Dr. Nathan F. Mossell
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Nathan Francis Mossell (July 27, 1856 – October 27, 1946) was an American physician who was the first African-American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1882. He did post-graduate training at hospitals in Philadelphia and London. In 1888, he was the first black physician elected as member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society in Pennsylvania. He was active in the NAACP and also helped found the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in West Philadelphia in 1895, which he led as chief-of-staff and medical director until he retired in 1933.[1][2] Gertrude Bustill Mossell was his wife.
Early life and education
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Mossell was born in Hamilton, Canada, in 1856, the fourth of six children. Both his parents, Eliza Bowers (1824 – ?) and Aaron Albert Mossell I (1824 – ?), were descended from freed slaves. According to Mossell's autobiography, his mother's stories of the discrimination and hardship their families faced strengthened her own children's determination to succeed.[3] Mossell's maternal grandfather had resisted all attempts by his owner to make him work and was eventually freed. He married and settled in Baltimore, but the entire family, including Mossell's mother, who was a child at the time, were deported to Trinidad. Mossell's paternal grandfather, who had been transported from the coast of West Africa, managed to buy his freedom and that of his wife. He too settled in Baltimore, where Mossell's father was born.[4]
Mossell's parents met and married in Baltimore after his mother's family return from Trinidad. His father learned the brickmaking trade and saved enough money to buy a house. After the birth of their third child, the couple decided to move to Canada, as free blacks were prohibited from being educated in Maryland and they wanted education for their children. They sold their house in Baltimore and settled in Hamilton, Ontario. His father bought a tract of clay-bearing land and set up his own brickworks.[3][4]
Mossell's siblings were the following:[4]
- May (1848 - ?) born in Maryland.
- Charles (1850 - ) born in Maryland. He graduated from Lincoln University and studied theology in Boston, later becoming a missionary in Haiti.
- Boy, (c. 1853 – c. 1870), born in Maryland and died in Lockport, New York.
- Alvarilla (b. 1857 – ?), born in Hamilton, Canada. She worked with her brother Charles as a missionary in Haiti.
- Aaron Albert Mossell II (1863–1951), born in Hamilton, Canada. He was the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He married Louisa Tanner (1866–?) . In 1921 their daughter Sadie Tanner Mossell (1898–1989) became the first African-American woman to receive a PhD in the United States, earning a degree in economics at the University of Pennsylvania.[5]
During the Civil War, the family moved back to the United States, settling in Lockport, New York, where Mossell's father again owned his own brickmaking business. Along with his siblings, Mossell attended the local public school in Lockport. His schooling became erratic once he started working part-time at age nine for his father. He eventually joined his elder brother Charles at Lincoln University, a historically black college in Pennsylvania, where he studied Natural Science, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1879.[1]
Later life and medical career
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Mossell went on to study at the University of University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where he experienced significant racism, graduating in 1882[citation needed] as its first African-American graduate.[1] He did post-graduate training at hospitals in Philadelphia, including the Pennsylvania University Hospital, and later at Guy's Hospital, Queen's Hospital, and St Thomas' Hospital in London.
After his return to the United States, in 1888 Mossell became the first black physician elected as member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society. That year he also started his private practice. In 1895, he helped found the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in West Philadelphia, serving as its chief-of-staff and medical director until his retirement in 1933.
Marriage and family
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He married Gertrude Emily Hicks Bustill (1848–1955), a member of the prominent Bustill family, on July 12, 1893, in Philadelphia. The couple had two daughters, Florence Mossell and Mary Campbell Mossell. Gertrude was the mixed-race daughter of Charles Hicks Bustill (1816–1890), who was of African, European and Lenape ancestry, and Emily Robinson. Gertrude's sister and brother-in law, Maria Louisa Bustill and William Drew Robeson, were the parents of the singer, actor, and Civil Rights advocate Paul Robeson.[5]
Private practice
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After retiring as director of the hospital in 1933, Mossell continued to work in his private practice, which he had opened in 1888.
He died on October 27, 1946, in Philadelphia at the age of 90.[6] He was believed to be the oldest practicing black physician at the time of his death.[6
The Nathan Francis Mossell University Professor
This Chair honors the first Black graduate to earn a medical degree from Penn. Nathan Francis Mossell, MD (1856-1946), of the class of 1882, went on to lead the founding of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in Philadelphia. The second Black hospital in the U.S., this institution became a leading training center for Black nurses and physicians. The University established the Professorship in 2017 as a tribute to Dr. Mossell’s achievements.
Dr. Mossell’s father, whose grandparents had been enslaved, ran a successful brick manufacturing business in New York state. Dr. Mossell earned his undergraduate degree from Lincoln University. He took second honors at both Lincoln and Penn. Due to the difficulties Blacks then encountered in securing internships in this country, Mossell travelled to England to continue his training at Guy’s, Queen’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals in London. He returned to Philadelphia to start a private practice in 1888. After overcoming opposition, he became the first Black physician elected to the Philadelphia County Medical Society.
In part to provide Black physicians and nurses with educational opportunities, Dr. Mossell took the lead in forming the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in 1895. His former Penn professors (including Agnew, Tyson, Pepper, and Leidy) were among the initial contributors. Dr. Mossell served as Chief of Staff and Medical Director for nearly 40 years. Among his endeavors to empower Blacks, Dr. Mossell was a co-founder of the Philadelphia Academy of Medicine and Allied Sciences (an association for African Americans in medicine) in 1900. He was also a Founder and Director of the Philadelphia branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Dr. Mossell was part of a family which included his niece Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, who earned her PhD from Penn in 1921 and became the first Black person to obtain a PhD in economics in the U.S. She was also the first Black woman to graduate from Penn’s Law School. She was married to Raymond Pace Alexander, the first Black judge appointed to the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
Nathan Mossell, Physician born
Nathan Mossell
Nathan Mossell was born on this date in 1856. He was a Black Canadian physician.
Nathan Francis Mossell was born in Hamilton, Canada, and was the fourth of six children. His parents, Eliza Bowers and Aaron Albert Mossell, descended from freed slaves. According to Mossell's autobiography, his mother's stories of their families' discrimination and hardship strengthened her children's determination to succeed.
His maternal grandfather had resisted all attempts by his owner to make him work and was eventually freed. He married and settled in Baltimore, but the entire family, including Mossell's mother, who was a child then, were deported to Trinidad. Mossell's paternal grandfather, who had been transported from West Africa, managed to buy his freedom and his wife's. He, too, settled in Baltimore, where Mossell's father was born.
Mossell's parents met and married in Baltimore after his mother's family returned from Trinidad. His father learned the brick-making trade and saved enough money to buy a house. After the birth of their third child, the couple decided to move to Canada, as free Blacks were prohibited from being educated in Maryland, and they wanted education for their children. They sold their house in Baltimore and settled in Hamilton, Ontario. His father bought a tract of clay-bearing land and set up his brickworks.
Young Mossell had shown academic promise at Lincoln University, where he won the Bradley Medal in Natural Science. Lincoln awarded Mossell its Bachelor of Arts degree in 1879. He received the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1882 at Penn, where he took second honors in his class. After graduation, he was trained by Dr. D. Hayes Agnew in the Out-Patient Surgical Clinic of the University Hospital.
Mossell's postgraduate studies included internships in the Guy's, Queens College, and St. Thomas hospitals in London. In 1888, he was elected to membership in the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the first Black physician to be so honored. In August 1895, he was the leading figure in founding the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School. He served as chief of staff and medical director until his retirement in 1933.
Though Nathan Mossell died in 1946 and 1948, Douglass Hospital merged with Mercy, another predominantly Black hospital. In 1955, the new Mercy-Douglass Hospital building opened on Woodland Avenue, between 50th and 51st Streets in West Philadelphia. There, it offered healthcare services to another generation of Black Philadelphia citizens before closing in 1973.
Nathan Francis Mossell was a pioneer physician who established the first black private hospital in Philadelphia, the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School, that both treated African Americans and trained black nurses and doctors.
Uncle to All-Star Sadie Mossell Alexander, he was the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania medical school, and the first to join the Philadelphia County Medical Society.
Mossell was also an activist, founding the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, and joining W.E.B. DuBois’ Niagara Movement.
Mossell left his papers to Penn, including his autobiography in which he writes, “It is plain therefore, that prior to the Civil War, the so-called free colored people had few, if any, rights that the white man felt bound to respect. This mental attitude on his part, so hampered the colored people’s ideas of themselves that it still shrouds their efforts to attain a more inclusive legal franchise for themselves.”
Read More
Nathan Francis Mossell's 30-page autobiography
EDUCATION:
- Lincoln University B.A., 1879
- University of Pennsylvania M.D., 1882
ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
- First African American to earn a medical degree from Penn
- First African American to join the Philadelphia Medical Society
- Founded first private black hospital in Philadelphia that would not only treat African Americans but also train and teach black nurses and doctors
- Fought for the desegregation of Girard College
FINAL WORD: In Mossell’s autobiography, he writes, “One may wonder how a physician can find so much time to champion the cause of his people. I have been no less spared from the indignities of segregation and discrimination than the non-professional colored person. In waging a fight to help free others from the infringements of Jim Crowism, I also help free myself.”
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