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Beebe Lynk was one of the earliest black women chemists in the United States. She graduated from Lane College in 1892 and married Dr. Miles Lynk, who founded the first medical journal edited by an African American. In 1900, Beebe and Miles Lynk founded the University of West Tennessee, where Beebe earned a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1903, becoming a professor of medical subjects. Lynk played an active role in black women's organizations and authored a book on advising colored women. She helped establish the University of West Tennessee Medical School before her death in 1948.

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113 views10 pages

Biology Project

Beebe Lynk was one of the earliest black women chemists in the United States. She graduated from Lane College in 1892 and married Dr. Miles Lynk, who founded the first medical journal edited by an African American. In 1900, Beebe and Miles Lynk founded the University of West Tennessee, where Beebe earned a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1903, becoming a professor of medical subjects. Lynk played an active role in black women's organizations and authored a book on advising colored women. She helped establish the University of West Tennessee Medical School before her death in 1948.

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Jymia Hodges

Biology Presentation
My presentation will be discussing the life
of Beebe Lynk and her benefits to the
generations under her.
Beebe Steven Lynk was one of the
earliest black women chemists in
the United States. Lynk was born
Beebe Steven, the daughter of
Henderson and Judiam (Boyd)
Steven, in Mason, Tennessee, on
October 24, 1872. Not much is
known about her early life, her
parents, or whether she had
siblings.
Lynk attended Lane College in
Jackson, Tennessee, and graduated
with a degree in 1892 at the age
of twenty. It is unclear if this
was a two-year degree or if she
began college at the age of
sixteen. Nearly a year later on
April 12,1893, she married Dr.
Miles Vandahurst Lynk who was
the founder, editor, and publisher
of Medical and Surgical Observer,
the first medical journal edited
by an African American. Miles
Lynk was also the first African
American to establish a medical
practice in Jackson.
In 1900, Beebe Steven and her husband
founded the University of West Tennessee in
Jackson. One year later, she took up the
study of pharmaceutical chemistry at the
university and in 1903 she earned a PhC
(Pharmaceutical Chemist) degree.
In the early 1900s, when Lynk earned the PhC,
the degree required two years of study.
Although she earned this degree after her
bachelor’s degree, it was considered a
pre-bachelor’s degree that was required if one
wished to become a pharmaceutical chemist
(pharmacist) or if one wanted to teach
chemistry and pharmacy as Lynk did. Almost
immediately after being awarded the degree,
Lynk became the professor of medical Latin
botany and materia medica at the university’s
new medical school. She joined another woman
to become the only two female faculty
members at the medical school. There were
eight men on the faculty at the University of
West Tennessee.
In 1907 Beebe Lynk and her husband
moved the University of West
Tennessee to Memphis. The entire
Jackson faculty moved to Memphis,
but the university also hired Dr.
Fanny Kneeland, one of the first
black women to practice medicine in
Memphis. Lynk however had already
established her reputation as one of
the first African American women
in the nation to teach chemistry at
the university level in the early years
of the twentieth century.
The University of West
Tennessee closed its doors in
1924 because of financial
difficulties, but between its
founding in 1900 and its
closure twenty-four years
later, it issued 216 medical
degrees. Many of its
graduates in medicine,
dentistry, and nursing became
known leaders in their
recognized fields and
practiced in numerous states
and foreign countries.
Lynk played an active role
in the early black
women’s club movement.
She was a member of the
National Federation of
Women’s Clubs and served
briefly as the treasurer of
the Tennessee State
Federation of that
organization. In 1896 she
authored a book, Advice
to Colored Women, which
reflected the organization’s
mission to raise the social
and cultural status of
African American women
through education and
fostering respectability.
Unfortunately, Beebe Steven Lynk
died on November 11, 1948, in
Memphis, Tennessee. She was
seventy-six and survived by her
husband, Miles Vandahurst Lynk.

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