Diploma for medical degree for Dr. Ionia Rollin
date: label: Date
content: 1903
name: label: Created by
content: Howard University, American, founded 1867
label: Subject of
content: Dr. Ionia Rollin Whipper, American, 1872 - 1953
notes: label: Caption
content: Dr. Ionia Rollin Whipper was one of four female graduates of Howard University Medical School's class of 1903. After graduating, Whipper served as resident physician at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, before returning to Washington to open her own practice. In the 1920s, she toured the South instructing midwives as assistant medical officer for the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor. She later worked on the Maternity Ward of Freedmen's Hospital while continuing her private practice and mentoring pregnant teenage girls. In 1931, she opened the Ionia Rollin Whipper Home for Unwed Mothers in Northeast Washington, DC.
label: Description
content: Dr. Ionia Rollin's diploma for medical degree from Howard University in obstetrics. The diploma is extremly fragile and has multiple areas of loss and tears. The top of the diploma is covered in circular scroll work surrounding the text in Latin, [PROCURATORES / UNIVERSITATIS HOWARDIANEA / IN / Agro Columbine / Onibus has literas perlexturis sulutem in Domino sempiternam.] The text continues in a full paragraph in latin with the name [Ione Rollin Whipper] in larger, bolder lettering. The subject of the diploma has also been added in later, [Medicinea Doctoris]. On the bottom of the diploma are multiple signitures below, [Secretarius] and [Piases] that have completely faded and are now illegible.
place: label: Place made
content: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Black Enterprise
label: Topic
content: Education
label: Topic
content: HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities)
label: Topic
content: Medicine
label: Topic
content: Midwifery
label: Topic
content: Social reform
label: Topic
content: Women
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Documents and Manuscripts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Carole Ione Lewis Family Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2018.101.6
objectType: label: Type
content: diplomas
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: No Known Copyright Restrictions
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: ink on vellum (paper)
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 18 × 22 in. (45.7 × 55.9 cm)