Daniel Hale Williams facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Daniel Hale Williams
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Williams c. 1900
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| Born | January 18, 1856 |
| Died | August 4, 1931 (aged 75) |
| Alma mater | Chicago Medical College |
| Known for | Performing "the first successful heart surgery" |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Cardiology |
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Daniel Hale Williams (born January 18, 1856 – died August 4, 1931) was an African-American surgeon. He is famous for founding Provident Hospital in 1891. This hospital was special because it was the first non-segregated hospital in the United States. It also had a nursing school for African Americans.
Dr. Williams is often recognized for performing one of the first successful heart surgeries. In 1913, he became the only African-American founding member of the American College of Surgeons.
Contents
About Daniel Hale Williams
His Early Life and Education
Daniel Hale Williams was born in 1856 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. His father, Daniel Hale Williams Jr., was the son of a Scots-Irish woman and a black barber. His mother, Sarah Price, was African-American.
Daniel was the fifth of seven children. His family moved to Annapolis, Maryland. When he was nine, his father died from tuberculosis. His mother sent some of the children to live with relatives because it was hard to care for everyone.
Daniel first worked as a shoemaker's helper in Baltimore, Maryland. But he soon left to join his mother in Rockford, Illinois. Later, he moved to Edgerton, Wisconsin, where he opened his own barber shop. After moving to Janesville, Wisconsin, he became very interested in the work of a local doctor. This inspired him to become a doctor himself.
He studied with Dr. Henry W. Palmer for two years. In 1880, Williams started at Chicago Medical College, which is now Northwestern University Medical School. Mary Jane Richardson Jones, a well-known activist in Chicago's black community, helped pay for his education. After graduating in 1883, he opened his own medical office in Chicago, Illinois.
His Medical Career
After finishing medical school, Dr. Williams started a private practice. He treated both white and black patients. At that time, black doctors were not allowed to work in many private hospitals in America.
Founding Provident Hospital
Because of this, Dr. Williams decided to create his own hospital. In 1891, he founded Provident Hospital in Chicago. This hospital also offered training for doctors and nurses. Provident Hospital was important because it served African-American residents. But it was also special because its staff and patients were from all backgrounds from the very beginning.
Pioneering Heart Surgery
In 1893, Dr. Williams made history. He became the first African American known to successfully perform surgery on the pericardium, the sac around the heart. On July 10, 1893, he operated on James Cornish, a patient with a knife wound near his heart.
Cornish was bleeding and showing signs of shock. Dr. Williams decided to operate the next morning. He fixed the torn pericardium without modern medicines like penicillin or blood transfusions. This amazing surgery happened at Provident Hospital. Cornish left the hospital about 50 days later and recovered.
Public and Teaching Roles
In 1893, President Grover Cleveland appointed Dr. Williams as the chief surgeon at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C.. He worked there until 1898. That year, he married Alice Johnson and moved back to Chicago.
Besides Provident Hospital, Dr. Williams also started a training school for African-American nurses there. In 1897, he joined the Illinois Department of Public Health. He worked to improve medical and hospital standards.
Dr. Williams was also a professor at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a surgeon at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He worked hard to create more hospitals that would accept African Americans. In 1895, he helped start the National Medical Association for African-American doctors. In 1913, he became a founding member of the American College of Surgeons. He was the only African-American doctor in this group at the time.
His Later Life and Death
His wife, Alice Johnson, passed away in 1924. Dr. Williams died from a stroke in Idlewild, Michigan, on August 4, 1931. He was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.
Personal Life
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Dr. Williams married Alice Johnson in 1898. She was the daughter of sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel. His retirement home was in Idlewild, Michigan, a community for black people.
Before he died, Dr. Williams was baptized as a Catholic. He left money in his will to St. Elizabeth's Church in Chicago.
His Legacy
In the 1890s, doctors tried to improve heart surgery. While Dr. Williams performed a very important surgery, other doctors also made progress. Henry C. Dalton performed a successful pericardial sac repair in 1891. Later, in 1895, Axel Cappelen performed the first successful surgery on the heart itself in Norway. Dr. Ludwig Rehn of Germany repaired a stab wound to the heart in 1896.
Even though these early heart surgeries were amazing, the field didn't become widely accepted until World War II. Surgeons had to improve their methods to treat severe war injuries. Dr. Dalton and Dr. Williams were later recognized for their important roles in the history of heart surgery.
Honors and Recognition
Dr. Williams received special degrees from Howard and Wilberforce Universities. He was a founding member of the American College of Surgeons and the Chicago Surgical Society.
- A Pennsylvania State Historical Marker was placed in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. It marks his boyhood home and celebrates his achievements.
- His home in Chicago is now called the Daniel Hale Williams House. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
- His retirement home in Idlewild, Michigan, also received a historical marker in 2008.
- Several schools are named after him, including the Daniel Hale Williams Preparatory School of Medicine in Chicago.
- Williams Park in Chicago is also named in his honor.
In Other Media
- The Stevie Wonder song "Black Man" mentions Dr. Williams' achievements.
- Tim Reid played Dr. Williams in an episode of the TV series Sister, Sister (1998).
- In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Daniel Hale Williams on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
- His life story was told in a radio drama called "The Heart of George Cotton" on Destination Freedom.
See also
- The Knick
- Vivien Thomas
