midwife and healer
Martha Ballard (February 9, 1735 – June 9, 1812) was a midwife and healer in early Hallowell . Born in colonial Massachusetts, not much is known of her early life but at age 50 she began keeping a diary of her midwifery and healing efforts in the Hallowell/Augusta area.
With thousands of entries over the 27 years she kept a diary, Ballard writes of delivering 816 babies and being present at more than 1,000 births—amazing when you think the entire population of Hallowell in 1790 was 1194 and the end of her life was only just over 3800. Ballard must have delivered or attended births in most families of the time.
Behind Ballard in the mural I included a small writing desk with oil lamp, quill pen and paper to commemorate her writings in her diary, which give us a detailed insight into the daily life of the early nation.
artist, Chris Cart
In her diary, Ballard also made note of the daily happenings of her patients, their health, sometimes the weather. It is a great resource for minutia of the day to day lives of 18th century Hallowell people.
local descendant
The older woman in the glasses is Alice Ballard Buck, a local resident who was a direct descendant of Martha Ballard.
I wanted to have Alice helping her ancestor Martha Ballard with the delivery in this birthing scene. When I asked Alice if she would mind my including her, her whole face lit up—the biggest smile you can imagine.
artist, Chris Cart
For further reading Ballard’s diary is a fascinating read, The Diary of Martha Ballard 1785-1812, as is A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, based on Ballard’s diary. Both available at libraries and bookstores.
developing an idea
I worked a lot in the early sketches of this scene with Martha Ballard. I wanted to show the drama and importance of the days of her life. The crescent shaped space next to the river was challenging to depict the birth scene.
artist, Chris Cart
I painted both Martha Ballard and Benjamin Vaughan in the top center of the mural, opposite each other. This placement was no accident. I felt they both represented different, yet essential aspects of the early life in Hallowell on the wild shores of the Kennebec. Vaughan brought his wealth, his vast library and his associations with the important minds of the time. Ballard’s life was no less important to the daily life with her knowledge of healing, herbal medicines and vast experience as a midwife. Her diary gives us a window into the daily life with all its joy, grief and the neighborly gestures of community.
history of the diary
Ballard’s diary was more than 1400 pages long, some early entries very short but in her later years her writings became longer and more detailed.
The last entry, dated May 7th, 1812, a month before her death, ends with the words: “Revd mr Tippin Came and Converst Swetly and made A Prayer adapted to my Case.”
After her death the diary was kept by the Lambard family for 2 generations, when Sarah and Hannah Lambard gifted the diary to Martha Ballard’s great-great-granddaughter Mary Hobart.
Mary Hobart was one of the first female physicians to be graduated from the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1884. This was the year she was given her ancestor’s diary.
In 1930 Hobart donated the diary to the Maine State Library, in Augusta, Maine. The diary was referenced in a history of the area in 1961.
Robert R. McCausland and Cynthia MacAlman McCausland spent ten years transcribing the handwritten diary.
Historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, seeing the importance of Ballard’s diary as a record of the day to day life of early America, spent 8 years working with the diary. She published A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard in 1989. The book received much acclaim:
In 1991, A Midwife’s Tale received the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the John H. Dunning Prize, the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women’s History, the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize, the Society for Historians of the Early Republic Book Prize, the William Henry Welch Medal of the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the New England Historical Association Award.
In 1997, the PBS series The American Experience aired A Midwife’s Tale a movie documentary based on Martha Ballard’s life and diary and Ulrich’s book.
Hallowell’s official Historian Sam Webber was a consultant for the movie.
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