From working-class background to barrier breaking physician, Esther Pohl Lovejoy left her mark.
Oregonian, Esther Pohl Lovejoy broke many barriers in medical study and practice during her long life from 1869-1967. From a working-class background she worked her way through medical school clerking in department stores and became the second woman to graduate from the Medical Department of the University of Oregon in 1894. Lovejoy was one of the first women to serve as a public health officer of a major city in Portland, took a vital part in Oregon's votes for women movement, organized women physicians for service in the First World War, and directed the humanitarian international relief organization the American Women's Hospitals until her death in 1967. This presentation will highlight Lovejoy's career and will invite audience members to draw upon Lovejoy's own writing to compare her experiences with the fictional Dr. Lydia Weston created by Ritu Mukerji in Murder by Degrees.
Presenter: Kimberly Jensen received her Ph.D. in United States and Women’s History from the University of Iowa and is professor of history and gender studies at Western Oregon University. She is the author of Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War (University of Illinois Press, 2008), Oregon’s Doctor to the World: Esther Pohl Lovejoy and a Life in Activism (University of Washington Press, 2012) and Oregon’s Others: Gender, Civil Liberties, and the Surveillance State in the Early Twentieth Century (University of Washington Press, 2024). She serves on the executive and editorial boards of the Oregon Encyclopedia.
About the 2025 Novel Idea selection: Murder by Degrees is a thrillingly atmospheric tale of intrigue, featuring a brilliant female doctor who’s ahead of her time. Set in Philadelphia, 1875, the debut novel by Ritu Mukerji, Dr. Lydia Weston is preparing for the start of a new term at Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, when the body of a young woman is fished out of the Schuylkill River. The death is ruled a suicide, but Lydia is suspicious.
As the investigation unfolds, Lydia puts to use all her diagnostic skills and autopsy table acumen to pursue the killer.
About the author: Ritu Mukerji was born in Kolkata, India, and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. From a young age, she has been an avid reader of mysteries, from Golden Age crime fiction to police procedurals and the novels of PD James and Ruth Rendell. She received a BA in history from Columbia University and a medical degree from Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. She completed residency training at the University of California, Davis and has been a practicing internist for fifteen years. She lives in Marin County, California, with her husband and three children.
Learn more about A Novel Idea here.
Questions? Contact lizg@deschuteslibrary.org
AGE GROUP: | Adult |
EVENT TYPE: | Adult Program |
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