Marie K. Formad

Formad was born in Russia. She moved to the United States in 1883.{{Cite news|date=1944-02-24|title=Dr. Formad's Rites Set for Tomorrow|pages=9|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59277507/dr-formads-rites-set-for-tomorrow/|access-date=2020-09-14|via=Newspapers.com}} Her older brother (sometimes mistakenly referred to as her father) Henry F. Formad was a pathology professor on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, and served as Coroner's Physician in Philadelphia.{{Cite web|last=Fulton|first=R. E.|date=2017-02-07|title="Buried with Doctor's Certificate": Reading the Uses and Abuses of Bodies in a Medical School Thesis|url=https://nursingclio.org/2017/02/07/buried-with-doctors-certificate-reading-the-uses-and-abuses-of-bodies-in-a-medical-school-thesis/|access-date=2020-09-14|website=Nursing Clio|language=en-US}} Another brother, Robert Julius Formad, was also a pathologist, an expert on veterinary oncology.{{Cite book|last1=Formad|first1=Robert Julius|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=85xpugEACAAJ|title=Tumors of Domestic Animals|last2=Agriculture|first2=United States Department of|date=1926|publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture|language=en}}

Marie Formad graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1886,{{Cite news|date=1944-02-24|title=DR. MARIE K. FORMAD; Russian Immigrant, Physician in Philadelphia 52 Years|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1944/02/24/archives/dr-marie-k-formad-i-russian-immigrant-physician-in-philadelphia-52.html|access-date=2020-09-14|issn=0362-4331}} with a thesis titled "Some Notes on Criminal Abortion".

Formad was elected to the post of vaccine physician for Philadelphia's Eleventh District in 1887.{{Cite news|date=February 9, 1887|title=Divided Sanitarians|page=2|work=Philadelphia Inquirer}} She worked for 52 years at Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, as a teaching surgeon, gynecologist, and pathologist.[http://obgynhistory.net/articles/1902-WomensMedCollPenn-Rev-Apr2016.pdf "Clinical Instructors"] The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania 53rd Annual Commencement, 1902-1903.{{Cite news|date=1928-04-14|title=Sly Thief Routed by Woman Doctor|pages=2|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59274084/sly-thief-routed-by-woman-doctor/|access-date=2020-09-14|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1932-05-08|title=Dr. Marie K. Formad Ill|pages=3|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59277627/dr-marie-k-formad-ill/|access-date=2020-09-14|via=Newspapers.com}} She was the first woman member of the Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia.[http://obphila.org/about-us/history/ History], Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia. With Calista V. Luther and two other women doctors, she ran an evening dispensary, the Medical Aid Society for Self-Supporting Women, to treat working women at a more convenient time than other clinics.{{Cite book|last=Morantz-Sanchez|first=Regina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K1DqCQAAQBAJ&q=%22Marie+K.+Formad%22&pg=PA172|title=Sympathy and Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine|date=2005-10-12|publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-8078-7608-4|pages=172|language=en}} She retired in 1938.

During World War I, Formad accepted a commission as a surgeon in the French army in 1917.{{Cite news|date=1917-10-29|title=Women Surgeons to France|pages=6|work=The La Crosse Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59279441/women-surgeons-to-france/|access-date=2020-09-14|via=Newspapers.com}} She served fourteen months, from January 1918 to March 1919, in a Women's Overseas Hospital (WOH) unit in France.{{Cite news|date=1917-10-05|title=Women Surgeons to Go to France|pages=30|work=Arizona Republic|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59277748/women-surgeons-to-go-to-france/|access-date=2020-09-14|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|date=1919-04-01|title=Woman Doctor Home from War|pages=3|work=The News Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59279059/woman-doctor-home-from-war/|access-date=2020-09-14}} She directed and performed surgery a 125-bed refugee hospital at Labouheyre,{{Cite journal|last=Curry|first=Anne Hirst|date=June 22, 1918|title=The Back Yard of the War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtMRAQAAMAAJ&q=Dr.+Marie+Formad&pg=PA68|journal=The Woman Citizen|volume=3|pages=68}} supported by the National Woman Suffrage Association,{{Cite journal|last=Noble|first=Nellie S.|date=February 1921|title=The Work of Women Physicians During the War|url=https://archive.org/details/journalofiowasta11unse/page/44/mode/2up?q=Formad|journal=Journal of the Iowa State Medical Society|volume=11|pages=45|via=Internet Archive}} working alongside doctors Laura E. Hunt{{Cite news|date=1918-04-14|title=12 Nurses Caught in Thick of Battle|pages=27|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59273827/12-nurses-caught-in-thick-of-battle/|access-date=2020-09-14|via=Newspapers.com}} and Mabel Seagrave.{{Cite web|title=American Women Physicians in World War I: Service in the War|url=https://www.amwa-doc.org/|access-date=2020-09-14|website=American Medical Women's Association|language=en-US}} The hospital grew under Formad's direction, and served about 10,000 refugees during its existence;[https://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_5076a09dd60e7b852535f72b997fd90a "The untold story of women who risked their lives to do good -- and get their rights"] CNN (August 16, 2020). two of the American nurses at Labouheyre, Winifred Warder and Eva Emmons, died from influenza there.{{Cite web|date=2020-05-07|title=The Women Doctors of World War I: A Q&A with Kate Clarke Lemay About Wartime Service and Suffrage|url=http://womenatthecenter.nyhistory.org/the-women-doctors-of-world-war-i-a-qa-with-kate-clarke-lemay-about-wartime-service-and-suffrage/|access-date=2020-09-14|website=Women at the Center|language=en-US}} After the armistice, Formad went to Nancy to work as a surgeon caring for repatriating French civilians.{{Cite journal|date=May 3, 1919|title=With the W. O. H. at Nancy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtMRAQAAMAAJ&q=Dr.+Marie+Formad&pg=PA1046|journal=The Woman Citizen|volume=3|pages=1046|last1=Blackwell|first1=Alice Stone}}{{Cite journal|last=Curry|first=Anne Hirst|date=September 14, 1918|title=Repatriate Mothers of France|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KtMRAQAAMAAJ&q=Dr.+Marie+Formad&pg=PA310|journal=The Woman Citizen|volume=3|pages=310–311}}{{Cite news|date=1919-05-19|title=U. S. Women Doctors Still Busy at Rheims|pages=8|work=New-York Tribune|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/10032464/mabel-seagrave-medal-1919/|access-date=2020-09-14|via=Newspapers.com}} She received the Medaille d'honneur from the French government for her wartime service.{{Cite news|date=1919-07-07|title=Why Not a Ballot?|pages=6|work=The Chickasha Daily Express|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59274556/why-not-a-ballot/|access-date=2020-09-14|via=Newspapers.com}}

Marie Formad cared for her older brother Henry in his last months; he died in 1892.{{Cite news|date=1892-06-06|title=Dr. Formad Dead|pages=3|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59274361/dr-formad-dead/|access-date=2020-09-14|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite journal|date=April 1892|title=Necrology: Henri F. Formad|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pU0VAAAAYAAJ&q=Dr.+Marie+Formad&pg=PA447|journal=Journal of Comparative Medicine and Veterinary Archives|volume=13|pages=447–448}} She died in 1944, aged 83 years, in Philadelphia. She left her estate mainly to her two nieces, Marie and Charlotte.{{Cite news|date=1944-03-02|title=2 Nieces to Share $106,000 Left by Dr. Marie Formad|pages=11|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59273493/2-nieces-to-share-106000-left-by-dr/|access-date=2020-09-14|via=Newspapers.com}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://xdl.drexelmed.edu/item.php?object_id=3065 An undated portrait of Marie Formad], in the collection of the Drexel University College of Medicine Archives and Special Collections.

{{Subject bar|portal1=Biography}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Formad, Marie K.}}

Category:1860 births

Category:1944 deaths

Category:19th-century American women physicians

Category:19th-century American physicians

Category:American women in World War I

Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States