The Frustrations of Research

Aug. 2, 1907
Los Angeles

The Times reports the death of Dr. Lucy Hall-Brown, a prominent woman physician who was active in the Red Cross. Although we know where she lived (Vermont and 30th Street), we have no idea where she went to school, her age or whether she had any survivors. Nor are we told why she was buried at the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y., rather than Los Angeles.

A Google search reveals that Hall-Brown was a frequent correspondent with Clara Barton, but not much more.

Still, it’s worth looking at any woman doctor from this period in history, so we can mine The Times obituary from some interesting facts: We know that she attended a Red Cross conference at Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1887 and another one in Vienna in 1897.

The Times also says she attended the International Congress of Medicine and Electro-Therapeutics in Paris in 1900 and was a member of the American Social Science Association. She made 25 trips to Japan, most recently in a 1906 tour sponsored by The Times, was a guest lecturer on hygiene and physiology at schools in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto and Kobe, and had returned to Los Angeles in July after a recent visit.

Her memorial was held at the Garret funeral home, 1237 S. Flower St., performed by the Rev. William Horace Day, the minister at First Congregational Church of Los Angeles at 8th Street and Hook. He later became the first president of Pomona College and died in 1942.

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