Augusta Rucker

Augusta Rucker (May 24, 1873 – December 26, 1963) was an American medical doctor, zoologist and public health lecturer.

Augusta Rucker, from a 1919 publication.

Early life

Augusta Rucker was born in Paris, Texas, the daughter of Samuel Brown Rucker and Martha McGaughey Rucker.^[1] She attended the University of Texas studying biology for a bachelor's degree (1896) and a masters's degree (1899), then earned a medical degree at Johns Hopkins University in 1911.^[2]

Career

Augusta Rucker taught biology courses at the University of Texas for a time after she finished her master's degree.^[3] After earning her medical degree, she had a pediatric practice in Texas, and was a Fellow of the Texas Academy of Medicine. Later she took a job in New York, and from that base lectured on maternal and child health, especially preventive care such as nutrition and hygiene.^[4] "It is all one," she wrote of her global approach to her young patients' needs, "the individual is spirit; the individual is flesh; the individual is mind."^[5] She took special interest in foot health, telling audiences about the damage that shoes with high heels and pointed toes did to overall health.^[6] She also advocated for less coddling of babies, and for dress reform for adults. "The Stone Age had garments for women and children that made for better bodies than those which modern life deems essential," she insisted, pointing to tight shoes, belts, garters, and corsets as health hazards.^[7]

She served on the program committee of the International Conference of Women Physicians^[8] hosted by the YWCA in 1919.^[9] As director of the YWCA's Health Division,^[10] Rucker wrote Ten Talks to Girls on Health: For Club Leaders (1921).^[11]

Her zoological studies were focused on Texas invertebrates, including Oroperipatus eisenii, a species of velvet worm,^[12] and Texan palpigardes, Eukoenenia florenciae and Prokoenenia wheeleri.^[13][14]

Personal life

Augusta Rucker died at a rest home near Hyannis, Massachusetts, aged 90 years.^[15]

References

1. "Death Calls O. H. Rucker" Paris News (December 3, 1937): 3. via Newspapers.com
2. Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie and Joy Dorothy Harvey, eds., The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z (Taylor & Francis 2000): 1134. ISBN 9780415920407
3. University of Texas, Report of the President (1901): 74.
4. Fay Stevenson, "Girls, What Do You Eat?" The Pittsburgh Press (September 11, 1919): 16. via Newspapers.com
5. Augusta Rucker, "Health as a Basis of Morality" Proceedings of the International Conference of Women Physicians (Woman's Press 1919): 50.
6. "Putting American Women on Another Footing" New York Times (October 12, 1919): 73.
7. "Bones for Babies as Well as Dogs" The Burlington Free Press (June 3, 1920): 13. via Newspapers.com
8. "Women Physicians Meet" New York Times (September 17, 1919): 8.
9. "International Conference of Woman Doctors" The Woman Citizen (September 20, 1919): 392-393.
10. "Women Doctors of the World" The Woman Citizen (September 27, 1919): 420.
11. Augusta Rucker, Ten Talks to Girls on Health: For Club Leaders (Woman's Press 1921).
12. Augusta Rucker, "A Description of the Male Peripatus eisenii Wheeler" Biological Bulletin 1(5)(1900): 251-259.
13. Augusta Rucker, "The Texan Koenenia" The American Naturalist 35(August 1901): 615-630.
14. Harvey M. S. (2003). "Palpigradi". Catalogue of the smaller arachnid orders of the world: Amblypygi, Uropygi, Schizomida, Palpigradi, Ricinulei and Solifugae. CSIRO Publishing. pp. 149–174. ISBN 978-0-643-06805-6.
15. "Dr. Rucker, Pediatrics Expert, 91" Boston Globe (December 27, 1963): 27.