Biography / History

Eleanor L. Adler (1909-1993) was born and raised in Yonkers, New York. She graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1929 and received her M.D. degree from University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, which later became New York University School of Medicine. She did her internship and pediatric training and a year of research at Bellevue Hospital, following which she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. She received American Board of Pediatrics board certification and joined the newly formed American Academy of Pediatrics in 1939. Dr. Adler began a solo practice in Yonkers while working as a clinical instructor at Bellevue Hospital. Due to World War II, she remained in these positions until 1946.

Dr. Adler joined her brother, Dr. Stuart Adler, in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1947. She became one of a very few female physicians practicing in the state at that time and the first female pediatrician. Her education and career working with childhood illnesses spanned the use of sulfonamides to the use of antibiotics. Dr. Adler retired from active practice in 1979. She spent her remaining years volunteering and traveling. Dr. Eleanor Adler died on April 11, 1993.

Scope and Content

Recorded on April 18, 1984, this interview with Dr. Eleanor Adler (1909-1993) of Albuquerque, New Mexico, summarizes her 32 years' private practice in pediatrics in Albuquerque. Among the subjects discussed at some length in this interview are Dr. Adler's personal and professional background and training; the limits placed on women in medicine in the 1930's and beyond; the pediatric community in Albuquerque in the 1940s and 1950's; the nature and focus of pediatrics practice in the city in that period; public health clinics, personalities, and general programs in the state; and the career and personality of her brother, Dr. Stuart Adler. Subjects discussed at lesser length are the advent of antibiotics; Dr. Evelyn Fisher Frisbie; Dr. Meldrum Wylder; the Lovelace Clinic; Dr. Ly Werner; medical facilities in Albuquerque in the 1940's and 1950s; and the early days of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and its impact on the medical community.

Restrictions

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Preferred Citation

Eleanor L. Adler Oral History,

Processing Information

The collection was processed originally by Janet Johnson. It was reorganized by Peggy McBride in 2008.

Access Terms

Adler, Eleanor Lydia, 1909-1993

Adler, Stuart Welsh, 1892-1987

Albuquerque (N.M.)

Bernalillo County (N.M.)

New Mexico. State Dept. of Health

Oral history

Pediatrics--New Mexico

Physicians, Women--New Mexico

Wylder, Meldrum Keplinger, 1877-1962

I. Oral History   1984