File:Alice Maude Smith, 1900 (PORTRAITS 1886).jpg

Handwritten on photo: Alice Maude Smith, M.D., 1900

Dr. Alice Maude Smith was born in 1867. She first began her medical career as a nurse at the Lynn Hospital Training School for Nurses in Massachusetts. Dr. Smith moved to Tacoma in 1898 where she began a practice, though local male doctors purposefully undercut her prices to keep her work sparse. Dr. Smith turned to writing in her free time. She was a playwright, essayist, and poet. Her play “The Strength of the Weak” was performed in Tacoma and New York City. The rights were purchased by Universal Company and it was made into a movie starting Mary Fuller in 1916. Dr. Smith wrote under her own name, as well as Alice Smith Scoville, Sutton Broome, Smith Sutton Brome, Scovill Smith, and Scovill Smith Browe. Eventually Dr. Smith’s medical practice grew and she was an active member of the medical and Tacoma communities. In addition to being a member of the American Medical Association, she was also part of the Washington State Medical Societies, a member of the State Medical Examining Board, the Director of Health and Hygiene for the Women’s Legislative Council of Washington, and was part of the League of Women Writers. She wrote a variety of essays on child development, mental hygiene, and the containment of syphilis. Dr. Smith also served as an alienist (now known as a psychiatrist who assesses the competence of a defendant in court) for the Tacoma court system. Dr. Smith died in 1938.

• Subjects (LCSH): Smith, Alice Maude, 1867-1938; Physicians--Washington State)--Portraits; Women--Washington State)--Portraits