Brown, Charlotte (1846–1904)
Brown, Charlotte (1846–1904)
American physician and surgeon. Name variations: Charlotte Amanda Blake Brown. Born Charlotte Amanda Blake, Dec 22, 1846, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died April 19, 1904, in San Francisco, California; dau. of Charles Morris Blake (teacher and Presbyterian minister) and Charlotte A. (Farrington) Blake; graduate of Elmira College, 1866; m. Henry Adams Brown, 1867; children: Adelaide Brown (b. 1868), Philip King Brown (b. 1869), and Harriet L. Brown.
With other women, formed Pacific Dispensary for Women and Children (1875); with Dr. Martha E. Bucknell, served as one of 1st two attending physicians at Pacific Dispensary, which was reorganized as a hospital (1878), and later incorporated as San Francisco Hospital for Children and Training School for Nurses (1885); became 1st woman to perform an ovariotomy (1878); embraced medical innovations, designed a milk sterilizer, and recommended that children with contagious diseases be treated at public expense; resigned from San Francisco Hospital for Children (1895) and opened private practice with daughter Adelaide and son Philip. Children's Hospital later merged with Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center as California Pacific Medical Center (1991).