On June 27 at 11am, the Silver City Museum is offering a free webinar: Doctors, Midwives, and Quacks: The State of Medicine in Silver City in the 1870’s, by Dr. Don Montoya.On June 27 at 11am, the Silver City Museum is offering a free webinar: Doctors, Midwives, and Quacks: The State of Medicine in Silver City in the 1870’s, by Dr. Don Montoya.
Join the Zoom Webinar at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82925248540or download the app ahead of time and enter Meeting ID 829 2524 8540.
The presentation will cover Silver City’s medical history from 1870 to 1880. The illustrated presentation describes medical care provided by early physicians and the medical problems they dealt with, including the first surgical procedure performed here. This era was rife with the promotion of snake oils and healing vapors touted as cure-alls, including one purveyor who set up a vapor shop only to become a miner when it inevitably failed. On the brighter side, Silver City was also home to a prominent physician who became the first chairperson of NM Board of Medical Examiners. However during this period childbirth was attended not by physicians but by midwives, according to Montoya, who in Silver were mostly laywomen, not medical professionals.
Don Montoya, M.D. was born in Fierro, New Mexico. He attended medical school at UNM in Albuquerque and completed his residency at University of Oregon Health Sciences Center in Portland, Oregon. He practiced medicine for 35 years. He spent six years researching for his yet unpublished manuscript titled, "With Pick and Shovel: The Early History of Grant County, New Mexico." He lives in Silver City with his wife Kim and spends his days researching, reading and writing historyss.
The Silver City Museum creates opportunities for residents and visitors to explore, understand, and celebrate the rich and diverse cultural heritage of southwestern New Mexico by collecting, preserving, researching, and interpreting the region's unique history. It is nationally recognized through its accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums.
For more information, please contact the museum at (575) 538-5921 education@silvercitymuseum.org , or visit the museum's website: www.silvercitymuseum.org