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Florence Rena Sabin, n.d.
Florence Rena Sabin was born November 9, 1871, in Central City, Colorado, the youngest of two daughters of Serena Miner and George K. Sabin. Her father was a mining engineer and she spent her early years in mining communities. Serena Sabin died when Florence was seven and she and her sister, Mary, lived with relatives in Chicago and Vermont. Sabin graduated from Smith College in 1893. In order to earn money for medical school, she taught mathematics in Denver for two years and was an assistant in the Zoology Department at Smith College from 1895 to1896. She entered Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1896 as a member of the fourth class to admit women. Upon graduation she was awarded an internship with renowned teacher and physician Sir William Osler at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Under the direction of embryologist and head of the Department of Anatomy, Franklin P. Mall, she undertook a project which led to the construction of a three-dimensional model of the mid and lower brain. It was adapted for publication in 1901.
After completing her internship in 1901, Sabin continued her anatomical and histological research with the help of a fellowship from a group of Baltimore women who aided women's education. In 1902, she became assistant in the department of anatomy, the first woman on the Hopkins medical faculty. She rose to full professor in 1917, the first woman at the university to achieve that rank. Sabin spent twenty-five years at Hopkins and during her early years there she concentrated her research mainly upon the origins of blood cells and the lymphatic system. She wrote a number of widely cited papers based upon her work. Sabin had many devoted students, many of whom followed scientific careers, and a number of them became leaders in the fields of anatomy, immunology, and hematology. In 1925, she became the first woman elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences. She also was the first woman to receive full membership at the Rockefeller Institute in New York. At the institute she worked for thirteen years as head of a section that studied the cellular aspects of immunity.
Sabin retired to Colorado in 1938 to live with her sister Mary. She remained professionally active and carried on an extensive correspondence with her former students and colleagues. In 1944, she was asked by Colorado governor John Vivian to serve on his post-war planning committee which was organized to assess public health needs in the state. She did research, traveled, spoke, and wrote extensively. She lobbied colleagues, legislators and state officials to support a reorganized and better-financed public health program and worked for successful passage of a series of health laws drafted by her committee and known as the Sabin program. In 1947 she was appointed chair of the Interim Board of Health and Hospitals of Denver, a post she held until 1951. Sabin received many honors and awards. Buildings were named for her at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and at Smith College. She is one of two Coloradoans and one of a handful of women represented by statues in the United States Capitol. Sabin died October 3, 1953, in Denver of a heart attack.
The Florence Rena Sabin Papers consists of correspondence, notes, printed material, photographs, and memorabilia and consist of both professional and personal material. The bulk of the papers date from 1925 with very little material from her Johns Hopkins years. The papers include correspondence with family and friends, especially colleagues in medicine, research, and education; and a voluminous file of letters with her sister. The material represents Sabin's wide interests and activities, especially after 1938 when she moved to Colorado. The Papers include awards and citations, photographs, memorabilia and publications. They also contain manuscript notes from scientific studies, many published articles, reports on her work with various organizations (notably the Rockefeller Institute, the National Tuberculosis Association), and organizations related to Colorado public health.
Selected documents and images from the Florence Sabin Papers are featured in the exhibit
This collection is organized into five series:
The papers are open for research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection without any additional restrictions.
The copyright owner of this collection is unknown. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights. Permission to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use" must also be obtained from the Sophia Smith Collection as owners of the physical property.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Florence Rena Sabin Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, MA
Selected documents and images from the Florence Sabin Papers are featured in the exhibit
The bulk of the Florence Rena Sabin Papers were given by Dr. Henry Swan in 1959. Biographical sketches were donated by Marjorie L. Craig in 1955 and material related to Sabin's work in Colorado was donated by Elinor Bluemel in 1960.
Reprocessed by Susan Boone, 2002.
Additional papers are located at American Philosophical Society Library in Philadelphia. There are scattered items in the Smith College Archives; the University of Colorado Medical School; and the Colorado State Historical Society, Division of Museums.
This series contains three subseries: Genealogical notes and correspondence, Florence Sabin, and Mary Sabin. Genealogical notes and correspondence consists of material collected by Florence and Mary Sabin (1872-1953) and a publication about the history of the Sabin name.
The Florence Sabin subseries contains four sections. The first consists of clippings and articles (1900-85), obituaries and tributes (1953-54), miscellaneous biographical material (1903-60, n.d.), condolence letters to Mary Sabin (1953), and several undated speeches about Sabin. The second section contains material related to biographies by Mary Kay Phelan and Elinor Bluemel. Phelan published a biography of Sabin for young adults, Probing the Unknown, in 1959. There are two copies of the published book. Bluemel published
The third section contains Sabin's financial records (1910-53), which include receipts, an account book, and investment records.
The fourth section consists of correspondence, printed material, memorabilia, and certificates related to awards and citations received by Sabin between 1910 and 1959. These are arranged alphabetically by the group or institution making the awards.
The final subseries is related to Florence Sabin's sister Mary and consists of miscellaneous clippings (1931-61); five small diaries and address books (1904-39); correspondence and printed material related to her involvement in the Hernando deSoto Celebration sponsored by the Mississippi Discovery Association (1937-41); her membership in Delta Gamma Kappa Society, a national honor society in education, (1937-40); and undated writings on Colorado history.
This series is organized into three subseries: Family, Friends and associates and Business. All of the subseries include both incoming and outgoing correspondence filed together chronologically and include items that were enclosed with correspondence, such as clippings and memorabilia.
The Family subseries contains letters to Florence and her sister Mary from various family members. However the bulk of the family letters consist of letters between Florence and Mary. There is approximately one linear foot of these letters dating from 1900 to 1951. They reflect the long and close bond between the sisters. Florence wrote regularly to her sister and these letters provide a detailed narrative of her life. Of particular interest are the early letters from Germany (1900-02) and those written during the thirteen years she worked at the Rockefeller Institute under the direction of Simon Flexner. Although they are mostly personal in nature, she also writes of her work.
The largest subseries contains correspondence with Friends and associates. The letters are both professional and personal letters and provide valuable insights into Sabin's life. They reveal a socially active woman of wide interests, who maintained close ties to colleagues and friends throughout her life. Long after Sabin left the Rockefeller Institute, she stayed in close contact with her former employees and the doctors there. Of note from her Rockefeller days is correspondence with physician Alfred Einstein Cohn (1938-51), Simon Flexner, pathologist and head of the Institute, and his wife (1924-43); Margaret Thuis Stein (1936-53), whose early letters to Sabin provide a detailed account of the activities at the Institute; Sabin's technician, Dorothea Fuller (1937-53); and Dr. Kenneth Smithburn and his wife, artist Florence Smithburn (1935-53). Dr. Smithburn spent 1938-40 in Central Africa and his letters to Sabin from his posting are of particular interest. In addition there are letters from Henry Allen Moe (1938-50), Secretary General of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; embryologist George Linius Streeter (1938-48); and Dr. Rodney Sidney Cunningham (1920-53). The Cunningham letters are particularly interesting because unlike other groups of letters, Sabin's replies are included. They were copied from originals at the Denison Memorial Library at the University of Colorado Medical School. Also of interest, because they date from Sabin's early years at Johns Hopkins, are a series of letters from Ella Strong Dennison (1915-32). Another side of Sabin's life is represented by letters from poets Axton D.B. Clark (1914-41) and Lola Ridge (1941), actress Katharine Hepburn (n.d.) and her mother Katherine Houghton Hepburn (1928-39), foundation executive Abraham Flexner (1943-46), lawyer and philanthropist Bernard Flexner (1940-46), archeologist Zelia Nuttall (1928-33), fellow Johns Hopkins University student Dorothy Reed Mendenhall (1952-53), and a long series of letters from playwright Edward Sheldon (1932-47). There is a series of letters from the Hooker family in this subseries. Although they are addressed to "Aunt Florence" it is not clear how or if they are related to Florence Sabin.
The final subseries consists of Business correspondence, 1925-53. This consists primarily of material related to her investments.
This series is divided in two subseries: Speeches and Writings.
The Speeches are divided into two sections, the first related to her work in public health in Colorado (1945-47) and the second on miscellaneous topics (1933-55).
The writings consist of her biography
This series contains correspondence, reports, printed material, minutes, and agenda related to Sabin's many professional and club activities. It is arranged alphabetically with two folders of miscellaneous organizations at the end. Following her retirement to Denver in 1938, Sabin became a major force in the crusade for public health reform in Colorado. The bulk of this material relates to public health issues and either directly or indirectly reflects her service on Governor John Vivian's Post War Planning Committee. Because she served on so many committees and consulted with so many organizations while serving in this capacity, much of this material is interrelated. The boundaries between the Colorado, Denver, and National Tuberculosis Associations are not always clear. There is unidentified statistical data throughout, which presumably was gathered by and for various organizations. Subjects covered include tuberculosis, hospitals and nursing services, stream pollution, dairy products, polio, health care for the indigent, and civil service.
This series contains printed material and correspondence related to a number of subjects, miscellaneous items, organizations, and people which were of interest to Sabin. Legislation and bills, which include those passed by the Colorado legislature as a result of Sabin's public health work, are of particular interest.
This series contains two subseries: Photographs and Memorabilia. The first subseries contains approximately 200 photographs. It is divided into five sections: Florence Rena Sabin, the Sabin Family, Mary Sabin, Friends and associates, and Miscellaneous. Because the photos are mostly undated, many may possibly date prior to 1872. The images of Sabin include early photographs of her as a child and young woman; Smith College; informal portraits and snapshots; formal portraits; photographs of her with her sister Mary; statues and a bust, paintings and drawings; and group photographs.
The Memorabilia subseries contains travel items (1929-41), poetry (1928-29), miscellaneous material (1893-1954), a publication on women at work in which Sabin was included (1939), her Rockefeller Institute retirement scrapbook (1938), a portfolio of famous American women's portraits, n.d., twenty-two date books (1938-52), seven address books (1915, n.d.), and three line-a day diaries (1902-42).
[See also SERIES VI. PHOTOGRAPHS AND MEMORABILIA-- Photographs]
[See SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE--Friends and associates- Henry Allen Moe]
[See also Memorabilia -Famous American Women From Portraits by Leon Gordon]