHN by Staying at the Conference Hotel!
We kindly encourage all attendees to book their stay at the Aloft, the official hotel for the AAHN Conference in Wilmington, NC, from October 16–18, 2025. Staying at the conference hotel not only enhances your experience with convenient access to all sessions and networking opportunities, but it also helps AAHN meet its contracted room block commitment. Meeting this commitment is crucial to avoid additional fees that could impact future conferences.
Thank you for supporting AAHN by choosing to stay at the Aloft. Your participation makes a difference!
Aloft Wilmington at Coastline Center
501 Nutt Street
Wilmington, NC 28401
$189.00 USD per night
Last Day to Book : Monday, September 15, 2025
Acknowledgement Statement
AAHN acknowledges that our conference is taking place in a city with historic events that marginalized its Black residents and their descendants. To acknowledge Wilmington’s objectionable history and contribute to the community’s healing, our conference theme highlights historical inquiry that examines the significance of race and place. Historical research has the power to illuminate the past to not only help us understand the present but more importantly, to positively shape our future.
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