"NathanFrancis Mossell"(July 27,1856-October27,1946)

Was the first African American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1882.He did post-graduate training at hospitals in Philadelphia and London.In 1888 he was the

first black physician elected as member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society.He helped found the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in West Philadelphia in 1895,which he led as chief-of-staff  and medical director until he retired in 1933.He was born in Hamilton,Canada the fourth of six children.Both his parents were born in Maryland but had moved their family (with three small children) to Canada in 1853to escape discrimination.His father Aaron Albert Mossell (1824-?) was a  brickmaker,the grandson of slaves whose father had purchased his freedom.His great-grandfather was from West Africa.His mother was Eliza Bowers (1824-?) a free black whose family had been transported to Trinidad when she was a child.Aaron and Eliza met and married in Baltimore after her return.In Canada the senior Aaron Mossell went to school to become literate and set up his own brick-making business.Nathan's siblings were:May(1848-) born in Maryland,Charles (1850-?) born in Maryland graduated from Lincoln University and studied theology in Boston;became a a missionary in Haiti.Boyd (1853-1870)born in Maryland;died in Lockport,New York.Alvarilla(1857-) born in Hamilton,Canada;he was the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania law school;he married Mary Louisa Tanner(1866-?).Nathan was the uncle of Aaron's daughter Sadie Tanner Mossell (1898-1989),who in 1921 was the first African-American woman to receive a P.h.D.in the United States.He did post-graduate training with Dr.D. Hayes Agnew in the Out-Patient Surgical Clinic of the University Hospital.His post-graduate studies included an internship in the Guy's,Queens College and St.Thomas hospitals in London England.In 1888 Nathan was elected to membership in the Philadelphia County Medical Society,the first black physician offered membership.In August 1895 he was the leading figure in the founding of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School.He served as     chief-of-staff  and medical director there until his retirement in 1933.In 1948 Douglass Hospital merged with another predominantly black hospital, Mercy.In 1955 the new Mercy-Douglass Hospital opened on Woodland Avenue,between 50th and 51st Streets in Philadelphia.It closed back in in 1973.