Scope and Content Note
The papers of Mary Amanda Dixon Jones (b. 1828), span the years 1839-1925, with the bulk dating from 1874 to 1907, and consist of family papers, general correspondence, legal papers, financial papers, lectures, notes, writings, medical illustrations, newspaper clippings, photographs, and printed matter. Dixon Jones was the first person in America to perform a total hysterectomy for a tumor of the uterus. In 1889 the Brooklyn Daily Eagle ran a series of articles critical of Dixon Jones’s surgical skills and her management of the Woman’s Hospital of Brooklyn in New York. These articles led to criminal lawsuits against Dixon Jones for the deaths of two patients, Ida Hunt and Sarah T. Bates. After being exonerated in the Hunt case and having the other case dropped, Dixon Jones sued the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for libel. The trial, which began in February 1892, became a public debate through the newspapers about women doctors and Dixon Jones’s medical and financial practices at the hospital. The bulk of the collection relates to Dixon Jones’s career as a physician and surgeon, her legal difficulties, and her research and writings about diseases of the reproductive system. The collection is arranged in three groups: family papers, general correspondence, and subject file.
The family papers consist chiefly of correspondence between Dixon Jones and her children, Charles N. D. Jones, Henry D. Jones, and Mary D. Jones (sometimes spelled Marie). Much of the correspondence relates to local and family news; many of the early letters contain details of the children’s studies and education, particularly those of Henry and Mary. Henry was a graduate of Harvard University and became an Episcopal clergyman. Mary graduated from several women’s schools and studied music in the United States and Europe. Charles became a physician and worked at the Woman’s Hospital of Brooklyn with his mother. The letters include brief mentions of Dixon Jones’s work as a physician and her medical writings; only a few by Dixon Jones refer to the libel case. Family letters in 1893 contain details of the daughter’s romance and marriage to S. C. Shortlidge. Dixon Jones strongly opposed this marriage. In December 1893, Shortlidge murdered Mary D. Jones and pled insanity as his defense. Letters from Dixon Jones to Henry Jones in early 1894 and files about the murder convey her distress and anguish about her daughter’s death. In 1906 Dixon Jones experienced another family tragedy, the unexpected death of Henry Jones. The family papers document Dixon Jones’s efforts to write sketches in tribute to her deceased children. They include drafts of her recollections, copied excerpts of letters from Mary and Henry, letters from friends and colleagues about her children, and other material. Also in the family papers are a patient logbook of Charles N. D. Jones, a travel journal of Mary D. Jones when she studied music in Europe in 1884, and a notebook including genealogical material about the Dixon family.
The general correspondence consists mostly of incoming letters to Dixon Jones from other doctors, a few patients, and acquaintances. Letters in 1881 and 1884 relate to Dixon Jones’s inquiries about her admission to the Kings County Medical Society. Other correspondence includes a letter of 13 May 1889 to Dixon Jones from a gentleman indicating that statements attributed to him in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle were false, a letter of 27 May 1892 from Dixon Jones discussing her poor financial status and why she lost the libel case, and a letter of 3 December 1892 from Dixon Jones to Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi regarding Dixon Jones’s career and the Woman’s Hospital of Brooklyn. Other correspondence relates to her writings, including an 1895 letter from a doctor about “criminal abortion.”
The subject file consists mainly of legal papers, files about the Woman’s Hospital of Brooklyn, and writings by Dixon Jones. Files on the Ida Hunt case include the closing argument by Dixon Jones’s lawyer, George G. Reynolds, press clippings, notes, and other material. The bulk of the legal papers relates to the libel suit of Dixon Jones and her son Charles against the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and include a few pleadings, correspondence, a court order, partial transcripts of the trial, notes, lists of witnesses, and patient statements. The papers also reflect Dixon Jones’s affiliation with two hospitals known as the Woman’s Hospital of Brooklyn. Dixon Jones served as chief medical officer for the first hospital from 1882 to 1884. A dispute in 1884 led to the disbanding of the hospital, leading Dixon Jones to organize another Woman’s Hospital in which she held the title of gynecologist. Files pertaining to the hospitals consist of reports, a draft history of the institutions probably written by Dixon Jones, notes of minutes of meetings, a constitution for the hospital organized in 1884, lists of patients, notes, and printed matter.
The writings in the collection document Dixon Jones’s activities as a prolific writer. Most of the writings relate to her articles for medical journals and autobiographical material. Some of the autobiographical drafts contain information about Dixon Jones’s ancestors.