William Samuel Quinland
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William Samuel Quinland (October 12, 1885 – April 6, 1953)[1] was an American pathologist. He was the first African-American to be admitted to the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists and to the American Board of Pathology.
Quinland was born in All Saints, Antigua, British West Indies.[2] He taught briefly at his elementary school, then moved to the Panama Canal Zone.[3] He worked at Ancon Hospital, then at Hospital da Candelária [pt] in Brazil, before immigrating to the United States in 1914, where he initially matriculated at Howard University.[2]
In 1918, he earned a B.S. from Oskaloosa College, and in 1919 an M.D. from Meharry Medical College in Nashville.[1] From 1919 through 1921, he was the first African-American to receive a fellowship from the Rosenwald Fund. The fund sponsored his education at Harvard University, where he eventually earned a postgraduate certificate in pathology and bacteriology.[4][1][5] Harvard Medical School offered Quinland a professorship, but he rejected their offer, saying that Meharry had a greater need for doctors.[6] He worked and taught at Meharry for twenty-five years (with a two-year gap studying at the University of Chicago in 1941–2[6]) before moving in 1947 to Tuskegee Veterans Hospital.[1]
In 1937, he was admitted to the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists and the American Board of Pathology, becoming the first African-American to be accredited by either organization.[7]
In 1947, he was the first African-American to be named a Fellow of the College of American Pathologists.[1] Also in this year, he received a commendation from Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life.[8] He was an editor of the Journal of the National Medical Association and of the Punjab Medical Journal.[1] His funeral attracted too many mourners for his own black church[9] and was held at Christ Church Cathedral, reportedly only the second time that a funeral for an African-American was held at a white church in the city of Nashville.[4]
From Quinland's death in 1953 through roughly 1985, Lincoln University awarded an annual Quinland Prize in Biology.[10] From roughly 1971 through 2001, Meharry awarded an annual W.S. Quinland Prize in Pathology.
See also
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Dr. William Samuel Quinland". Journal of the National Medical Association. 45 (4): 298–300. July 1953. ISSN 0027-9684.
- 1 2 Oakes, Elizabeth (2020). Encyclopedia of World Scientists, Updated Edition. Infobase Holdings, Inc. p. 840. ISBN 978-1-4381-9545-2.
- ↑ The Meharrian. Meharry Medical College. December 1944. p. 4.
- 1 2 Reed, Jr., W. A. (April 25, 1953). "Bury Pathologist, Dr. W. S. Quinland". Baltimore Afro-American.
- ↑ "Education". The Crisis. The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc. August 1921.
- 1 2 Nercessian, Nora Nouritza (2004). Against All Odds: The Legacy of Students of African Descent at Harvard Medical School Before Affirmative Action, 1850-1968. Harvard Medical School. p. 239.
- ↑ Epps, Charles Harry; Johnson, Davis Gilman; Vaughan, Audrey L. (1994). African-American Medical Pioneers. Betz Publishing Company. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-941406-46-8.
- ↑ "Rites Saturday For Dr. Quinland". The Tennessean. April 10, 1953.
- ↑ Christ Church Cathedral "Isaac Project Narrative Summary, 1825–1890". September 2025.
- ↑ "Without A Doubt, Lincoln's Finest Scholars!" The Lincolnian, April 9, 1985, p.5.