Solomon Carter Fuller

Solomon Carter Fuller
Solomon Carter Fuller (c. 1910)
Born	August 11, 1872 Monrovia, Liberia
Died	Framingham, Massachusetts
Alma mater	Boston University School of Medicine (M.D., 1897)
Occupation	physician, psychiatrist
Known for	work in the field of Alzheimer's disease
Spouse(s)	Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller
Parent(s)	Solomon C. Fuller Anna Ursilla (James) Fuller

Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller (August 1, 1872–January 16, 1953) was a pioneering African-American psychiatrist who made significant contributions to the study of Alzheimer's disease.

Early life and education

Fuller was born in Monrovia, Liberia. His paternal grandfather. John Lewis Fuller, had been a slave in Virginia who bought his and his wife’s freedom and moved to Norfolk, Virginia, and then emigrated to Liberia in 1852 to help establish a settlement of African Americans.

His father was a coffee planter and an official in the Liberian government. His mother, Anna Ursala James, whose parents were physicians and missionaries, set up a school to teach her son and area children. Fuller's early education also included studies at the College Preparatory School of Monrovia.

He had a keen interest in medicine since his maternal grandparents were medical missionaries in Liberia. He came to the United States to study at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, graduating in 1893. Later he attended Long Island College Medical School.

He graduated with an MD in 1897 from Boston University School of Medicine, which as a homeopathic institution was open to both African-American and women students. He pursued further research at the psychiatric clinic of the University of Munich, Germany, studying under Emil Kraepelin and Alois Alzheimer.

Career

He spent the majority of his career practicing at Westborough State Mental Hospital in Westborough, Massachusetts. While there, he performed his ground-breaking research on the physical changes to the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

When the Veterans Administration opened the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Medical Center after World War I with an entirely black staff, Fuller was instrumental in recruiting and training black psychiatrists for key positions. In the early 1970s, the American Psychiatric Association established a Solomon Carter Fuller award lecture at its annual meetings.

Personal life

For most of his life, Fuller lived in nearby Framingham, Massachusetts, with his wife, the famous sculptor Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller. They had three children.

Legacy

The Dr Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center located at 85 E Newton Street in Boston is named after him. It forms part of the Boston Medical Center, the primary teaching affiliate for Boston University School of Medicine. There is a middle school (Fuller Middle School) named after him and his wife located in Framingham, Massachusetts. That school was formerly Framingham South High School but was converted to its current use when Framingham South and North High Schools merged in 1991. The school's history reads:

"The Fuller Middle School was established in September of 1994. The school is named in honor of Dr. Solomon Fuller, a psychiatrist, and his wife Meta Fuller, a sculptor. The Fullers, a pioneering African-American family, lived on Warren Road near the current location of the Fuller Middle School during the early part of the twentieth century. Dr. and Mrs. Fuller were leaders in their professions and in the Framingham Community during their lives. The roles they played during their lifetimes serve as models for the students of the school named in their memory."

Works

• Fuller, Solomon C. "A Study of the Miliary Plaques Found in Brains of the Aged", American Journal of Insanity 28(2) (1911).

Further reading

• W. Montague Cobb. “Solomon Carter Fuller (1872-1953),” Journal of the National Medical Association 46(5) (1954).
• John Potter, “Solomon Carter Fuller.” Doctors, Nurses and Medical Practitioners: A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook pp. 116–119, Lois N. Magner, ed. (Westport: (Greenwood Press, 1998).
• Lucy Ozarin, M.D., "Solomon Carter Fuller: First Black Psychiatrist", Psychiatric News, September 6, 2002, Volume 37, Number 17, p. 19.
• Mary Kaplan, Solomon Carter Fuller: Where My Caravan Has Rested, University Press of America, 2005.
• Mary Kaplan and Alfred R. Henderson, “Solomon Carter Fuller, M.D. (1872-1953): American Pioneer in Alzheimer’s Disease Research,” Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 9:3 (2000)
• Carl C. Bell, “Solomon Carter Fuller: Where the Caravan Rested,” Journal of American Medical Association 95:10 (2005)
• Rayford W. Logan and Michael R. Winston, eds, Dictionary of American Negro Biography (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1982)
• G. James Fleming and Christian E. Burckel, eds, Who’s Who in Colored America (New York: Christian E. Burckel & Associates, 1950).

External links

• Fuller, Solomon Carter (1872-1953)