Jessamine S. Whitney

Jessamine Sophia Whitney (1880 – March 11, 1941) was an American statistician and public health professional, who worked at the National Tuberculosis Association for 22 years.

Jessamine S. Whitney
Jessamine S. Whitney from a 1914 newspaper profile.
Born
Jessamine Sophia Whitney

1880
Norwich, New York
DiedMarch 11, 1941
New York, New York
NationalityAmerican
Occupationstatistician, public health expert
Years active1904-1941
Known forTuberculosis studies and publications

Early life and education

Whitney was born in Norwich, New York, the daughter of Dr. W. W. Whitney. She attended Binghamton Central High School in the class of 1897, and Oneonta Normal School.[1] She studied mathematics and economics and earned a bachelor's degree in 1905 from Cornell University, with further studies in actuarial science at New York University.[2] She was active in the New York College Women's Suffrage Association,[3] and served as president of the New York and Washington chapters of the Cornell Women's Club.[4]

Career

Whitney taught English in Puerto Rico as a young woman; during that time, in 1904, she was described as "the first woman to drive an automobile in Porto Rico": "she very quickly mastered it, finally taking complete charge and guiding the vehicle the greater part of the distance" from Ponce to San Juan.[5] She returned to Puerto Rico in 1931 for the National Tuberculosis Association.[6]

Jessamine S. Whitney in an automobile in Puerto Rico, from a 1904 publication.

Whitney worked at the United States Census Bureau in 1909, compiling tables of data on infant mortality, and for the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, studying child labor in cotton mills; she was also a statistician at the United States Shipping Board.[2] In 1913 and 1914, she made a survey of conditions for tuberculosis in Georgia, under the auspices of the Raoul Foundation.[7]

Jessamine S. Whitney as an umpire in a 1914 charity baseball game (the player in the foreground is Pat Witherbee).

Whitney began working at the National Tuberculosis Association in 1918, as "research secretary", a title eventually changed to "chief statistician".[8][9][10] She wrote pamphlets and articles for the Association, including "The Costs of Tuberculosis" (1921, with Louis Israel Dublin),[11] "The Rural Health Demonstration" (1924),[12] "Facts and Figures about Tuberculosis" (1931),[13] "Official Report of Childhood Type of Tuberculosis" (1934),[14] "Tuberculosis among Nurses" (1935),[15] and "The Need for Statistics on Rehabilitation" (1937). She worked with Alba M. Edwards of the Bureau of the Census on occupational health research, and standardizing occupational categories for mortality studies.[9] She documented "tuberculosis migration," showing how Easterners with tuberculosis moving to the American Southwest for the supposed health benefits of a drier climate was creating a strain on resources in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, and California.[16][17] [18]

In 1929 and 1938, Whitney represented the United States at the meeting of the International Conference on the Classification of Causes of Death; she was the only woman delegate from any country to attend in 1929,[2] and one of only three women delegates at the 1938 meeting.[19] In 1935 she was described as the "ranking woman vital statistician of this country, and probably of the world."[20]

Baseball

Whitney was a self-described baseball fan from childhood.[20] She compiled statistics on players and teams, and predicted winners based on her own calculations.[19] In 1914, she was recruited to be an umpire at a charity baseball game at the National Conference of Charities and Correction meeting in Memphis.[21]

Personal life

Whitney died after suffering a heart attack at her desk in 1941, aged 61 years, in New York.[22] Her gravesite was at Vestal Cemetery in Endicott, New York.[8]

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References
  1. "Miss Jessamine Whitney Breaks Her Arm in Fall". Press and Sun-Bulletin. January 27, 1936. p. 3. Retrieved July 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Obituary: Jessamine S. Whitney, 1880–1941" American Review of Tuberculosis, 43(6), pp. 849–850
  3. Craig, Britt (February 15, 1914). "They Call her a Woman with a Mission; Her Life has been Replete with Missions". Atlanta Constitution. p. 29. Retrieved July 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Miss J. S. Whitney '05 Dies Recently in N. Y." Cornell Daily Sun. March 18, 1941. Retrieved July 3, 2019.
  5. Morgan, Angela (April 1904). "Automobiling for Women". The World To-day. 6: 537.
  6. "Aided Porto Rico's Health". The New York Times. April 7, 1931. p. 6 – via ProQuest.
  7. "Jessamine Whitney, Health Expert, Dies". The Atlanta Constitution. March 13, 1941. p. 15. Retrieved July 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "Jessamine Whitney; Statistician Since 1918 for the National Association Dies". The New York Times. 1941-03-12. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  9. Straub, Sandra Helene (2016-12-05). Death 101: A Workbook for Educating and Healing, 2nd edition. Routledge. pp. 62–65. ISBN 9781351844598.
  10. Rossiter, Margaret W. (1982). Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. JHU Press. pp. 379. ISBN 9780801825095. Jessamine Whitney.
  11. Dublin, Louis I., and Jessamine S. Whitney (April 1921). "The Costs of Tuberculosis" American Review of Tuberculosis 5:178-184.
  12. Whitney, Jessamine S. (1924-09-06). "The Rural Health Demonstration". The Milbank Quarterly. 2 (3): 20–22.
  13. Whitney, Jessamine (June 1931). "Facts and Figures about Tuberculosis". American Journal of Nursing. 31 (6): 784. doi:10.1097/00000446-193106000-00066. hdl:2027/umn.31951000089196d. ISSN 0002-936X.
  14. Whitney, Jessamine S. (1934-08-01). "Official Reporting of Childhood Type of Tuberculosis". American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. 24 (8): 850–852. doi:10.2105/AJPH.24.8.850. ISSN 0002-9572. PMC 1558828. PMID 18014033.
  15. Whitney, Jessamine S. (1935). "Tuberculosis among Nurses: A Summary of the Literature". The American Journal of Nursing. 35 (4): 367–375. doi:10.2307/3411551. ISSN 0002-936X. JSTOR 3411551.
  16. "Home Cure versus 'Change of Climate'" The American Journal of Public Health (May 1922): 423-424.
  17. "State Climate is Favorable". Alma Record. March 23, 1922. p. 5. Retrieved July 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. "Great Burden of White Plague Told as Statistician Declares 10,000 Wanderers are Victims". The San Bernardino County Sun. July 2, 1929. p. 3. Retrieved July 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. "Miss Whitney, Pioneer in Field, Sees Romance in Dry Statistics". The New York Times. April 9, 1939. p. D5 – via ProQuest.
  20. McBride, Mary Margaret (August 9, 1935). "Statistician Figures Ways to Curb Tuberculosis". The Sheboygan Press. p. 6. Retrieved July 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. "The Lady Umpire of Charity Baseball". The Survey. 32: 422. July 18, 1914.
  22. "Top Statistics Expert Dead". Press and Sun-Bulletin. March 12, 1941. p. 13. Retrieved July 3, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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