Name of Object:

The female surgery division of the Italian hospital in Tunis

Name in original language:

Ospedale coloniale. Sala chirurgia donne

Location:

Rome, Italy

Holding Institution:

Italian Geographical Society (SGI)

 About Italian Geographical Society (SGI), Rome

Holding Institution (original language):

Società Geografica Italiana (SGI)

Date of Object:

First years of the 20th century

Description:

Prior to the establishment of the French protectorate on Tunisia in 1881, Italian doctors operated in Tunisia. The Bey had frequently employed Italian physicians. Some were born in Tunisia, of Jewish families from Livorno, others had arrived in Tunisia as political exiles in the first half of the 19th century. The largest contingent of Italian doctors, however, migrated to Tunisia after 1881.
In 1890, the Italian community opened a hospital with about 100 beds. Italian physicians worked in the hospital as volunteers and indigent patients were treated for free. The initial funding for creating and running the hospital came from the Italian community; the Italian state contributed to pay the expenses for the construction of a new facility in 1900 and partly subsidized the hospital activities.

Archival or Bibliographical Reference:

Comitato della Camera italiana di commercio ed arti, Gli italiani in Tunisia, Tunis, 1906. p. 84

Citation of this web page:

Giulia Barrera "The female surgery division of the Italian hospital in Tunis" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2025.
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;it;118;en

Prepared by: Giulia Barrera
Copyedited by: Anne Dowell

MWNF Working Number: IT1 118