Dr. Mabel E. Elliott

10/31/2025

Kirkus Reviews has spoken on Unbreakable Healer - “Pedersen offers an excellent account of Elliott’s experiences that are the clear result of impressive detective work... an inspiring reminder of how a single person’s effort can have enormous effects and one that will certainly resonate in today’s world of refugee crises. Our verdict—GET IT.”—KIRKUS REVIEWS https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gl-pedersen/unbreakable-healer/

10/25/2025

Azniv Orchanian Beyekian was my interpreter in my work at the Marash Hospital. When the exodus came with the French on that frightful night in February, 1920, I placed Azniv in a wagon as they made their way across the Ta**us mountains. Once we were safe in Adana, I arranged her travel to America to be fostered by my friend Grace Brown in Detroit. Here Azniv is lovingly looking at her grandson Bruce in the 1960s. Today he is Dr. Bruce Mortimer, veterinarian, in Michigan. She was a refugee. She was an immigrant. The makings of many great Americans in a time lost to today.

10/21/2025

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BPkmvtDqH/?mibextid=wwXIfr

10/08/2025

This is my actual brass ink stand from the Battle of Marash. You can see the bullet hole in the base, one of the first shots fired in the battle that pierced the plaster walls of my quarters.

10/05/2025

My memorial window at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in West Palm Beach, Florida.

10/04/2025

Today is my sister Beatrice’s birthday, but also the day of her passing. She was my lifelong companion, living with me in my early years in my Michigan practice, spending two years in Japan with me, and later in retirement. She was an expert seamstress and upholsterer. I called her “Bea” and she called me “Spuddie.” In this photo we are in Greece, where she was a good sport on our misadventures.

09/29/2025

Near East Relief did humanitarian work throughout the region. One of their campaigns was "Say it with Flour," to play off of the "Say it with Flowers" advertising campaign. Everyday Americans gave pennies, nickels, and dimes that saved thousands of lives.

09/28/2025

I stayed with the King and Queen of Greece at the Palace of Tatoi. Here I stand with Queen Elizabeth, Queen consort, with Dr. Pernell of India.

09/24/2025

My published informed me we had another project! They agreed to publish my Siege Diary from the Battle of Marash in its entirety, a shortened version of which appeared in my 1924 memoir, Beginning Again at Ararat, now published as Children of Ararat. I wrote it each day in pencil as events unfolded during those terrible three weeks. I thought a record should exist in case we didn't make it out alive. By God's grace, many did survive, but many did perish in the snow and cold.
Keeping the Diary helped me keep things in perspective as I learned firsthand what war is like. Link to Amazon - https://a.co/d/2ZC3d9x

09/20/2025

The Greek government supplied a boat to transport supplies and equipment among all the Greek Isles where American Women's Hospitals Service maintained hospitals and clinics. The boat was painted with our name on the bow. The American people funded our efforts.

09/17/2025

The word is spreading...

Mabel E. Elliott (1881-1968) was an American physician who cared for Greek and Armenian refugees and orphans during and after the Ottoman-era genocides.

In this newly released volume, Ginger Pedersen chronicles Elliott’s story of bravery, perseverance, and humanitarianism using never before examined family archives, professional correspondence and news accounts.

As one of 14 children, Dr. Elliott, of West Palm Beach, Florida, journeyed across continents and knew no borders. She sacrificed her medical practice in Michigan and ventured into the perilous lands of Turkey and in 1919 to aid disease-ridden and starving refugees following the .

She ran head-on into the Turkish revolution, under siege at the Battle of Marash as she led thousands of Armenians across mountains in a blizzard. She continued her work in Ismid ( ), , where once again Turks overran her hospital.

In Armenia’s interior, she led the medical care of 40,000 Armenian orphans, thousands suffering from the blinding disease, trachoma.

Duty called her to the Burning of , where she set up hospitals across Greece to care for Greek and Armenian refugees fleeing the Turks.

After a brief stint teaching, Elliott was called to duty in Japan, following a devastating earthquake. There she served in Tokyo as a medical missionary, transforming pediatric care and saving thousands of children through nutrition, well-baby clinics, and other preventative measures.

Elliott experienced challenges in navigating the politics of relief work, where her quiet, engaging leadership threatened those in power. Betrayed by leaders who tried to silence her, Elliott told the story of her harrowing experiences across the United States in 1924 with her memoir Beginning Again at Ararat.

Dr. Mabel E. Elliott accomplished what few women physicians have in the field of humanitarian service. With full academic citations throughout, this work is both a critical resource for scholars and an engaging read for anyone interested in history.

Available at Amazon as an ebook and paperback:
https://amzn.to/3VR0FWP

09/05/2025

Today is a big day for me - the publication of my biography, Unbreakable Healer, and a new edition of my memoir, under the title I intended - Children of Ararat. I wrote that book in 1923 in Athens, Greece with a very helpful and brilliant writer, Rose Wilder Lane. Because of circumstances of the time, Mrs. Lane's name could not appear on the book. You may not be familiar with Rose Wilder Lane, but it could be that you know her mother - Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the Little House series of books that inspired the television show, Little House on the Prairie. She helped her mother much as she helped me.
You can purchase the books at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and ordered through bookstores
Amazon links:
Biography: https://a.co/d/8i59MTH
Memoir: https://a.co/d/eiL04tw