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Virginia Margaret Alexander Papers

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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center [Contact Us]3401 Market Street, Suite 210, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Call Number:
UPT 50 A374V
Repository:
University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center
Extent:
2 cubic feet
Language:
English
Date:
1920-1975 (inclusive)
Abstract:

Raymond Pace Alexander's younger sister, Virginia Margaret Alexander (B.S. in Ed., 1920), became close friends with Sadie Mossell during their undergraduate years at the University of Pennsylvania, and it was through Virginia that Sadie and Raymond met. After college, Virginia Alexander attended the Medical College of Pennsylvania and then completed her internship at Kansas City General Hospital.

In 1923 Dr. Alexander began her practice of diagnostic medicine in North Philadelphia. In 1935 she was responsible for bringing Dr. Helen O. Dickens to Philadelphia to join her in the practice of medicine. Later, after graduate work at Yale University School of Medicine, Virginia Alexander entered the field of public health, serving as medical advisor for Howard University from 1937 to 1941 and then, during World War II, with the United States Public Health Service. When she returned to Philadelphia after the war, she specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, serving on the staffs of the Woman's Medical College Hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital and Mercy-Douglass Hospital until her death from Lupus in 1949.

The most significant contents of the Virginia Alexander Papers are financial records, mostly estate (approx. 1 cu. ft.; 1944-63) and the Dr. Virginia M. Alexander Scholarship Foundation (1956-1975). The papers also contains a small series of photographs.

The Virginia Margaret Alexander Papers is organized into ten series: I. Biographical and Autobiographical; II. Personal Correspondence; III. General Correspondence; IV. Financial Records; V. Education; VI. Professional Papers; VII. Writings and Publications; VIII. Certificates, Honors, and Awards; IX. Photographs; and X. Books.

Gift of the Alexander family, 1987.

People
Subject
Occupation

Publisher
University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center
Finding Aid Author
Thomas G. Potterfield, Maureen B. Spectre, and Theresa R. Snyder, assisted by Susan M. Jenkins
Finding Aid Date
March 2014
Access Restrictions

Access to collections is granted in accordance with the Protocols for the University Archives and Records Center.

Collection Inventory

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Biographical article: "Can a Colored Woman Be a Physician?," 1933.
Box 1 Folder 1
Travel: suggested itinerary for Scandinavia, 1936.
Box 1 Folder 2
VMA medical case history ("Lupus ... and Ovarian Function ..." by Rose, et al.), 1944.
Box 1 Folder 3
Obituaries: unclipped, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 4
Obituaries: clipped, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 5
Commemorative verse: "In Memorium" by Hannah M. Bryan-Tawber, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 6
Condolences on the death of VMA, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 7
Condolences on the death of VMA, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 8
Condolences on the death of VMA, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 9
Condolences on the death of VMA, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 10
Condolences on the death of VMA, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 11
Condolences on the death of VMA, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 12
Petition to City Council re VMA Recreation Center, 1957.
Box 1 Folder 13

With family, 1929-1933.
Box 1 Folder 14
Helen O. Dickens, 1935.
Box 1 Folder 15
With and re Irene Jackson, 1936.
Box 1 Folder 16
From several persons in Alabama; to Mary Elizabeth Alexander, 1947-1949.
Box 1 Folder 17

STMA with and re VMA (mostly re 2104 Jefferson Street; some personal correspondence), 1942-1943.
Box 1 Folder 18
STMA with and re VMA (mostly re 2104 Jefferson Street; some personal correspondence), 1943-1946.
Box 1 Folder 19

Miscellaneous receipts, legal papers, and statements, 1928-1940.
Box 1 Folder 20
Miscellaneous receipts, legal papers, and statements, 1941-1947.
Box 1 Folder 21
Miscellaneous receipts, legal papers, and statements, 1948-1949.
Box 1 Folder 22
Trust for Mary E. and Rae P. Alexander, 1944-1949.
Box 1 Folder 23
Will, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 24
Executor's working papers, reports, and creditor's claims, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 25
Will and executor's report, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 26
Will and codicil (copy), correspondence, invoices, and bank statements, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 27
Correspondence re settlement, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 28
Correspondence re settlement, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 29
Correspondence re settlement, 1949.
Box 1 Folder 30
Correspondence re settlement, 1950.
Box 1 Folder 31
Correspondence re settlement, 1950.
Box 1 Folder 32
Correspondence re settlement, 1950.
Box 1 Folder 33
Correspondence and invoices, 1951.
Box 1 Folder 34
Correspondence and invoices, 1952-1953.
Box 1 Folder 35
Correspondence and invoices, 1954-1956.
Box 1 Folder 36
Correspondence and invoices, 1957-1958.
Box 1 Folder 37
Correspondence, 1959-1961.
Box 2 Folder 1
Correspondence, 1961-1962.
Box 2 Folder 2
Correspondence and finances, 1953-1956.
Box 2 Folder 3
Correspondence and finances, 1957.
Box 2 Folder 4
Correspondence and finances, 1958-1960.
Box 2 Folder 5
Correspondence and finances, 1961.
Box 2 Folder 6
Correspondence and finances, 1961.
Box 2 Folder 7
Correspondence and finances, 1962.
Box 2 Folder 8
Correspondence and finances, 1963.
Box 2 Folder 9
Correspondence and finances, 1964-1966.
Box 2 Folder 10
Correspondence and finances, 1967-1968.
Box 2 Folder 11
Correspondence and finances, 1968-1969.
Box 2 Folder 12
Correspondence and finances, 1969-1970.
Box 2 Folder 13
Correspondence and finances, 1970-1972.
Box 2 Folder 14
Correspondence and finances, 1973.
Box 2 Folder 15
Correspondence and finances, 1974-1975.
Box 2 Folder 16

Women's Undergraduate Record, University of Pennsylvania, 1920.
Box 2 Folder 17
Transcript (B.S.), 1920/1934.
Box 2 Folder 18
Alumnae Register, 1948.
Box 2 Folder 19

Copy of letter re W. E. B. DuBois (medical), 1933.
Box 2 Folder 20
Civil service exam, licenses, 1935-1940.
Box 2 Folder 21
Announcement of return to general practice, 1945.
Box 2 Folder 22

"The Social, Economic, and Health Problems of North Philadelphia Negroes and Their Relationship to a Proposed Interracial Public Health Demonstration Center," 1935.
Box 2 Folder 23
"The Social, Economic, and Health Problems of North Philadelphia Negroes and Their Relationship to a Proposed Interracial Public Health Demonstration Center," 1935.
Box 2 Folder 24
"Negro Hospitalization," 1937.
Box 2 Folder 25
"The Health Status and Needs of the Negro Adolescent," 1940.
Box 2 Folder 26
"The Health Status of Negro Workers in the National Youth Administration in the District of Columbia," 1941.
Box 2 Folder 27

Portrait donated to Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1986.
Box 2 Folder 28

Portraits, incl. college graduation, [191-].
Box 2 Folder 29
Snapshots, incl. on Penn campus, [191-].
Box 2 Folder 30
Portrait; group portrait of "House Staff and Interns, Old City Hospital," [192-].
Box 2 Folder 31
Portraits, incl. one as physician, [193-].
Box 2 Folder 32
Group shots, incl. award of Pennsylvania Institute of Negro Health, [194-].
Box 2 Folder 33
Portrait, [1948-1949].
Box 2 Folder 34
Portrait (painting), with 8x10 negative, ca.1949.
Box 2 Folder 35
Unidentified snapshots with note by RPA, 1949.
Box 2 Folder 36

Araminta's Goat, by Eva Knox Evans (a children's book), 1938.
Box 2 Folder 37

Print, Suggest