Anna M. Longshore Potts
Anna M. Longshore Potts (, Longshore; April 16, 1829 – October 24, 1912) was an American physician and medical lecturer of the long nineteenth century. She was one of eight members of the first graduating class of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She practiced in Philadelphia for a few years after her graduation, then for five years in Adrian, Michigan. Thereafter, she made a tour of the Pacific coast and elsewhere in the United States as well as New Zealand, Australia, and England on the prevention of sickness. She traveled around the world twice and gained a reputation as an author and lecturer. Her lifework was a crusade against ignorance and prejudice; as she said, a "diffusion of physiological knowledge would not only tend to prevent disease, but would also be a potent factor in the preservation of morality". Potts belonged to numerous clubs. Early life and education Anna Mary Longshore was born in Attleboro (now Langhorne), in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on April 16, 1829. Her parents were Abram and Rhoda Longshore. Anna's siblings included brothers Cary Longshore, Isaac S. Longshore, Thomas Ellwood Longshore, and Dr. Joseph S. Longshore,and at least one sister, Elizabeth Longshore Burgess. In 1852, at the age of 22, Potts graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, as one of eight students in the college's first graduating class.. One of her classmates, Hannah Longshore, married Potts' brother Thomas and became the mother of Potts' niece Lucretia Longshore Blankenburg. Career After earning a medical degree from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1852, Potts opened a lucrative medical practice in Philadelphia. Her health became impaired, and in 1857, she returned to her hometown of Langhorne, where she married a merchant, Lambert Hibbs Potts (b. 1831). They had a son, Emerson. A few years later, Dr. Longshore, now Dr. Longshore-Potts, moved to Adrian, Michigan, where she quickly rose to a high position in her profession. She became imbued with the belief that a physician's most sacred duty is to prevent rather than cure disease, and to that end, she gave many private lectures to her patients. The ability of those talks led to her giving a course of public lectures, the meeting being called by the mayor, leading physicians and clergymen. That was in 1876. Her addresses were so favorably received that she concluded to devote all her time to them. She commenced first in small towns, with a boy as agent, who engaged churches and wrote with crayon in blank spaces the place and time of the meetings. Her success was continuous and, as she traveled out into larger towns, became almost phenomenal. The first city of any consequence which she visited as a lecturer was San Francisco, where she appeared in 1881. She then visited the principal coast towns, north as far as Seattle, Washington and south to San Diego, California. In May, 1883, she sailed with her party, then consisting of seven, for New Zealand, where, from Auckland