Calling Cards and Other Tiny Ephemera

08/15/2022

I am working on transcribing and naming a file from our family archive that I had labeled "Calling Cards Etc."  I hadn't expected this file to very very interesting.  Useful, yes, as I knew the cards would clearly tell me how some family names were spelled, but I didn't expect much of real interest.  But mixed in with the names of people who visited my great grandmother are business cards,  bits of family history including an award of merit from my great-grandmother's occasional school attendance,  and the feeling of the physical connection to some unique people in our nation's history.  

One person I wonder about is Doctor Blanche A. Burgner, MD of Chicago.  I knew from family stories that my grandma, Theresa Brougham had run away to Chicago in about 1915 to attend nursing school.  I was surprised to see a business card for a female physician!  Yes, she was really was a doctor in Chicago from her graduation in 1910 until her "breakdown" in 1925 after the strain of the flu pandemic when her son moved with her to Sarasota, Florida.  Where she practiced until the end of her life at age 94!  https://www.sarasotahistoryalive.com/history/articles/burgner-was-area-s-only-female-doctor/