Moore, Dorothea

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 13, 1894, Dorothea May Moore was the eldest of the three children of Edward Caldwell Moore and Eliza Coe (Brown) Moore. At the time of DMM's birth, ECM was minister of the First Congregational Church; in 1902 he was appointed a professor at Harvard University in history, philosophy, and theology. ECBM was a talented pianist who had studied in Vienna with Leschetitzky. Both of DMM's parents were fluent in several European languages, and German was for a time spoken at home.

DMM attended the Gilman School in Cambridge and graduated from the Misses May's School in Boston in 1911. She earned an A.B. cum laude in history, economics, and politics from Bryn Mawr College in 1915. At the end of her sophmore year, she had first considered medical work as her focus. There was debate as to nursing training, but by her senior year, with her family's approval, the decision was clear, and DMM shifted her college course work towards preparation for medical school. This was continued by attending Radcliffe Graduate School (1915-1916) and taking graduate courses at Harvard Medical School (1916-1917). She spent 1917-1918 in France working as a bacteriologist and technician in an American Red Cross Hospital, and then attended Johns Hopkins Medical School, where she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and in 1922 received her M.D.

Described by her professors as intelligent, hard working, "wise and ambitious," she applied for an internship in the Children's Hospital of Boston but was turned down because of "a definite unwritten rule debarring women interns." Instead, after a competitive examination, she won an internship at Bellevue Hospital in New York in l922. The following year she worked for the obstetrical service of the New York State Department of Maternity, Infancy and Child Hygiene, traveling to clinics throughout the state. In 1925, having become the first female intern at the New York Nursery and Child's Hospital, DMM was stricken with diphtheria, and diphtheria cardiac complications followed; she spent a full year recuperating in France and traveling in Europe. Upon her return to the United States, she served briefly as an intern in the pediatrics service at University Hospital in Rochester, New York.

Declining an appointment as head of the Department of Health Education at Radcliffe College, DMM had intern and assistant residency appointments at New Haven Hospital while teaching at Yale Medical School (1928-1929), and a research and clinic appointment at Cornell Medical School (1929-1931). In 1934 she moved back to Cambridge, where she maintained a successful private practice for thirty years and participated in local organizations concerned with the care of children, including the Child Care Association, the Head Start program, and monthly well-child conferences held in communities in southern Massachusetts. DMM was also on the board of directors of the Cambridge Mental Health Association from 1955 to 1985.

DMM worked in the outpatient clinics of Children's Hospital (1934-1964), and taught at Harvard Medical School from 1937 to 1968, first as Assistant in Pediatrics and later as Associate in Medicine of the Child's Health Division. She was also pediatrician for the Preschool at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (1952-1960), on the staff of the Massachusetts Mental Retardation Project's Task Force for Prevention (1965-1966), and pediatrician for the Maternal-Infant Health Study of the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Stroke (1966-1974).

The author of a number of articles on children's diseases, DMM also assisted Dr. Clement Smith in the preparation of The Children's Hospital of Boston: "Built Better than They Knew" (Boston: Little, Brown, 1983). She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, member of the New England Pediatric Society and the Massachusetts Medical Society, and from 1953 to 1969 served as trustee of Connecticut College.

DMM married Arthur Burkhard, scholar and professor of German arts and literature, in 1941. AB died in 1983.

Moore was a pediatrician who worked in the outpatient clinics of Children's Hospital (1934-1964), and taught at Harvard Medical School (1937-1968). She attended Radcliffe Graduate School (1915-1916) and took graduate courses at Harvard Medical School (1916-1917). In 1917-1918 she was a bacteriologist and technician in an American Red Cross Hospital in France. She received her M.D. from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1922.

Pediatrician Dorothea May Moore was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on May 13, 1894, the eldest of three children of Edward Caldwell and Eliza Coe Brown Moore. At the time her father was minister of the First Congregational Church; in 1902 he was appointed a professor at Harvard University in history, philosophy, and theology. Her mother had studied piano in Vienna with Leschetitzky.

Moore attended the Gilman School in Cambridge and graduated from the Misses May's School in Boston (1911); she earned an A.B. in history, economics, and politics from Bryn Mawr College (1915). She attended Radcliffe Graduate School (1915-1916) and took graduate courses at Harvard Medical School (1916-1917). In 1917-1918 she was a bacteriologist and technician in an American Red Cross Hospital in France. She received her M.D. from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1922.