This collection contains personal diaries and papers focusing on the personal and professional life and travels of Dr. Charlotte Baker, San Diego’s first female physician.

Charlotte Johnson Baker was San Diego’s first female physician and a noted suffragist and civic leader. She was born Charlotte LeBreton Johnson March 30, 1855 in Newburyport, Massachusetts. She graduated from Vassar and received her M.D. from the University of Michigan in 1881. She became an obstetrician and did her residency in a women’s prison, which was the beginning of a lifelong interest in prison reform and delinquency in girls. She married Dr. Fred Baker on March 30, 1882 and the two practiced medicine in Akron, Ohio before moving to Socorro, New Mexico. The Bakers had two children, Mary (nicknamed Molly) and Robert, both born in New Mexico. In 1888, Charlotte and Fred set up practice in San Diego where they were one of the first to settle in Roseville (what is now Point Loma) and build a home there. Charlotte was very prominent in San Diego medical society; she promoted pasteurization laws, wrote on the germ theory of disease, and served as the San Diego County Medical Society’s first woman president. She was also a president of the Equal Suffrage Association and after helping organize the local chapter of the YWCA, served as an honorary president. Charlotte was one of the founders of the Woman’s Home Association and Day Nursery, and was an active supporter of the Temperance movement and Prohibition. She died October 31, 1937, after suffering from a heart condition and being almost completely bedridden for several years.

2.5 Linear feet (10 boxes)

The San Diego History Center (SDHC) holds the copyright to any unpublished materials. SDHC Library regulations do apply.

This collection is open for research.