1872: Native Hawaiian doctors graduate

Ten young Native Hawaiians graduate from Dr. Gerrit P. Judd’s School of Medicine and are licensed to practice. For Judd, who wrote the first medical book in the Hawaiian language, the school is an opportunity to bring the Native Hawaiian community medical care by their own doctors, in their own language. Unfortunately, Judd dies of a stroke after the first graduation, and the school closes.

“The measure of [Judd’s] loyalty to the monarchy came in 1843 when a British naval officer sailed into Honolulu Harbor and forced the king to relinquish his sovereignty. Judd secretly wrote an appeal to the British government, working on it at night inside the Royal Mausoleum, where he used Queen Ka‘ahumanu’s coffin as a desk. His plea, heard in Washington and Britain, was successful, and five months after the takeover, the kingdom was restored to Kamehameha. Judd stood beside the king on the steps of Kawaiaha‘o Church to announce the news, translating a British proclamation into Hawaiian for the crowd.” —Honolulu Advertiser, Sunday, July 2, 2006

Theme

Medicine Ways

Region

Hawai‘i