Ask Us!: Avery Research Center

The history of midwives and midwifery is an interesting one. Below are some online and archival resources to help you with your research interest.

Archival Collections at the Avery Research Center

To view these collections, make an appointment at the Avery Research Center 

• Dr. Elizabeth M. Bear collection, AMN 1134. Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. https://findingaids.library.cofc.edu/repositories/3/resources/49 Accessed April 09, 2021.
• Carr Family Papers, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA. https://findingaids.library.cofc.edu/repositories/3/resources/47 Accessed April 09, 2021.
• Alvena Cooke, Avery Research Center, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA. https://findingaids.library.cofc.edu/repositories/3/resources/1024 Accessed February 25, 2026.

Other Sources

• Luke, Jenny Melissa. "Catchin' Babies: African American Midwives, Maternity Care, and Public Health Debates in the Jim Crow South, 1920–1970." MA thesis, University of Texas at Arlington, 2013.
• Johnson, Sarah Ann. "Healing in Silence: Black Nurses in Charleston, South Carolina, 1896–1948." PhD diss., Medical University of South Carolina, 2008.
• Tilghman, Joan Sylvia Graham. "A Study of African American Lay Midwifery Experiences in Rural South Carolina 1950–70." PhD diss., University of Miami, 2002.
• Smith, Susan Lynn. "'Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired': Black Women and the National Negro Health Movement, 1915–1950." PhD diss., University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1991.
• Goode, Keisha L. "Birthing, Blackness, and the Body: Black Midwives and Experiential Continuities of Institutional Racism." PhD diss., City University of New York, 2014.
• Radosh, Polly F. "Midwives in the United States: Past and Present." Population Research and Policy Review 5, no. 2 (1986): 129–146.