Scope and arrangement
The collection contains three audio recordings of interviews with Chinn, dating from 1968 to 1978. They are organized chronologically. The original format of the audio recordings was cassette, with two or more parts.
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- Creator
- Chinn, May Edward, 1896-1980
- Call number
- Sc MIRS Chinn 1981-04
- Physical description
- 3 audio_recordings
- Language
- English
- Preferred Citation
- May Edward Chinn audio collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library
- Sponsor
- An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project.
- Repository
- Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
- Access to materials
- Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.
May Edward Chinn (1896-1980) was a physician, the first African American woman to graduate from New York University Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1926, and the first African American woman to intern at Harlem Hospital. The collection contains three audio recordings of interviews with Chinn, dating from 1968 to 1978.
Biographical/historical information
May Edward Chinn (April 15, 1896-December 1, 1980) was a physician, the first African American woman to graduate from New York University Bellevue Hospital Medical College, now the Grossman School of Medicine, in 1926, and the first African American woman to intern at Harlem Hospital. Chinn studied music at the Columbia University Teachers' College in 1917, and worked as a piano accompanist to Paul Robeson for several years before going on to study medicine.
Chinn opened a private practice in 1928, because Harlem Hospital denied admitting privileges to African American doctors. After she obtained a master's degree in public health from Columbia University in 1933, she studied early cancer detection methods under Dr. George Papanicolaou, who pioneered the cervical cancer screening test known as the Pap Smear. In 1940, Harlem Hospital granted her admitting privileges following integration. From 1944 to 1973, Chinn developed early detection techniques for cancer at the Strang Clinic at the New York Infirmary. Chinn continued to practice medicine until 1977. She died in 1980 at the age of 84.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Bequest of May Edward Chinn, February 1981; gift of Franklin Williams, 1984.
Processing information
Collection inventoried by Nathan Evans. Collection processed and described by Lyric Evans-Hunter, archivist. Finding aid published in 2025.
Separated material
See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the May Edward Chinn collection, Sc MG 93.
See the Photographs and Prints Division for the photographs.
Using the collection
Location
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor