In Honor of Women’s History Month, We Remember Hannah Stone

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birth control, birth control methods, history, margaret sanger, reproductive rights, women

When we remember the birth control movement, we must commemorate the extraordinary women who willingly risked so much for the advancement of such a controversial movement. For these activists, giving all women new access and opportunities to contraceptives meant more than their own potential individual  advancements. Dr. Hannah Mayer Stone embodied this type of dedication. Chosen by Margaret Sanger in 1925 to be the head physician of the Clinical Research Bureau, Dr. Hannah Stone would prove to be dedicated not just to the cause, but also to the over 100,000 patients she saw during her time at the clinic.

Hannah M. Stone

While she defied the norm with her passionate involvement with the movement, Dr. Hannah Stone surpassed traditional 20th century women’s roles all her life. Born in New York City in 1893 as the daughter of a pharmacist, she went on to receive a degree in pharmacy from Brooklyn College in 1912. Following this, she attended New York Medical school, receiving her MD in 1920. In 1921, she attended the first American Birth Control Conference, where she met Margaret Sanger. Sanger opened the Clinical Research Bureau in 1923, and two years later she needed a new physician.Dr. Stone was already a member of the medical advisory board for the Clinical Research Bureau when Margaret Sanger offered her the position of physician. As she had this prior involvement, her interest in the birth control movement was known. Dr. Hannah Stone would work at the Clinical Research Bureau, which was later renamed Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau in 1928, for 16 years without receiving compensation.

The main purpose behind the establishment of the Clinical Research Bureau was to do more than just administer birth control to patients; it was to also prove the effectiveness of different types of contraceptives through detailed record keeping. Dr. Stone handled both tasks methodically. By the end of her time at the clinic in 1941, she had helped over 100,000 patients and she had maintained a record for each one. But aside from just being thorough, Dr. Stone was compassionate and understanding with her patients. Her demeanor led her become known as the “Madonna of the Clinic.” In her writing, Sanger expressed her adoration of Dr. Stone. She commented on her attributes, listing  “her infinite patience, her attention to details, her understanding of human frailties, her sympathy, her gentleness” as reasons that she was invaluable to the work of the clinic. Dr. Stone understood the value of her work at the clinic, not just in her interactions with patients, but also with her responsibility of compiling data about her patients. During her 16 years of service to the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau, Dr. Hannah Stone was able to leave a profound impact. Her detailed records helped the movement discover that the most effective method of birth control was the diaphragm used with spermicide. She later published some of her findings in “Therapeutic Contraceptives.” This article was one of the first involving birth control to be published within a medical journal.

Her passion for helping women extended past the realm of birth control. Dr. Stone and her husband, Dr. Abraham Stone counseled couples with relationship and sexual problems from within the clinic as well. This began casually, but it developed into the more formal Marriage Consultation Center which was ran out of the clinic and a community church. Through this work Dr. Stone again acted as a trailblazer, as these marriage counseling sessions had not been done in this manner before. In 1935, Dr. Stone and her husband were able to publish their counseling techniques in a book entitled A Marriage Manual.

From left: Sigrid Brestwell, Antoinette Field, Elizabeth Pissort, Margaret Sanger, Hannah Mayer Stone, and Marcella Sideri

Dr. Stone’s association with birth   control often caused her to put the movement’s progression ahead of her own career, as her work at the clinic cost her many opportunities. She had been working at the Women’s Lying-In Hospital when she first started to work for Margaret Sanger at the Research Bureau Clinic. Her new work at the clinic caused a conflict with her the Women’s Hospital and they asked her to give up her newly acquired position. She refused this request, and as a result she was asked to resign from the Women’s Lying-In Hospital. This would only be the first of many times where her work at the clinic would prove to be a detriment to her career. Later, in 1929, Dr. Stone was arrested with four others when the Research Bureau Clinic was raided. Although the charges that were brought against her were later dismissed, the picture that was taken of her in handcuffs permanently damaged her record. Dr. Stone felt the full impact of this when she applied to admission to the New York Medical Society in 1932, and her application was tabled. She continued to take risks for the movement, including her involvement with the test case US v. One Package, when a package of Japanese pessaries were shipped to her and later seized. This case ended up being monumental, as it was the first step in legalized birth control. Despite her involvement with the birth control movement, and the clinic itself proving to be a detriment to the furthering of her medical career, Dr. Stone’s dedication to the cause never faltered.

Dr. Hannah Stone died suddenly of a heart attack in 1942 at the age of 48. Her loss was deeply felt at the clinic, as she had dedicated so much of her time to assisting the patients. She was replaced by her husband, who carried on her legacy and dedication to the cause. Dr. Stone is remembered for her kindness, and her groundbreaking work. She was well respected for her tremendous knowledge on administering effective contraceptives. Thousands of medical students and doctors alike came to the Research Bureau Clinic to learn her methods. Even though Dr. Stone was recognized for her greatness, Margaret Sanger wrote extensively on her humility. She did not crave attention or recognition, and often others took responsibility for her advancements.

As a doctor, Hannah Stone was a trailblazer. As a woman, she exceeded the expectations society had for her at the time. But it is her selflessness that is most inspiring. Dr. Hannah Stone dedicated nearly her entire career to serving women and the birth control movement, and despite her vast achievements she never sought recognition for them.

Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira: a Prodigy, a Champion & the Tragedy

One of the more interesting individuals I have been able to research during my time at MSPP has been Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira.

I came across her name as I was editing a chapter in the upcoming volumes. As I searched for her online to confirm the spelling of her name, of course, her Wikipedia page came up.

And of course, I clicked on it.

Within the first few lines of her article it states, “By the time she was 17 years old and had became internationally known, her mother shot her to death.”[1]

Wait, what???

Talk about cliff hanger. Obviously, I had to pursue further.

Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira, age & date taken unknown (Carmona, Ángela, Rosas y espinas. Álbum de las españolas del siglo XX, Planeta, 2004).

Hildegart was born on December 9, 1914 to Dona Aurora Rodriguez. Dona Aurora is reported to have told friends that she wanted a child to reflect beauty and intelligence. She therefore chose a man that she believed was ideal to reproduce these characteristics. She also noted that she only saw him once.[2]

Hildegart would become a prodigy guided by her mother’s close supervision. At age 13, Hildegart would enroll at the law school at Complutense University of Madrid, becoming a lawyer at 17.

Before 16, she had published various books and pamphlets, all focused on sexual reform. These works, including Sexo y Amor, La Revolucion Sexual and Educación Sexual, were successfully circulating in Madrid. [3]

Hildegart’s publication, Educación Sexual (Sexual Education), 1931 (Cultura Galega).

For Hildegart, the problem that was plaguing society was the sexual problem. It was the “terrible epidemic” of large families creating unhappy homes from which “all sorts of evils radiate.”[4]

This sexual problem would be solved by a sexual revolution. Who is it that we know was heading their own sexual revolution in the United States?

It was in October of 1931, at age 16, when Hildegart wrote to Margaret Sanger. Hildegart explained her accomplishments to Sanger, as well as her admiration for the work that Sanger has done in the United States, even mentioning that she has a photo of Sanger in her sitting room. [5] Hildegart was turning to Sanger to learn the American customs and laws regarding sex reform:

But the special motive of my writing to you is to beg your help for me in the work which I have enterprised, I would desire to know the laws, the propositions, the ideas and the books which are given to publicity in all countries but specially in United States of America where you can so well know the development of people in this interesting object.[6]

The correspondence between the two women would continue, however, there was another key character in these conversations; Havelock Ellis.

In a letter to Ellis, Sanger seems somewhat stunned and in disbelief about the prodigy from Spain, explaining:

I loved the jumps she made! Like a race horse run wild.[7]

At the beginning of December that year, Sanger would respond to Hildegart’s eager request by sending her literature on the sex and contraceptive movements in the United States. However, it was Ellis who would become enthralled with his “Spanish lawyer girl” calling her one of the “wonders of the world.”[8]

Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira, age & date unknown (Cultura Galega).

It would be Ellis who would piece together the wondrous story of Hildegart’s childhood. In 1933, Ellis published a profile, “The Red Virgin,” on the young woman.[9] She was able to read by the age of 22 months and by 2, she had good handwriting. Ellis described Hildegart’s careful instruction by her mother, which included sexual education.

Hildegart would write to Ellis that she was a eugenic child and that her mother had a master plan designed for Hildegart.[10] This master plan was carefully regulated as Hildegart’s mother was always with her.

Her mother is reported to have constantly reminded Hildegart to “remember [her] mission, love is only passing.”[11]

Aurora Rodríguez Carballeira (La madre ejemplar).

Ellis, seemingly taken with Hildegart, was also intrigued by Hildegart’s mother and her methods of childrearing and instruction. To him, Aurora was a “new mother of today,” being thirty-one at her child’s birth and remaining “strong and youthful in spirit” to undertake the careful education of her daughter.[12]

Hildegart’s education didn’t stop after her law degree. In a letter to Sanger, Hildegart explains how she is studying medicine to gain knowledge of the how contraceptives work. She also expresses how she wants to begin a birth control clinic movement in Spain and therefore requests information from Sanger.[13]

Sanger, flattered that Hildegart continuously sought her input and resources, responds:

Your marvelous accomplishment is splendid; now that you have a new Government, you should have Birth Control Clinics all over Spain. They should be established and all instruction to working women and mothers given my women doctors(if possible)…I wish you would become a part of our international work and form a center of information in Spain.[14]

Well, Hildegart, accomplished and ambitious, takes this to heart.

In March, Hildegart invited Sanger to Spain to visit the World League conference. Hildegart had formed the Spanish chapter of the World League for Sexual Reform; Liga Mundial Para la Reforma Sexual.[15]

Ellis, however, was concerned about Hildegart’s ambition of organizing an international conference in Madrid.

In a letter to Sanger, Ellis writes that though Hildegart is “wonderfully accomplished and energetic, she is still so young and inexperienced in conference organization.” He also mentions that her youth could cause jealousy amongst other attendees, in particular the men.[16]

However, Sanger encouraged Hildegart to proceed with hosting a conference.

Hildegart, while pursuing so many projects, told Sanger she would do her best to arrange for the conference.

This was the last correspondence between the two women.

On June 9^th, while Hildegart was asleep, her mother shot her four times.

Eleven months later, in June 1934, Aurora was found guilty of murder. She is described as having been “calm and collected” in the courtroom.

I knew she was going to run away with him, so I killed her. She was too good, too beautiful. She had a mission on this earth but it was not matrimony.

She would die in an asylum in 1955.

There are various ideas behind her mother’s motivation. One recurring idea is that Hildegart was intending to leave her mother. Her mother, unable to cope with her daughter leaving her, killed her.

Some claim that Hildegart had met a Catalan politician and deputy to the mayor in Barcelona. He had encouraged Hildegart to separate from her dominating mother. Aurora, having found Hildegart’s letters to the politician, killed her daughter to avoid their separation.

Others claim that she was planning to travel to England in order to visit Ellis or H.G. Wells.

The story of the young prodigy Hildegart remains, however, so do the questions surrounding her untimely passing.

---

[1] “Hildegart Hildegart Rodríguez Carballeira,” Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia, accessed: July 18, 2013.

[2] Allen, Jay, “Mother Slays Daughter Who Leads Women,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 10, 1933.

[3] Sinclair, Alison, “The World League for Sexual Reform in Spain: Founding, Infighting, and the Rold of Hildegart Rodriguez.” Journal of the History of Sexuality Vol. 12, No. 1 Jan. 2003: 98-109.

[4] Havelock Ellis, “The Red Virgin,” The Adelphi Vol. 6, No. 3 June 1933: 175-179.

[5] The Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress, LCM 19:1251.

[6] The Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress, LCM 19:1233.

[7] The Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress, LCM 06:0517.

[8]  The Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress, LCM 05:0312.

[9] The nickname, the Red Virgin, was a name given to Hildegart by comrades (Havelock Ellis, “The Red Virgin,” The Adelphi Vol. 6, No. 3 June 1933: 175-179.)

[10] Ibid.

[11] Allen, Jay, “Mother Slays Daughter Who Leads Women,” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 10, 1933.

[12] Havelock Ellis, “The Red Virgin,” The Adelphi Vol. 6, No. 3 June 1933: 175-179.

[13] The Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress, LCM 19:1265.

[14] The Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress, LCM 19:1242.

[15] The Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress, LCM 19:1222.

[16] The Margaret Sanger Papers, Library of Congress, LCM 05:0366.

Who’s who at the Fifth International Conference on Planned Parenthood?

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IPPF, Japan

A few years ago, we obtained scans of a fascinating set of photographs from the family of Abraham Stone. He was  the director of the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau, a vice president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, and a close friend of Margaret Sanger. Among the rare images in the collection are photos taken at the Fifth International Planned Parenthood Conference, held October 24-29, 1955 in Tokyo, Japan. Unfortunately, the photos were not captioned, and while we can identify a few of the activists, we do not know who many of them are.

Margaret Sanger is featured in many of the photographs, along with Shidzue Ishimoto Kato, the best-known Japanese birth control activist who Sanger first met in 1922. Accompanying Sanger in many photographs are Dorothy Hamilton Brush and Abraham Stone. Brush was a Cleveland birth control activist and member of the board of the Brush Foundation, and served as the editor of the IPPF’s newsletter.

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Some of the prominent Japanese at the meeting were Hideki Kawasaki, the Japanese Minister of Welfare, and honorary president of the meeting; Dr. Juitsu Kitaoka, who headed the Family Planning Federation of Japan and served as the Secretary-General of the meeting. Shidzue Kato chaired the Japanese Planning Committee, which also included Dr. Yoshio Koya and Dr. Kageyas W. Amano. Dr. Fumiko Amano served as the official hostess.

The conference proceedings also mention the participation of the Family Planning Federation of Japan, who might also have appeared in the photographs. In addition to those already mentioned, others include its president, Dr. Yasumaro Shimojo, Dr. Kan Majima, executive director, Mr. Minoru Tachi, Mr. Kenzo Ikeda, Dr. Masako Fukuda, Dr. Kunizo Hukuda, Dr. Haruo Mizushima, Dr. Ayanori Okasaki, Dr. Shozo Toda, Dr. Masayoshi Yamaguchi, Dr. Takuma Terao, and Mr. Shinichi Mihara.

The Fifth International Conference on Planned Parenthood covered issues including world population problems, and in relation to food shortages, programs for promoting family planning, a symposium on current contraceptive methods, and a session on new biological methods for controlling fertility. This last session included early research by Dr. Gregory Pincus, who a few years later, released the first birth control pill. The conference was well attended and provided a publicity boost in Japan to birth control activists working there.

If you can identify any of the people in the slideshow, please do so in the comments. Thanks!

Who’s who at the Brownsville birth control clinic trial?

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Brownsville clinic, identify, photographs, trials

This iconic photo shown above features Margaret Sanger, surrounded by colleagues and supporters, emerging from the Brooklyn Court of Special Sessions during the Brownsville Clinic trials of Margaret Sanger, Fania Mindell and Ethel Higgins Byrne on January 7, 1917. The trial received widespread media attention as it heard arguments about the legality of the first birth control clinic ever opened in America.  The clinic, which Margaret Sanger opened at 46 Amboy Street in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, was raided and closed after being open only nine days. Featured in this photo along with Sanger are some of the progressive women of the era.

We have been only able to identify a few of the people pictured. Can you help us identify the rest? Please leave suggestions in the comment section below!

Directly behind Sanger (#3) at the edge of the photo, Fania Mindell (#1) stares into the camera. Mindell was a recent Jewish Russian immigrant who was very involved in the Brownsville Clinic and was arrested along with Sanger Oct. 16, 1916 for distributing “obscene literature” that informed women about contraception. The conviction was reversed on appeal. A publication about her husband, author and actor Ralph Roeder, would describe Mindell as having “more energy and vehemence and animation than any four people put together.”

In the middle of the photograph surrounded by her children (#7,12-15), Rose Halpern (#8), holds a sixteen-month old baby. A Lithuanian immigrant, she was a Brownsville resident and early patient at the clinic who organized other mothers to come out in a show of support for Sanger and her colleagues. According to a New York Times article covering the trial, “There was also a poorly clad woman with six children ranging in age from sixteen months to ten years, who said she was Mrs. Rose Halpern of 375 Bradford Street, Brooklyn, and that she had come as a “demonstration” of the need of information on birth control among the poor. Her husband was a garment worker and made only $17 a week to support this large family, she said.”

The woman standing behind Rose Halpern with her eyes closed under her hat is probably Ethel Byrne (#16), Sanger’s sister, who was also arrested in the Brownsville Clinic and later imprisoned in Blackwell’s Island workhouse. Following the example of the English suffragettes, she went on a hunger strike, fasting for five days before being force-fed through a tube by the prison staff. She was released from prison after eleven days and granted pardon after Sanger negotiated with New York governor Charles Whitman.

The woman standing in the middle of the crowd facing Sanger with flowers on her hat is Bella Zilberman (#6) of 919 Avenue O, Brooklyn, a social activist, peace advocate, and supporter of Sanger. A New York Tribune piece from the trial mentions her criticizing the judges decision to jail Sanger and her colleagues, and supporting Sanger’s theories about family limitation.

We have found another version of this image online at www.corbisimages.com that shows even more spectators.

Can you help us figure out who any of the others are? Do you recognize any of the faces?
[A hint: According to a New York Tribune article, the group of women who escorted Sanger included: Gertrude Minturn (Mrs. Amos) Pinchot, Marion B. (Mrs. Frank) Cothren, Charlotte Wyeth (Mrs. Louis) Delafield, Martha Bensley (Mrs. Robert) Bruere, Rose Pastor (Mrs. J.G.) Stokes, Jane (Mrs. Ira) Eastman, Mrs. John H. Williams, Miss Jessie Ashely, Miss Elizabeth McCalmont, Hannah Dunlop (Mrs. William L.) Colt, Mrs. Nora Blatch De Forest, and Miss Helen Todd.]

For more information, check out more images from this day at www.corbisphotos.com.