Image / Dr. Vada Somerville, 1920s

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Title: Dr. Vada Somerville, 1920s
Alternative Title: Dr. Vada Somerville, dentist
Contributor: California Studio
Date Created and/or Issued: [1920s]
1920/1930
Contributing Institution: UCLA, Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library
Collection: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
Rights Information: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Description: Studio portrait of Dr. Vada Somerville wearing a fringed, embroidered shawl over her dress, standing in front of a velvet drapery panel.
Dr. Vada Somerville (born Vada Jetmore Watson) of Pomona graduated from USC, married dentist John Alexander Somerville (1912), was the first African American woman and the second African American person to graduate from USC School of Dentistry (1918), and was the first African American woman certified to practice dentistry in the state of California. She was a civil rights activist, highly involved in several civic and community organizations.
Photographer caption: California Studio / 1938 Central / Los Angeles
Type: image
Identifier: uclalsc_1889_b14_f02_002.tif
ark:/21198/z1gt7598
Subject: African American civil rights workers
African American dentists
Somerville, Vada, 1885-1972
Source: Miriam Matthews Photograph Collection
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