Claudia Potter, M.D.

Claudia Potter was the only woman in her medical class of sixty-two. The Handbook calls her probably the first full-time physician anesthetist in Texas. After studying nitrous oxide at Johns Hopkins in 1908, she bought a gas machine for Scott and White and is credited with the first gas anesthesia given in a Texas hospital. She adopted ethylene when it appeared in 1923. Much of her work was in homes, and the surgical team once operated on boards laid across sawhorses in a cotton field after a patient's house was judged too dirty.

What the plaque says

Claudia Potter, M.D. (February 3, 1881-February 2, 1970) Born in Denton County, Claudia Potter was one of eight children of William T. C. and Laura Smith Potter. A graduate of the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1904, Dr. Potter was the first woman doctor at Scott and White Hospital, and was a pioneering physician in the medical specialty of anesthesiology. Dr. Potter excelled at her career and was widely respected. After 41 years at Scott and White, she retired in 1947. Recorded - 1997

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 1.4 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Mother Neff State Park — 17 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 28 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Cyrus Maxwell Campbell — steps away
• City Federation of Women's Clubs — 0.5 mi
• First Presbyterian Church of Temple — 0.8 mi
• Cultural Activities Center — 0.9 mi