A pioneer in the field of women’s medicine, Dr. Anna Broomall’s
contributions made an indelible mark on obstetrics and Delaware County
history in a way few others could.
Born in Upper Chichester, she allegedly told her father, John Martin
Broomall, she wanted to be a physician and he told her to be a good one.
In 1869, while studying at the Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia,
Broomall was one of nine women to attend lectures at Pennsylvania
Hospital for the first time. They arrived to hoots, cat calls and spit balls and
were chased out by men who didn’t want women in their classes.
The women returned each week and eventually received apologies from
some of the men who were unsavory in the beginning.
In 1871, she graduated and was appointed Assistant Physician at the
Women’s Hospital of Philadelphia. A year later, she went to study in the
hospitals of Paris and Vienna and returned in 1874.
Upon her return, she was appointed Resident Physician in the Women’s
Hospital and by 1878 was Physician-in-Charge.
Dr. Broomall was noted for establishing one of the first clinics for maternal
care in the country in South Philadelphia, as well as for her 1892 mock
trials of an infanticide case when she was a professor of obstetrics at
Drexel University.
She was also known for advocating for episiotomies and Caesarian
sections, which led to a decrease in mortality and serious injuries.
After retiring in 1903, Dr. Broomall volunteered as a librarian and curator at
Delaware County Historical Society, where she donated her collection of
scrapbooks that included letters, film negatives and items of personal
interest to her from 1900 through 1922.
Dr. Broomall never married.
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is dedicating an
historical marker in her honor at noon on Tuesday, March 26 at Widener
University at East 13th and Chestnut streets in Chester.
The Dr. Anna Broomall collection is housed at the home of Delaware
County Historical society, located at 408 Avenue of the
States in Chester. It is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday,
Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday; and from 9 a.m. to
2 p.m. on the second Saturday of the month. It is closed on Tuesdays.
Appointments are also available upon request. Parking is free in the lot
behind the building or across the street in the city’s municipal lot.
For more information or for ways to get involved, please call 610-359-0832.
Dr. Anna Broomall was a pioneer in medicine and a librarian/curator for Delaware County Historical Society.