Partner Elizabeth Clark
Queer Places:
Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP), 627 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
Emma Noel Musson (September 27, 1862 - December 28, 1913) was born on September 27, 1862, in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, to Elizabeth Thorne Musson and William Musson, a
Welsh-born druggist who had initially emigrated to the United States in 1845. Growing up alongside her siblings, Katherine Johanna and Frederick William, her family moved to
Philadelphia just three years after her birth, positioning her in a vibrant center for American medicine.
Musson pursued her medical education at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP), graduating in 1883. After practicing general medicine for several years, she specialized in diseases of the ear, nose, and throat. Her expertise propelled her to an academic career as a clinical professor of otology at WMCP and a laryngologist for two women's hospitals in Philadelphia. Throughout the 1890s, she actively contributed to her field by presenting medical papers and publishing articles in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In the summer of 1909, Musson embarked on a notable working vacation to volunteer with Sir Wilfred Grenfell’s medical mission in Newfoundland and Labrador, accompanied by her recent WMCP graduate colleague and life partner, Dr. Elizabeth F.C. Clark. Traveling via New York and St. John's, Musson worked intensely at the main mission hospital in St. Anthony—managing daily routines of morning operations and evening clinics under challenging frontier conditions—before heading to Battle Harbour, Labrador, and Cape Charles. There, she performed numerous vital surgeries, treating tonsil and adenoid conditions (often charming local children with candy) and addressing chronic deafness among diverse patients arriving on the steamer Prospero. Sir Wilfred Grenfell publicly thanked both doctors for their invaluable special work.
Upon returning to Philadelphia, Musson shared her experiences on a lecture circuit, addressing the Federation of Women's Clubs at the New Century Club in November 1909 and encouraging nursing professionals to support the Grenfell Association.
Musson shared a deeply committed personal and professional partnership with Elizabeth Clark. The two women lived together for a decade, sharing a household by 1910 with physician James S. Tate and his family alongside other professional women. Their partnership was tragically cut short when Musson died of pneumonia on December 28, 1913, in Philadelphia at the age of fifty-one. In her estate records, she named Clark as her friend and executrix, leaving her books, instruments, and the bulk of her estate valued at over ten thousand dollars, while her sister Katharine received her insurance policies.
Musson's passing devastated Clark, who wrote to a confidante that her heart was gone forever and described Musson as "a joy to one’s soul." Driven by Musson's memory and their shared conviction in the mission of female physicians, Clark persevered to "make good" in the profession, eventually becoming the chief gynecologist of the Woman’s Hospital of Philadelphia. To honor Musson’s legacy as the first female professor of otology, a special operating room for ENT patients was equipped at the WMCP in her memory in 1916.
References:
 To Believe In Women: What Lesbians Have Done For America - A History – A Compelling Landmark Account of 19th and 20th Century Rights by Lillian Faderman |
Other references:
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