Topic: Health
A first-generation American born to poor German immigrants, Henry John Kaiser worked hard and studied hard, taking advantage of every opportunity to better his situation until he became one of the cou...
George Alexander Ballasiotes (b. 1931) opened Key Rexall Drugs in 1963 at 23422 Pacific Highway S in the Midway area of Kent in King County south of Seattle. In the 37 years before he retired, Ballasi...
This bibliography on the history of medicine in King County was prepared as a community history resource by staff of the former King County Office of Cultural Resources, now 4Culture (King County Cult...
King County's Equity and Social Justice (ESJ) Initiative was made public by then-County Executive Ron Sims (b. 1948) in February 2008. Citing sobering examples of the effects of inequality, Sims direc...
The Caroline Kline Galland Home, located in the Seward Park neighborhood of southeast Seattle, is a skilled nursing home for Jewish seniors. For more than 90 years Seattle's Jewish community has ralli...
Dr. Frans Koome was a Renton physician who provided unwillingly pregant women with safe abortions at a time when it was illegal to do so. On Thankgiving eve, 1969, Dr. Koome went several steps further...
Mary A. Latham was Spokane's first woman physician -- a heroic and ultimately tragic figure in the city's history. She came to Spokane in 1887 and specialized in the diseases of women and children. Sh...
Dr. Blanche Sellers Lavizzo was the first African American woman pediatrician in the state of Washington. She arrived in Seattle in July 1956 and began her pediatric practice on East Madison Street an...
In 1908, the Lebanon Home opened in Seattle on 1500 Kilbourne Street, and served as rescue shelter for homeless young women. Over the years it expanded the services it provided and by the early 1920s ...
This is a harrowing account of a legal abortion which resulted in complications that received inadequate care. It is written by Janet Creighton and excerpted from the June 1974 issue of From the Groun...
J. Hans Lehmann, M.D. was the only son of middle class Jewish parents in the northern German town of Barsinghausen. He escaped Europe with most of his family on the eve of World War II and established...
The Lifelong AIDS Alliance began in 2001 when two Seattle organizations fighting AIDS — the Chicken Soup Brigade and the Northwest AIDS Foundation — merged into one. As the number of AIDS-...
The Lighthouse for the Blind was incorporated in Seattle in 1918, with the purpose of advancing the general welfare of the blind. Three of the five men who wrote the articles of incorporation were bli...
Linnie Lucille Love was a child actress, dancer, and singer in early Washington popular vaudeville. She advanced her skills by studying grand opera at New York City music conservatories. Upon completi...
In February 1944 a semi-permanent Army General Hospital opened at Fort Lewis in Pierce County. The hospital cared for wounded and injured from World War II battlefields. By 1945 it was expanded to als...
Warren G. Magnuson ("Maggie" to constituents, Warren to family and friends) represented Washington in the United States Senate longer than anyone else and used his seniority and persuasive skills to e...
Dorothy Holland Mann, a public health expert, consumer advocate, and civic activist, arrived in Seattle in 1979 as Regional Health Administrator for Region X (Washington, Idaho, Alaska, Oregon) of the...
On July 9, 1949, there were 13 African American registered nurses in Seattle and it was on this day that they were called together at the home of Anne Foy Baker to form the Mary Mahoney Registered Nur...
Catherine Simmons Broshears Maynard was an energetic Seattle pioneer. She assisted her husband David (Doc) Maynard (1808-1873) in his several enterprises, including Seattle's first hospital. Many colo...
PeaceHealth Peace Island Medical Center, established to serve residents and visitors on San Juan Island in the far northwest corner of Washington, opened its doors to patients on November 26, 2012. Am...
Edward J. Kowrach was a Catholic diocesan priest who retired in 1973 after serving 35 years as pastor of St. Anne's Church and as a chaplain at Lakeland Village, the state institution for the mentally...
Dr. Earl V. Miller was the first African American urologist in Washington and the first west of the Mississippi. He was also a civil rights activist, and was honored in 1989 by the Black Heritage Soci...
Dr. Rosalie Reddick Miller was the first African American woman dentist to practice in the State of Washington. She arrived in Seattle with her husband, Dr. Earl V. Miller, the first black urologist i...
From its founding in 1852, Seattle has been confronted by the scourge of homelessness. The city's first official homeless person was Edward Moore, a Massachusetts-born sailor who, having been rescued ...