Harper, Margaret Hilda (1879 - 1964)

Summary

Margaret Harper was a paediatrician whose career was a series 'firsts': the first woman to be appointed to the honorary staff of Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children; the Medical Officer of the first baby clinic established in New South Wales (1914); the first Director of the Mothercraft Homes and Nurses' Training Schools; the first person to differentiate between coeliac disease and cystic fibrosis. Her primary interests lay in the diseases of the newborn and their mothers. She gained an international reputation for her contributions to infant feeding and paediatric nutrition. Harper was one of the six women who in 1922 founded the Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and Children in Sydney. Her book The parent's book (1924) reached its 20th edition in 1955. In 1938 she was one of only four women to become foundation Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians

Details

Chronology

1906

Education - MB ChM, University of Sydney

1907 - 1910

Career position - Resident Medical Officer, Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington, New South Wales

1910 - 1926

Career position - Resident Medical Officer, Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children, Camperdown, New South Wales

1914 -

Career position - Medical Officer at the first baby clinic when established at Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children

1915 - 1924

Career position - In general practice, Woolstonecraft, New South Wales

1919 -

Career position - First Director, Mothercraft Homes and Nurses’ Training Schools, Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Children

1919 -

Career position - Member of Council, Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies

1921 - 1949

Career position - Medical Director, Tresillian Mothercraft Home, Petersham, New South Wales

1922 -

Career position - Co-founder, Rachel Forster Hospital for Women and

1926 - 1935

Career position - Honorary Medical Officer, Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington, New South Wales

1935 - 1962

Career position - Honorary Consulting Physician, Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington

1936 - 1944

Career position - Member, Hospitals Commission of New South Wales

1938 - 1964

Career position - Founding Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Physicians

1949 -

Career position - Member, Child Welfare Advisory Council of NSW

Related entries

Archival resources

Private hands (Harper, I.R.L.)

• Margaret Hilda Harper - Records, 1879 - 1964; Private hands (Harper, I.R.L.). Details

Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies

• Margaret Hilda Harper - Records; Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies. Details

Published resources

Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Exhibitions

• McCarthy, Gavan; Morgan, Helen; Smith, Ailie; van den Bosch, Alan, Where are the Women in Australian Science?, Exhibition of the Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, First published 2003 with lists updated regulary edn, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, 2003, https://eoas.info/exhibitions/wisa/wisa.html. Details

Books

• Cohen, Lysbeth, Dr. Margaret Harper: her achievements and place in the history of Australia / Lysbeth Cohen (Sydney: Wentworth Books, 1971), 47 pp. Details
• McDonald, G. L., Roll of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (Sydney: Royal Australasian College of Physicians, 1988), 332 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Cowden, Victoria, 'Harper, Margaret Hilda (1879-1964)' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 9: 1891 - 1939 Gil-Las, Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle, eds (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983), pp. 204-205. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040387b.htm. Details

Journal Articles

• Little, Marjorie, 'Margaret Hilda Harper', Medical Journal of Australia, 1964 (2) (1964), 695-6. Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q21536453. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/61051122. Details
• 'Harper, Margaret H (1879-1964)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-577669. Details