May Edward Chinn collection

1926-1980

May Chinn was the first African American female graduate of Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and the first African American female doctor in Harlem.

May Chinn was born on April 15, 1896, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Her family moved to New York City when she was three years old. Her mother worked for jeweler Charles Tiffany and May was raised on the estate in Tarrytown, N.Y. as one of the Tiffany children. When she and her mother returned to New York, May gave piano lessons to kindergarteners. While in college, she performed or accompanied musicians on the piano, including performing for the USO.

Chinn earned her BS from Columbia University (1921); graduated from Bellevue Hospital Medical College (1926); earned an MS degree in Public Health from Columbia University (1933); and studied cytological methods at Memorial Hospital (1928-1933). She worked at the Strang Clinic affiliated with New York Infirmary for Women and Children Hospital (1944-1973); and she was a medical adviser in New York State Department of Health (1960-1977). She was elected to the Society of Surgical Oncology (1958) and the American Society of Cytology (1972). She received a Teachers' College Distinguished Alumnus Award from Columbia University (1980). She died in December 1980 in New York, New York.