Augusta Rucker (May 24, 1873 – December 26, 1963) was an American medical doctor, zoologist and public health lecturer.
Early life Augusta Rucker was born in Paris, Texas, the daughter of Samuel Brown Rucker and Martha McGaughey Rucker."Death Calls O. H. Rucker" Paris News (December 3, 1937): 3. via Newspapers.com She attended the University of Texas studying biology for a bachelor's degree (1896) and a masters's degree (1899), then earned a medical degree at Johns Hopkins University in 1911.Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie and Joy Dorothy Harvey, eds., The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: L-Z (Taylor & Francis 2000): 1134.
Career Augusta Rucker taught biology courses at the University of Texas for a time after she finished her master's degree.University of Texas, Report of the President (1901): 74. After earning her medical degree, she had a pediatric practice in Texas, and was a Fellow of the Texas Academy of Medicine. Later she took a job in New York, and from that base lectured on maternal and child health, especially preventive care such as nutrition and hygiene.Fay Stevenson, "Girls, What Do You Eat?" The Pittsburgh Press (September 11, 1919): 16. via Newspapers.com "It is all one," she wrote of her global approach to her young patients' needs, "the individual is spirit; the individual is flesh; the individual is mind."Augusta Rucker, "Health as a Basis of Morality" Proceedings of the International Conference of Women Physicians (Woman's Press 1919): 50. She took special interest in foot health, telling audiences about the damage that shoes with high heels and pointed toes did to overall health."Putting American Women on Another Footing" New York Times (October 12, 1919): 73. She also advocated for less coddling of babies, and for dress reform for adults. "The Stone Age had garments for women and children that made for better bodies than those which modern life deems essential," she insisted, pointing to tight shoes, belts, garters, and corsets as health hazards."Bones for Babies as Well as Dogs" The Burlington Free Press (June 3, 1920): 13. via Newspapers.com
She served on the program committee of the International Conference of Women Physicians"Women Physicians Meet" New York Times (September 17, 1919): 8. hosted by the YWCA in 1919."International Conference of Woman Doctors" The Woman Citizen (September 20, 1919): 392-393. As director of the YWCA's Health Division,"Women Doctors of the World" The Woman Citizen (September 27, 1919): 420. Rucker wrote Ten Talks to Girls on Health: For Club Leaders (1921).Augusta Rucker, Ten Talks to Girls on Health: For Club Leaders (Woman's Press 1921).
Her zoological studies were focused on Texas invertebrates, including Oroperipatus eisenii, a species of velvet worm,Augusta Rucker, "A Description of the Male Peripatus eisenii Wheeler" Biological Bulletin 1(5)(1900): 251-259. and Texan palpigardes, Eukoenenia florenciae and Prokoenenia wheeleri.Augusta Rucker, "The Texan Koenenia" The American Naturalist 35(August 1901): 615-630.
Personal life Augusta Rucker died at a rest home near Hyannis, Massachusetts, aged 90 years."Dr. Rucker, Pediatrics Expert, 91" Boston Globe (December 27, 1963): 27.
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