Gilpin, Zenobia Gustava, 1903-1948

Zenobia G. Gilpin was the youngest child of St. James Gilpin and Cordelia (Reese) Gilpin. She was born in Richmond, Va., and attended Howard University for both her undergraduate and medical degrees. After graduating in 1924 she interned at the Freedmen’s Hospital, Washington, D.C., and then pursued post-graduate study at the Long Island College Hospital School of Medicine in New York. She returned to Richmond in 1926. Although she went by her maiden name, Dr. Gilpin was married in 1943 to Welton H. Henderson. St. Philip Hospital in Richmond opened in 1920 as a general hospital for African Americans. Affiliated with it were the St. Philip School of Nursing and the St. Philip Hospital Postgraduate Clinic for Negro Physicians, all under the oversight of the Medical College of Virginia. Beginning in 1931, the clinic ran for two weeks every summer and provided attendees with class, lecture, laboratory and hands-on patient opportunities.