Louisa Tanner (1866 – ?). In 1921 their daughter Sadie Tanner Mossell (1898–1989) became the first African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in the United States, earning a degree in economics at the University of Pennsylvania. During the Civil War, the family moved back to the United States, settling in Lockport, New York, where Mossell's father again owned his own brickmaking business. Along with his siblings, Mossell attended the local public school in Lockport. His schooling became erratic once he started working part-time at age nine for his father. He eventually joined his elder brother Charles at Lincoln University, a historically black college in Pennsylvania, where he studied Natural Science, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1879. Later life and medical career Mossell went on to study at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, becoming its first African-American graduate in 1882. He did post-graduate training at hospitals in Philadelphia, including the Pennsylvania University Hospital, and later at Guy's Hospital, Queen's Hospital, and St Thomas' Hospital in London. After his return to the United States, in 1888 Mossell became the first black physician elected as member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society. That year he also started his private practice. In 1895, he helped found the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in West Philadelphia, serving as its chief-of-staff and medical director until his retirement in 1933. Marriage and family He had married Gertrude Emily Hicks Bustill (1848-1955), a member of the prominent Bustill family, on July 12, 1893 in Philadelphia. The couple had two daughters, Florence Mossell and Mary Campbell Mossell. Gertrude was the mixed-race daughter of Charles Hicks Bustill (1816–1890), who was of African, European and Lenape ancestry, and Emily Robinson. Gertrude's sister and brother-in law, Maria Louisa Bustill and William Drew Robeson, were the parents of the singer, actor, and Civil Rights advocate Paul Robeson. Private practice After retiring as director of the hospital in 1933, Mossell continued to work in his private practice, which he had opened in 1888. He died on October 27, 1946 in Philadelphia at the age of 90. He was believed to be the oldest practicing black physician at the time of his death. References External links Nathan Francis Mossell Papers 1873-1983 (bulk 1885-1945) at the University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Records Center 1856 births 1946 deaths Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) alumni People from Hamilton, Ontario Robeson-Bustill family Perelman School