Numa P. G.
(Pompilius Garfield) Adams was born in 1885 and
graduated from Steelton High School in 1905, one of
four African American students to graduate that
year. He studied at Howard University,
graduating from that institution in 1911, and went on
to study chemistry at Columbia University, earning an
M. A. in 1912. Adams returned to Howard to teach
chemistry as an assistant professor, with Professor
Herbert Clay Scurlock and instructor Ernest Jones
Marshall.
In 1919, Adams began the study of
medicine at the University of Chicago medical school,
established a practice, and later returned to Howard
again, this time to assume the duties of dean of the
medical school, being the first African American to
hold that position. Adams was dean, and
professor in the medical school until his death in
1940. The Numa P. G. Adams Building at Howard
College of Medicine is named for him.
In 1915 Numa Adams married Osceola
Macarthy, a gifted actress who frequently used the
stage name Osceola Archer. She was active on and
off Broadway, appearing in the New York Shakespeare
Festival, and also appeared in movies and
television. During the Depression years her work
at the American Negro Theater as a director and
teacher influenced such popular actors as Sidney
Poitier, Harry Belafonte, Ossie Davis and Ruby
Dee. She was Director of the Harlem School of
the Arts and was a founding member of Delta Sigma
Theta Sorority in 1913 at Howard University. She
died in 1986.
sources
"Chemistry at Howard 1867-1927"
Retrieved July 30, 2002 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.chem.howard.edu/~mfeldman/chemdept.htm
(inactive link)
"Osceola Macarthy Adams (1890-1986)"
Retrieved October 28, 2002 from the World Wide Web:
http://members.tripod.com/~Ezell/OADAMS.HTM (inactive
link)
"Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.,"
Retrieved October 28, 2002 from the World Wide Web:
http://www.uga.edu/nphc/dst.htm (inactive link).
See http://www.uga.edu/nphc/
Numa P. G. Adams was named for a Roman
ruler, Numa Pompilius. Read about that ruler
here:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa052599.htm
other Steelton
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