Constance Friess Holman (February 11, 1908 – July 23, 1999) was an American physician and civil rights activist. She practiced internal medicine in New York City, where she was "the first woman to become chief resident in medicine at New York Hospital".[1]
Constance Friess Holman | |
|---|---|
 Constance Friess Holman, from the 1928 yearbook of Barnard College | |
| Born | Constance Friess February 11, 1908 New York City |
| Died | July 23, 1999 (age 91) Brattleboro, Vermont |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Spouse | Cranston Holman |
| Relatives | Horace L. Friess (brother) |
Early life and education
editFriess was born in New York City, the daughter of Louis G. Friess and Louise S. Jagle Friess. Her father was a lawyer. Her older brother was ethicist Horace L. Friess.[2] She graduated from Barnard College in 1928, and earned her medical degree from Cornell University Medical School, where she was first in her class in 1932. Publisher Adolph Ochs loaned her the money to attend medical school, because she had tutored his grandchildren during college; he forgave the debt when he died.[3]
Career
editHolman practiced internal medicine in New York City for 55 years. She taught clinical medicine at Weill Cornell, and she ran a drug treatment program.[3] As a member of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, she traveled to Mississippi in 1964 to support in civil rights actions there.[4][5] In the 1970s, she made house calls to elderly patients from her office on East 66th Street,[6] and testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging about the problems her patients encountered,[7] saying "there are times when we physicians, who care for the elderly in their homes, feel as isolated from the mainstream of medical care as our patients feel isolated from the mainstream of community life".[8]
Holman was also a close friend and physician to artist Georgia O'Keeffe.[9][10] She gave an oral history interview to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Archives about their friendship.[11] A painting O'Keeffe once gave to Holman, "White Rose with Larkspur No. I" (1927), sold for over $26 million at a 2022 auction.[12][13]
Publications
edit- "Malarial Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis" (1935, with Russell L. Cecil and Edith E. Nicholls)[14]
Personal life
editFriess married twice. Her first husband was surgeon William Alexander Cooper; they married in 1936, had two children, Jane and Peter, and divorced in 1969. Her second husband was surgeon Cranston W. Holman. Her second husband died in 1993,[15] and she died in 1999, at the age of 91, from pneumonia.[3]
References
edit- ^ "Constance Holman" The Brattleboro Reformer (July 26, 1999): 20. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Dr. Horace L. Friess, 75, Dead; Led Society for Ethical Culture". The New York Times. October 13, 1975. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
- ^ a b c "Constance Holman, 91, Pioneer in Medicine" The New York Times (July 29, 1999): C25.
- ^ Dittmer, John (2009-07-01). The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Health Care. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 61–62, 72. ISBN 978-1-60819-185-7.
- ^ "Dr. Aaron Wells Heads Human Rights Med Group". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1964-10-10. p. 5. Retrieved 2024-01-12 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Levathes, Kiki (1977-04-19). "Angel Makes House Calls in Hell of Aged". Daily News. p. 4. Retrieved 2024-01-12 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Care for the Elderly/Charles Stafford". Tampa Bay Times. 1977-05-22. p. 1. Retrieved 2024-01-12 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ United States Congress Senate Special Committee on Aging (1977). Health Care for Older Americans: The "alternatives" Issue : Hearing Before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session. ... U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 14–18, quote on page 14.
- ^ Patten, Christine Taylor; Cardona-Hine, Alvaro (2013-07-01). Miss O'Keeffe. UNM Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-2599-0.
- ^ Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter (2005-11-15). Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 447, 454, 460, 485. ISBN 978-0-393-32741-0.
- ^ "Friess, Constance". Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
- ^ Kinsella, Eileen (2022-10-05). "As Georgia O'Keeffe's Market Blooms, Christie's Will Sell a Trove of Top-Notch Works by the Artist From Paul Allen's Collection". Artnet News. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
- ^ "Achieving $1.5 billion in a single evening, Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection is the biggest sale in auction history" Christie's (November 9, 2022).
- ^ Cecil, Russell L. (1935-10-12). "Malarial Therapy in Rheumatoid Arthritis". Journal of the American Medical Association. 105 (15): 1161. doi:10.1001/jama.1935.02760410005002. ISSN 0002-9955.
- ^ "Dr. Cranston Holman, 86, surgeon, tennis player". Waco Tribune-Herald. 1993-12-11. p. 22. Retrieved 2024-01-12 – via Newspapers.com.