Dr. Nathan F. Mossell

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Feb-25-25	Dr Nathan
Feb-28-25	Dr Nathan

Nathan Francis Mossell was an African American doctor who helped establish the first black hospital in Philadelphia. Mossell, the son of Aaron and Eliza Bowers Mossell, was born on July 27, 1856 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada but grew up in Lockport, New York where he owned a successful brickyard. Mossell and his siblings were the only African American children in the Lockport public schools at the time. When brickyard revenues began to decline in the late 1860s, the Mossells decided to send only the oldest brother to college. Nathan, who had working in the brickyard at age nine, attended school sporadically. Soon, after the death of his second oldest brother, Mossell, now fourteen worked in the yard full time to help his father.

During the Civil War, Aaron Mossell resettled his family, now including six children, in upstate New York. Here he established a successful brick manufacture business, employing laborers of all races and providing bricks for local schools and homes, his African Methodist Episcopal church, and eventually a hotel which he himself owned. Thus it was that Nathan Francis Mossell was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on July 27, 1856. The 1870 census shows Aaron, sr., as a brick layer with of $2000 of real estate and of $300 of personal estate, living in Lockport, near Niagara, New York.

DMU Timestamp: February 21, 2025 18:26

At the age of fifteen, however, the family could now afford to provide for Mossell’s education. In 1871 he enrolled in nearby Lincoln University’s high school preparatory program, completing the four year curriculum in three years. Four years later, in 1879, he graduated from Lincoln University with a Bachelor of Arts degree, taking second honors in his class and winning the Bradley Medal in natural science. While at Lincoln, Mossell met his future wife, Gertrude Bustill, with whom he would eventually have four children. Mossell credited his wife with his decision to attend medical school and to settle in Philadelphia, her home town.

After completing his undergraduate studies Mossell enrolled in the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1882 where he took second honors in his class. He also became one of Penn’s first African American graduates. Due to the prejudice in most hospitals against African Americans who had completed medical school, Mossell had to intern at St. Thomas and Queen’s College hospitals in London, England. He continued to work at St. Thomas Hospital for five additional years before returning to Philadelphia.

DMU Timestamp: February 21, 2025 18:26

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.Gertrude Bustill Mossell was his wife.

In 1895, Dr. Mossell founded the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in West Philadelphia. This institution, the second Black hospital in the United States, served as a crucial facility for treating African-American patients and providing training opportunities for Black physicians and nurses. Mossell served as the hospital's chief-of-staff and medical director for nearly 40 years until his retirement in 1933.

DMU Timestamp: February 26, 2025 22:37