Dr. Walker part II
PART II. In 1865 Pres. Andrew Johnson awarded Dr. Mary Walker the Medal of Honor. Dr. Walker wore the medal pinned to her suit coat every day for the rest of her life. In 1917, her medal was rescinded along w/those of 911 men, for want of direct combat. <br /><br />She wrote a letter of protest, and simply continued to wear the medal until her death in 1919. Pres. Jimmy Carter reinstated the honor in 1977, thanks to feminist protest. <br /><br />Dr. Walker is still the only woman ever to receive it. <br /><br />Dr. Walker lived a long life, in Washington, Oswego & Albany. <br /><br />She continued to practice medicine and activism. She campaigned for pensions for Civil War nurses and other women who had served, and never stopped urging women to give up corsets & petticoats. <br /><br />She was close to Belva Lockwood, landmark lawyer and presidential candidate; they worked for suffrage thru the 1870s. Walker’s contributions to the movement were all but erased from the record by Stanton & Anthony, who were threatened by her & uncomfortable w/her gender-bending. <br /><br />Was Dr. Walker trans? Genderqueer? A butch? Or just a sensible woman trying to do her job in appropriate clothing? There needn't be only one answer. Gender expression isn't static across one's life. I’ve used the pronoun “she” in these posts b/c Walker did - but with discomfort. <br /><br />In early years she doesn’t try to pass, doesn’t call herself M. Edwards Walker or M.E. In lectures and in writing she regularly describes herself as a woman - a woman willing to challenge convention, and frustrated at how lonely that was. <br /><br />She was arrested repeatedly for her clothing, in New York City & Baltimore. <br /><br />Charged w/disorderly conduct & disturbing the peace, in 1866 she points out to the court that she’s been received by President Lincoln & Justice Salmon P. Chase wearing these clothes. <br /><br />But that’s in 1866, when she was still wearing long hair and women’s collars. <br /><br />Look at what Dr. Walker is wearing <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/53651/archive/files/eecb0518a277a1631beb2ed0c41fcd64.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI3ATG3OSQLO5HGKA&Expires=1596067200&Signature=h4WBF5Lj3wog1SLoOlbIecPladE%3D" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>. THIS is the kind of outfit that led to arrests. This is how little women could reject gender norms. <br /><br />By the 1870s, Walker cut her hair short and wore unambiguously male clothing for the rest of her life. She sat for photos and had portraits painted in those years - in top hat & dinner jacket, Dr. Walker wanted to be seen clearly for who she was. <br /><br />For queer people, Walker’s portraits offer a jolt of recognition. While she had flirty correspondences with men and women, her biographer says there’s no evidence of any relationship after her brief marriage. But she made an indp & defiantly gender-bending life in the 19th cent. <br /><br />Walker proudly wore pants, ties, and short hair - and wasn’t afraid to say you should too. She wasn’t trying to blend in or disappear - though she could have; plenty of transmen did, and I admire that too. Instead, she stood out and spoke out. <br /><br />That’s what makes her so admirable and so unique to me. She modeled professional excellence in everything she did, and demanded that other women interrogate the prison of convention they lived in. <br /><br />There are at least two children’s books about Dr. Walker: Mary Walker Wears the Pants and Mary Wears What She Wants. <br /><br />But the most fitting tribute hides in plain sight: @<a href="https://twitter.com/whitmanwalker" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WhitmanWalker</a>, which has been serving the health and well-being of LGBTQ Washington for 42 years. <br /><br />I’m grateful to @<a href="https://twitter.com/UConn" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">uconn</a> prof Sharon Harris’ terrific biography, Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical, 1832-1919, which is available digitally; to Charlotte @<a href="https://twitter.com/cmclymer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cmclymer</a> for getting the word out; to @<a href="https://twitter.com/albanymuskrat" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AlbanyMuskrat</a> & to @<a href="https://twitter.com/VesuviaAdelia" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">VesuviaAdelia</a> for the perfect ending. #Suffrage100
Daily Suffragist
<a href="https://twitter.com/DailySuffragist/status/1217151182294192133" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Original thread</a>
01/14/2020
<a href="https://dailysuffragist.omeka.net/items/show/5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Walker part I</a><br /><br /><a href="https://friendsofalbanyhistory.wordpress.com/2019/01/26/dr-mary-walker-recipient-of-the-congressional-medal-of-honor-and-her-time-in-albany/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Mary Walker, Recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor and her time in Albany I came across this picture, taken on State St. in 1911. It’s photo of Dr. Mary E. Walker. I had one of those lightbulb moments. My Gram used to tell me about a nice old lady in Albany..." [Friends of Albany History]</a><br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Today is <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TransDayOfVisibility?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TransDayOfVisibility</a> <br /><br />Honor our transgender ancestors - read the 2-part story of Civil War hero & suffragist Dr. Mary Edwards Walker and please share!<br /><br />Part II 👇and Part I in the next tweet. Happy <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TDOV2020?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TDOV2020</a> ! <a href="https://t.co/9eSnOIuzlS">https://t.co/9eSnOIuzlS</a></p>
— Daily Suffragist (@DailySuffragist) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailySuffragist/status/1244977635823955968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2020</a></blockquote>
Dr. Walker, part I
The only woman ever awarded the Medal of Honor - the US military’s highest decoration - was a genderqueer Civil War surgeon named Dr. Mary Edwards Walker.<br /><br />Walker was a suffragist, a veteran and POW, and a talented doctor who challenged convention in every way.<br /><br />She campaigned for dress reform for decades, before & after the war and as an officer of the Dress Reform Assoc. She was deeply disappointed in Lucy Stone, ElizCadyStanton & others who agreed with the cause but gave up on it.<br /><br />She was briefly married to a man, a fellow doctor.<br /><br />They omitted “obey” from their 1855 vows. She kept her name - they hung out a shingle as Drs. Walker & Miller.<br /><br />It took them twice as many years to get divorced as they spent married. Walker fought for divorce reform for the rest of her life.<br /><br />Turned down in her attempts to join the Union army, Walker volunteered at first. She finally got a contract, and proved able and unflappable - but still couldn’t get a formal commission.<br /><br />So she appealed to President Lincoln directly. Referring to herself, she asks:<br /><br />“[T]hat she may render aid in the field hospitals, where her energy, enthusiasm, professional abilities and patriotism will be of the greatest service in inspiring the true soldier never to yield to traitors, and in attending the wounded brave.<br /><br />“She will not shrink from duties under shot and shells, believing that her life is of no value in the country’s greatest peril if by its loss the interests of future generations shall be promoted. - Mary E. Walker, M.D.”<br /><br />Lincoln demurs, but she finds a way. Photo in uniform.<br /><br />The @AmerMedicalAssn tried hard to block her - both b/c of sexism and resistance to “eclectic” or what today we’d call alternative & homeopathic medicine.<br /><br />Recall: traditional medical schools wouldn’t admit women then, so the line between credentialing & sexism is a thin one.<br /><br />Walker challenged the status quo always. Early in her military days she questioned unnecessary amputations, quietly counseling soldiers to refuse if she thought the limb could be saved.<br /><br />She took a 2d degree to study hygiene, which the medical establishment dismissed as fluff.<br /><br />After the war she wanted to be a doctor for the Freedmen’s Bureau, but they weren’t hiring outspoken women.<br /><br />Dr. Walker was famous, which biographer Sharon Harris says is what she wanted - and got, thanks to her "accomplishments, her unique personality, and her appearance."<br /><br />Dr. Walker was a committed suffragist who used her public profile to advance the cause. Like Anna Dickinson in the same period, she was only lightly affiliated with the 2 big movement groups. Walker was wary of both factions, though cooperated w/both Lucy Stone & Stanton/Anthony.<br /><br />Dr. Walker is the first woman known to try and vote in New York, in her hometown of Oswego. It was 1867, early in what becomes known as the New Departure, a strategy of voting as civil disobedience.<br /><br />Tomorrow: So, was Walker queer? Trans?
Daily Suffragist
<a href="https://twitter.com/DailySuffragist/status/1216854671928840197" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Original thread</a>
13/01/2020
<a href="https://dailysuffragist.omeka.net/items/show/6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Walker part II</a>