Wallace J. Lowright Papers UPT 50 L921

Summary Information

Prepared by

J.M. Duffin

Preparation date

February 2018

Date [bulk]

Bulk, 1889-1930

Date [inclusive]

1889-1957

Extent

0.25 Cubic feet

PROVENANCE

Gift of John L. Ellis in February 2018 (accession 2018:003) who acquired the papers from his father John Hubert Ellis a historian of medicine and public health and was a professor at Lehigh University from 1971 to 1993.

ARRANGEMENT

The Papers are organized into three series: Education, Medical Career, and James Harvey Lowright. Each series is arranged with chronologically or alphabetically by subject.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Wallace John Lowright was born on March 4, 1881 in Bingen, Pennsylvania, the son of Dr. James Harvey Lowright and Anna Kathryn Horlacher. In September 1895 at the age of 14, he was admitted to the three-year course at Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia. He received his M.D. degree in May 1898 when he was 17.

After spending about two years at the Miners’ Hospital in Hazleton he returned home to Center Valley, Pennsylvania and practiced medicine with his father. He remained in Center Valley his entire life surviving the local community until March 1964. In addition to being a member of the Freidensville United Church of Christ, he served on the board of the First National Bank of Coopersburg for over 40 years. He died on March 18, 1954 in Center Valley.

Lowright married first Mabel E. Kline and second Elsie Ellen Sell. He and Mabel had a son Wallace John Lowright, Jr. (1903-1979) who was a medical doctor like this father and joined his practice in 1929.

James Harvey Lowright was born on December 12, 1858 in Richlandtown, Pennsylvania, the son of a farmer John E. Lowright and Marie Beam. After serving an apprenticeship with an apothecary, James was admitted to Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and received his M.D. in 1881. After practicing medicine in Spring Valley, Richlandtown and Bingen, Pa, he settled in Spring Valley in 1885 where he practice medicine the remainder of his life. He did have an appointment with the medical staff of Allentown Hospital specializing in gynecology. He died on August 28, 1920 in Allentown, Pa

James Harvey Lowright married first Anna Kathryn Horlacher and second Anna Margaret Rittenhouse. With his first wife Anna he had two sons: Wallace John and Robert Bartholew Lowright.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The Wallace J. Lowrght Papers document the medical education of a Medico-Chirurgical College student from the 1890s and the practice of medicine in rural Allentown Pennsylvania area from 1889 to around 1920. The papers contain Wallace’s matriculation and lecture tickets and receipts for expenses of his studies as well as some of his medical lecture notes. The course of his medical practice as well as that of his father, James Harvey Lowright, can be traced through their patient notes which primarily document prescriptions and patient visits.

Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

Medico-Chirurgical College of Philadelphia..

Personal Name(s)

Pfahler, George E., (George Edward), 1874-1957

Subject(s)

Medicine–Pennsylvania–Philadelphia.

Medicine–Practice–Pennsylvania–Center Valley.

Medicine–Study and teaching–19th century.

Inventory