Changing Healthcare Attitudes

The medical profession began to accept a limited number of women and African American professionals.

Featuring:

Louise Muxfeld, (1853 – 1909), midwife
Eugene Gray Covington, (1872 – 1929), African American doctor

Louise Muxfeld (1853-1909) was a German immigrant who worked as a midwife at a time when hospital births were rare and most women gave birth at home.

Black and white portrait of a middle-aged woman looking to the left of the camera with short pulled-up hair and wearing a black dress. — Louise Muxfeld

Very few women worked in the medical field in the late 1800s.

What could Louise do that would help her be successful in a field dominated by men?

Louise trained at Madame Carpenters’ School for Midwives in St. Louis, graduating in 1886. Because she was certified, the Illinois Board of Health listed her as a practicing midwife. She was one of seven women practicing medicine in McLean County at the time.

Louise delivered an estimated 1,500 babies during her career in Bloomington.

Louise would have used the typical obstetric tools of the period.

metal tool that features a handle and two hollow tong-like rounded ends. — Though they may appear barbaric, obstetric forceps were first used in the late 1500s and greatly reduced the mortality rate of both children and mothers. Today’s obstetric forceps don’t look much different.

A brown leather or fabric pouch containing straps for scissors, needles, tweezers, and scalpel, and more. — A small surgical kit, like this one, came in handy when stitches were needed after a child was born.

Donated by: Evelyn Sheean
787.448

Glass tube with a metal end on the left side. There is a round bulb at the bottom. — Breast feeding newborns was a common practice.

Donated by: John A. Coulteaux
877.1765

Eugene Gray Covington (1872–1929) attended medical school at Howard University in Washington, D.C. before he established a general medical practice in Bloomington around 1900.

Like other practitioners of the period, Eugene went to patients' homes, where he treated them for illnesses and injuries, in addition to pregnancies.

Others he treated at his office next to his home on Market Street, and later at 313 N. Main Street.

Black and white portrait of Eugene Covington, a Black man wearing small oval glasses, and a suit with a bow tie. He has a mustache and short hair. — Eugene Covington

Eugene was the first African American doctor in Bloomington to serve both Black and white patients.

How do you think the medical community felt about this?

Eugene had privileges at Mennonite Hospital, but because he was Black he could not operate in the surgical unit without a white physician present.

Despite this limitation, many local doctors considered him a brilliant physician. He was invited to become a member of the McLean County Medical Association shortly after he started his Bloomington practice.

A surgical kit containing scalpels, scissors, probes, suture needles, and suture silk. — Eugene would have owned and used a variety of medical tools, like those shown here.

Donated by: Dr. Louis Henninger
787.97

Brown leather belt with a metal rectangle at the center, stitched into the leather. Attatched to the rectangle is a round metal mirror. — Doctors like Eugene used head mirrors. A strong light was set next to the patients head and aimed towards the physician’s head mirror. Placed over the doctor’s eye so he could view through the hole, the mirror reflected shadow free light into the ear, nose, or throat being examined.

Donated by: Loren Boon
935.653

Two silver metal tools. The one on the left looks like a precise pair of pliers with bent ends. The tool on the right resembles a bottle opener crossed with a pair of nail scissors. — Donated by: Loren Boon
945.621, 945.21

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