Year Honored: 1988

Birth: 1889-1977

Born in: Smyrna, Delaware

Biography

Margaret I. Handy was born in 1889 to former U.S Representative, Irving L. Handy. From a young age Handy was encouraged by her father to pursue medicine, though her mother was opposed and desired for Handy to become a teacher. In the end, Handy remarked, “Mother was happier than I when I entered the John Hopkins University as a medical student.”

Handy graduated from Goucher College in 1911, and John Hopkins Medical School in 1916. She was the first female from Delaware to become a doctor. Within the first year of her earning her credentials, the influenza epidemic broke out in 1918, and Handy helped care for patients in Delaware. Her career’s long focus on medical care for children was established during the epidemic, with Handy being asked to set up a children’s ward at People’s Settlement in Wilmington. During the epidemic, Handy served as “physician, nurse, janitor, and lullaby singer.”

Later, Handy would also set up a pediatric clinic at Delaware Hospital, and became Assistant Chief of Pediatrics in 1918. She was promoted to Chief of Pediatrics in 1921, and served in that role until 1946. During her time there, her focus moved specifically to premature babies, and she also set up a nursery and the Mother’s Milk Bank. The Milk Bank served women and babies around the U.S (including California), and was the brainchild of Handy and a Wilmington woman who had lost her baby due to an inability to nurse. The breast milk stored at the bank was used primarily to feed babies in need, but some was also donated for research purposes. It cost $.30 an ounce, though much was given to those in need for free.

Handy was awarded the Elizabeth Blackwell Citation honoring female doctors; the Josiah Marvel Cup for outstanding contributions to the state and to society in the field of children’s medicine (1953); Honorary Doctor of Sciences from the University of Delaware and Goucher College; Certificate of Merit from the Medical Society of Delaware; the Annie Jump Cannon Medal from Wesley College; and she was made a diplomat of the American Board of Pediatrics.

She also treated the children of artist, Andrew Wyeth, and he painted several portraits of her, including ‘The Children’s Doctor,’ (1949). They were exhibited in several locations around the world, but a number now reside at the Delaware Art Museum.
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Sources and Additional Readings

Delaware. Governor's Commission on the Status of Women, "Forward Women from Delaware's Past". Manuscript and Archival Collections Finding Aids. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://library.udel.edu/special/findaids/view?docId=ead%2Fmss0098_0203.xml%3Bquery

Dr Margaret I. Handy (1889-1977) - find a grave... Find a Grave. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11173202/margaret-i_-handy

National Institutes of Health. (2015, June 3). Changing the face of Medicine | Margaret Irving Handy. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved January 10, 2022, from https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_349.html