Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first African-American woman to receive an M.D. degree, overcoming the dual discrimination of racism and sexism. She briefly resided on Joy Street at the north slope of Beacon Hill.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler was born in Delaware in 1831, to parents Matilda Webber and Absolum Davis. She was raised by an aunt in Pennsylvania who regularly cared for sick people in her local community. Crumpler credits these efforts by her aunt for inspiring her to enter the medical profession. Crumpler moved to Charlestown, MA in 1852 and worked in a nursing apprenticeship for multiple doctors over the course of eight years. The United States did not have an official nursing school until 1873, so Crumpler learned the ins-and-outs of nursing on the job. In 1860, the New England Female Medical College admitted Crumpler on the recommendations of the doctors she worked for. She became the first African-American woman to earn an M.D. in 1864. Crumpler was the only Black woman doctor at a time when just 300 of the 54,543 practicing physicians nationwide were women. In 1865, Crumpler moved to Richmond, Virginia to work as a doctor for the Freedmen’s Bureau, treating and curing the illnesses of formerly enslaved people who would otherwise lack access to healthcare. She married two times, first to Wyatt Lee (1852-1863 [Wyatt died]), and to Arthur Crumpler (1864-1895 [Rebecca died]). She had one child, Lizzie Sinclair Crumpler. 

Crumpler’s connection to the West End began in 1869, when she moved to 67 Joy Street on Beacon Hill. She wrote about her return to “my former home, Boston, where I entered into the work with renewed vigor, practicing outside, and receiving children in the house for treatment; regardless, in a measure of remuneration.” Just like her aunt in Pennsylvania, Crumpler was altruistic toward her neighbors that fell sick whether they paid her or not for the care. In 1880, she moved to Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood with her second husband. By then she retired from practicing medicine, though Crumpler soon wrote a medical book that defined her legacy. In 1883, Crumpler published A Book of Medical Discourses: In Two Parts, based on the notes she compiled from her many years as a practicing physician. The book informed readers on the illnesses of infants, women, and youth generally, such as “the cause, prevention, and cure of infantile bowel complaints.” Crumpler died in 1895 and was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Boston. Her burial was originally unmarked, but the Friends of the Hyde Park Library held a “Celebration of Life” for Crumpler in July 2020, and community members have raised funds for a new headstone for Crumpler.