Putnam, Elizabeth Lowell, 1862-1935

Elizabeth (Lowell) Putnam, political activist, philanthropist, and pioneer in prenatal care, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. One of five children of Katherine (Lawrence) and Augustus Lowell, she was the sister of the poet Amy Lowell and Harvard president Abbott Lawrence Lowell. In 1888 she married William Lowell Putnam (1861-1924), a distant cousin and noted lawyer. The Putnams resided at 49 Beacon Street in Boston and spent their summers in Manchester by-the-Sea on the North Shore. They had five children: George, Katharine, Roger, Harriet, and Augustus; Harriet died from impure milk at the age of two.

Putnam worked primarily in the interest of child and maternal health. As chairman of the executive committee of the Massachusetts Milk Consumers' Association, she lobbied for milk inspection and purity laws. She also chaired the Department of Public Health and the Committee on Prenatal and Obstetrical Care of the Women's Municipal League of Boston, and served as president of the American Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality (AASPIM, later renamed the American Child Hygiene Association). All these organizations worked to educate the public on prenatal and infant health care. The first experiment in prenatal care, considered a great advance in preventive medicine, was conducted under Putnam's supervision from 1909 to 1914. In 1928 she founded and endowed the Fearing Research Laboratory for research on toxemia of pregnancy. Putnam's city home served as the offices of the Massachusetts Milk Consumers' Association and the Women's Municipal League.

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