See History of Arizona medicine; collections of Orville Harry Brown, M.D. [AHSL Special Collections WZ 70 AA7 H673].
Quebbeman, Frances E. Medicine in territorial Arizona. Phoenix : Arizona Historical Foundation, 1966, pages 242, 361.
Hancock V 3rd. Ariz Med. 1984 Nov;41(11):750-4. Women in Arizona medicine: Mary Lawson Neff, M.D.--Part I.
Hancock V 3rd. Ariz Med. 1984 Dec;41(12):819-21. Women in Arizona medicine: Mary Lawson Neff, M.D. Part II.
Neff, Mary Lawson. Neff papers, 1885-1935. (Arizona Historical Society MS 580)
http://catalog.azhsarchives.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber...
Mary Lawson Neff was the first neurologist and the first woman psychiatrist in Arizona. She was a central figure in both the eugenics and mental hygiene movements in Arizona and the first promoter of the legislation which led to the establishment of the Arizona Children’s Colony. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1862 and spent part of her youth in India, China and Japan and China. She did not enter medical school until the age of 34 after marrying and raising two children. She went to medical school in Iowa and spent some time studying under Carl Seashore, a nationally known psychologist. After four years as a general practitioner in Iowa, she moved to Arizona for the first time in 1905 because of her daughter’s tuberculosis. After two years, she moved to the east coast and became a staff member at Cornell Medical College where she practiced neurology and psychiatry. She moved to Boston in 1911 where she began work on occupational therapy for the institutionalized. She returned to Arizona in 1915. For several years she was the only practicing neurologist in Arizona and traveled to all parts of the state, frequently being employed by mining companies. She was an Arizona physician who was actively involved in the public sector as a consultant, an educator and a lobbyist for the Arizona Medical Association in the state legislature. Her work as the Arizona State Medical Association’s representative to the state legislature led to the passage of two bills pertaining to mental illness and the introduction of legislation to create what was eventually the Arizona Children’s Colony. In 1925 she moved to Los Angeles where she continued her teaching and lecturing activities. It is not known when she died.
Source: Arizona Historical Society finding aid for "Neff papers, 1885-1935."
http://www.arizonahistoricalsociety.org/wp-content/upLoads/library_Neff-...
Woman's Medical Journal (Toledo, Ohio), July. [1902], [p.] 72. Sanitarium Methods on Private Practice. Mary L. Neff.
J Am Med Assoc, Aug 1902; XXXIX: 327: Iowa Union Medical Society. -- The semi-annual meeting of this Society was held in Cedar Rapids, July 8. The following officers were elected : Dr. John W. Kirkpatrick, Wyoming, president; Drs. Albert W. Sherman, Burlington, and Mary L. Neff, Cedar Rapids, vice-presidents; Dr. J. De Witt Graham, Springville, secretary, and Dr. George P. Carpenter, Cedar Rapids, treasurer.
Woman's Medical Journal, Toledo, Ohio. March. [1903] [p.] 102. Contributions of the New Psychology to Medicine. Mary L. Neff.
Medicine, Detroit. November. [1904] [p.] 46. Mental Hygiene. Mary Lawson Neff.
J Am Med Assoc, Apr 1907; XLVIII: 1282: List of new members of the American Medical Association for the month of March, 1907: ARIZONA. Neff, Mary L., Oracle.
MARY LAWSON NEFF, M.D., Fairfield, Iowa. THE MINIMIZING OF INSANITY. J Am Med Assoc, Aug 1913; 61: 559 - 563.
J Am Med Assoc, Jun 1914; LXII: 1974: Dr. Mary Lawson Neff has returned to her home in Des Moines after six weeks spent in the state reformatory, doing special psychologic work.
J Am Med Assoc, Dec 1916; LXVII: 1946: Mary Lawson Neff, Phoenix, delivered an address at the last meeting of the state bar association on "The Relation Between Mental Defectives and Crime."
Census of women physicians. American Women's Hospitals, 1918, page 5: Arizona. ... Neff, Mary Lawson...Hotel Adams, Phoenix, Maricopa Co.
According to the Wikipedia entry for Mary Lawson Neff she was born in Bellwood, Pennsylvania in 1862, the daughter of Orr E. Lawson and Mary Marshall Lawson. She earned an undergraduate degree at Wilson College and started medical school in 1896. She finished her medical degree in 1900 from the State University of Iowa, with further studies in psychology with psychologist Carl Seashore. She died in California on November 1, 945 at the age of 82. [Wikipedia entry viewed 1/4/2019]