COLUMBUS, Ohio — In honor of Black History Month, the Ohio State Medical Heritage Center is highlighting two Ohio natives who played integral roles in defining what innovation and determination looks like in medicine.

What You Need To Know

  • Dr. Clotilde Bowen was the first Black woman physician in the U.S. Army 

  • Dr. William Method opened the first hospital dedicated to serving the Black community 

  • You can learn about the medical heroes native to Ohio at the OSU Health Sciences library's website 

As a certified medical history illustrator at The Ohio State University, Anthony Baker is used to drawing veins, arteries and organs. He is usually able to As a certified medical history illustrator at The Ohio State University, Anthony Baker is used to drawing veins, arteries and organs. He can usually work with color, shade and depth, but for the 2024 Local Luminaries Coloring Book, all he had was lines.  

“The extra lines, the thicker lines were used to create the overall shapes of the head and the body,” said Anthony Baker. “Thinner lines were used for subtle features, contours of the head and the ears, things like that.”

The project started well before Baker began sketching lines and forming shapes. The facts and history found in the coloring book were pulled from a couple floors above him, in the OSU Health Sciences Library. The Medical Heritage Center in the Health Sciences Library pulled medical heroes from different points of time with the goal of mixing history and art. 

Dr. Clotilde Bowen and Dr. William Method are two Black luminaries and innovators that are highlighted in the book. Bowen was the first Black woman physician in the United States Army. Her innovation and dedication led her to serve in the Vietnam war and create curriculum and care that has shaped the emergency psychiatric care we still have in the military today. While coloring, students can learn about how Bowen’s story is a testament to persistence and confidence. 

“The classes were integrated, but there weren’t there wasn’t a lot of diversity for women or people of color,” said Judith Wiener who serves as the Associate Director for the OSU Health Sciences Library. “I feel like the dedication to education really stuck out to me and also a dedication to serving the community.”

Bowen isn’t the only Black hero in the book. She’s joined by Method. In 1920, Method opened the first hospital dedicated to serving the Black community in Columbus, Ohio.

“In the coloring book we have the photo of the original building and the way it is now,” said Baker. “It still exists on the east side of Columbus.”

These two heroes were pioneers of their time and in the coloring book, you’ll see that history doesn’t just live in the past, but is a testament to the ever living innovation we see in medicine today. 

“It is important to understand that Ohio state has a long history of innovation going back very far,” said Wiener. “All of these local luminaries show that they were innovators for their time. A lot of the medicine we practice today is based on the innovations that they developed.”

You can learn about these Black history heroes in medicine by visiting the Ohio State Health Sciences Library online. Bowen and method are joined by other professionals in the coloring book who have found life saving cures and performed world renowned surgeries. 

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