Subject: Seibert, Florence Barbara 1897-1991        Goucher College        Yale University        University of Pennsylvania        American Chemical Society        Henry Phipps Institute

Type: Black-and-white photographs

Topic: Women scientists      Biochemistry      Tuberculosis

Local number: SIA Acc. 90-105 [SIA2009-3170]

Summary: Biochemist Florence Barbara Seibert (1897-1991) developed the skin test for tuberculosis. After graduating from Goucher College, she worked as a chemist during World War I and then went to Yale University, where she earned a Ph.D. and made important discoveries about the ability of some bacteria to survive distillation techniques and therefore contaminate intravenous injections. During the 1930s, she taught at University of Pennsylvania and developed the tuberculosis skin reaction test, which became the world standard by 1941. In 1942, she received the American Chemical Society's Francis P. Garvan Gold Medal for development of a pure tuberculin, which had made reliable skin tests possible. A Washington Evening Star article in July 30, 1942, described her as a "modest, diminutive" woman who "likes motoring, music, reading biographies." Just then starting a new research project in Phipps Institute, "situated in a congested tenement neighborhood...while ragged children play in the streets outside, she works the hours of an Edison, and then continues her paper work when she reaches her home

Cite as: Acc. 90-105 - Science Service, Records, 1920s-1970s, Smithsonian Institution Archivess

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Repository:<a href="http://siarchives.si.edu" rel="nofollow">Smithsonian Institution Archives</a>