{{Short description|French medical doctor (1861-1942)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2026}} {{Infobox person | name = Alice Sollier | image = Alice-Sollier.jpg | birth_date = 3 April 1861 | birth_place = [[Compiègne]], France | death_date = 29 January 1942 | death_place = [[Paris]], France | known_for = First French black woman to qualify as medical doctor | spouse = [[Paul Sollier]] }}
'''Alice Sollier'''{{efn|{{IPA|fr|alis sɔlje|small=no}}.}} ({{née|'''Maille'''}},{{efn|{{IPA|fr|maj|small=no}}.}} later '''Alice Mathieu-Dubois''';{{efn|{{IPA|fr|matjødybwa|small=no}}.}} 3 April 1861 – 29 January 1942) was a French doctor. She was the first black woman to earn a [[bachelor's degree]] in France and in 1887 became the first black French woman to qualify as a medical doctor. She was the first French female physician to become the director of a private healthcare facility.
==Early life and education== [[File:L'Art dentaire (IA acc7910.1888.005.umich.edu).pdf|thumb|upright|''{{lang|fr|La dentition chez les enfants idiots}}'', Mme Sollier in ''{{lang|fr|L'Art dentaire}}'', May 1888]]
Alice Maille was born on 3 April 1861 in [[Compiègne]] to Flore-Hortense Maille and Mathieu Victoire, known as Dubois. Her mother was white, and her father was black. Her father had been enslaved in the colony of [[French Guiana]] but freed in 1834. He was a dentist by the time of Alice's birth.<ref name=":2">Julien Bogousslavsky, ''Following Charcot: A Forgotten History of Neurology'', 2011, <abbr>p.</abbr> 106</ref><ref name="Pie">Pierrette Caire Dieu, ''Le docteur Alice Mathieu-Dubois épouse Sollier (1861-1942). Un destin d'exception'', in ''Carnets d'histoire de la médecine'', Société française d'histoire de la médecine, April 2020, {{P.|1-20}} ([https://www.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/sfhm/chm/chmx2020/chmx2020x04.pdf Read online])</ref> Her parents married on 8 May 1867, some years after Alice's birth, and she took the surname Mathieu-Dubois, based on her father's first name and part of his surname. Her mother died six months after the wedding, after which her father then took sole responsibility for her education.<ref name="Pie" />
Alice Mathieu-Dubois earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Paris in 1879, followed by a Bachelor of Arts degree in rhetoric in 1880 and philosophy in 1881. In 1880, the newspaper ''{{lang|fr|[[Le Gaulois]]}}'' reported that "Miss Mathieu-Dubois, who had already obtained her bachelor's degree in science the previous year, successfully passed exams that, to our knowledge, had never before been taken by a black woman".<ref>{{Cite web |date=1880-12-12 |title=À la Sorbonne, Le Gaulois |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k523666h |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=Gallica |language=EN}}</ref> Another newspaper, ''{{lang|fr|Le Pays}}'', noted in 1881 that only two young women had taken and passed the second part of the baccalaureate in arts (philosophy), earning a "fairly good" grade and the congratulations of the jury. One of them was "a young black woman, already a bachelor of science, Mlle Mathieu-Dubois, who had begun her medical studies with a view to obtaining a doctorate in medicine".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=1881-08-01 |title=Bacheliers et bachelières, Le Pays |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k4673893h |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=Gallica |language=FR}}</ref>
Mathieu-Dubois enrolled at the [[University of Paris Faculty of Medicine]]. Women had only been allowed to enroll at the Faculty of Medicine since 1869 when [[Madeleine Brès]] had successfully made her case to be admitted.<ref name="Pie" /> In Paris, she rented a room from the father of her friend [[Blanche Edwards-Pilliet|Blanche Edwards]], herself the first woman to pass the {{lang|fr|l'[[Internship (medicine)|internat de médecine]]}} exam in France.<ref name="Pie" /> Mathieu-Dubois was an [[Medical education in France#Externship|extern]] in Paris hospitals from 1883.<ref>[https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k931869s/f164.item.r=%22Alice%20Mathieu%20Dubois%22 «Mme le Dr Sollier (Alice», ''Nos docteurs'', J. Hirschler, vol. 3, {{P.|160}}]</ref> She was ranked 72nd out of 254 in the exam. Her future husband ranked 32nd. Two other women passed the externship exam alongside her.<ref name="Pie" />
Mathieu-Dubois married [[Paul Sollier]], a fellow medical student, on 21 January 1886 and adopted his surname. The couple had two children: René Victor, born on 3 November 1886 and died three days later, and Suzanne, born on 8 November 1887, fifteen days after her mother defended her doctoral thesis.<ref name="Pie" />
Sollier earned her doctorate in 1887 with a thesis entitled ''{{lang|fr|L'état de la dentition chez les enfants idiots et arriérés: contribution à l'étude des dégénérescences dans l'espèce humaine}}'', which was illustrated with 32 figures.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sollier, Alice (1861-....) |url=https://www.idref.fr/07588481X |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122005743/https://www.idref.fr/07588481X |archive-date=2022-01-22 |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=www.idref.fr |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sollier |first=Alice (née Mathieu-Dubois) |url=http://archive.org/details/BIUSante_TPAR1888x004 |title=L'état de la dentition chez les enfants idiots et arriérés. |date=1887 |language=French}}</ref> After leaning towards dentistry like her father, she eventually turned her attention to nervous disorders.<ref name="Pie" />
The press{{Specify|date=March 2026}} reported on her thesis defence: "The female doctor is no longer a curiosity. What is rarer is a black female doctor. One such doctor, Mrs. Sollier, has just successfully defended her thesis in medicine" and stated "despite her colour, she is French by birth", some using more racist terms.<ref name="radiofrance">{{Cite web |last=Noiriel |first=Gérard |author-link=Gérard Noiriel |date=11 November 2022 |title=Comment a-t-on pu oublier Alice Sollier? |url=https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/le-pourquoi-du-comment-histoire/comment-a-t-on-pu-oublier-alice-solier-2948674 |access-date=1 February 2026 |website=radiofrance.fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1887-01-02 |title=Le Droit des femmes : revue mensuelle, politique, littéraire et d'économie sociale / réd. Léon Richer |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bd6t5398518w |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=Gallica |language=EN}}</ref> ''{{lang|fr|[[Le Petit Journal (newspaper)|Le Petit Journal]]}}'' described her as "a tall, beautiful person with slightly brownish skin, large black eyes, invariably dressed in a blue dress with a masculine cut, without any frills" and stated that she was well-known on the Left Bank in Paris because of her summer walks in the [[Jardin du Luxembourg]] with a book in her hand.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1887-10-31 |title=Le Petit journal |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k609569q |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=Gallica |language=EN}}</ref>
Sollier registered for the internship competition at the same time as Blanche Edwards but did not take the exams, possibly because she was discouraged by the demonstrations organised by many students against the presence of women on the day of the competition, as well as by racist remarks from fellow students and the press.<ref name="radiofrance" /> ''{{lang|fr|[[Le Figaro]]}}'', in an article on the few female doctors in Paris, referred to her alongside her contemporaries Blanche Edwards and [[Augusta Déjerine-Klumpke]], not naming her but referring to "this little Creole girl whom all the students call [[Bamboula]]".<ref>{{Cite news |date=1885-11-02 |title=Les doctoresses pour de bon |work=Le Figaro |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k279471k |access-date=2026-02-01 |via=Gallica |language=EN}}</ref>
==Career== From 1889 to 1897, Sollier and her husband ran the Villa Montsouris clinic on Rue de la Santé in Paris. In doing so, she became the first woman to run a private healthcare facility dedicated to nervous disorders.<ref name="Pie" />
In 1896, her husband founded a limited partnership, ''{{lang|fr|Dr Paul Sollier et Cie}}'', known as the ''{{lang|fr|Établissement d'hydrothérapie médicale de Boulogne-sur-Seine}}'', of which he was the sole managing director and a major shareholder. Alice Sollier's 'technical collaboration' was included in the list of contributions. The company's articles of association stipulated that Alice Sollier would become manager if Paul Sollier resigned or died.<ref name="Pie" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=26 April 1896 |title=Le Droit, p. 3-4 |url=https://www.retronews.fr/journal/le-droit/26-avril-1896/3/99b496a6-c971-460a-896c-18bc45067f91 |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=www.retronews.fr}}</ref> From April 1897 to June 1921, Alice Sollier co-managed the [[Boulogne-Billancourt|Boulogne-sur-Seine]] sanatorium with her husband, which specialised in the treatment of nervous system disorders and drug addiction (particularly [[morphine]]).<ref name="Pie" /><ref>Roger Teyssou, ''Paul Sollier contre Sigmund Freud: l'hystérie démaquillée'', 2013, <abbr>p.</abbr> 16</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1900-01-01 |title=Revue britannique, ou Choix d'articles traduits des meilleurs écrits périodiques de la Grande-Bretagne, sur la littérature, les beaux-arts, les arts industriels, l'agriculture, le commerce, l'économie politique, les finances, la législation, etc., etc. |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1423528d |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=Gallica |language=EN}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1900-08-25 |title=La Fronde / directrice Marguerite Durand |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k67041096 |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=Gallica |language=EN}}</ref><ref name=":1">Dossier de la Légion d'honneur d'Alice Sollier dans la base Léonore</ref>
In 1904, Sollier was interviewed by [[Gabrielle Réval]] for the daily newspaper ''{{lang|fr|[[L'Écho de Paris]]}}'' and for Réval's book, ''{{lang|fr|L'Avenir de nos filles}}'' (The Future of Our Daughters), about her role in the medical and practical management of the sanatorium, the place of young women in medical studies, and medical careers for women.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1904-01-25 |title=L'Écho de Paris |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k803888q |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=Gallica |language=EN}}</ref>
From June 1921 or 1922 onwards, Sollier practised as a doctor at the [[Saint-Cloud]] neurological clinic.<ref name=":1" /> She co-directed it with Dr Morat, formerly an assistant doctor at the Boulogne sanatorium.<ref name="Pie" /> She also practised at the Malmaison [[sanatorium]] in [[Rueil-Malmaison]] until 1935.<ref name="Pie" />
==Later life== Sollier's husband died on 8 June 1933. [[Léon Daudet]], who had known him when he was also studying medicine, paid tribute to him in an article published in the far-right daily newspaper ''{{lang|fr|[[L'Action française]]}}'' and dedicated to “docteur” Alice Sollier, describing her as Paul Sollier's "admirable wife and collaborator".<ref>{{Cite web |date=1933-06-17 |title=Léon Daudet, « Un maître : Paul Sollier » L'Action française |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k765273d |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=Gallica |language=EN}}</ref>
Sollier remained in Saint-Cloud until her house and clinic were requisitioned by the Germans during the Occupation of World War II. She lived with her daughter at the [[Sainte-Anne Hospital Center|Sainte-Anne Hospital]], where her daughter's husband worked, then on [[Rue d'Alésia]], Paris, where she died on 29 January 1942.<ref name="Pie" />
==Awards== [[File:Place Alice Mathieu Dubois - Paris XIII (FR75) - 2025-05-23 - 2.jpg|thumb|Place Alice Mathieu Dubois - Paris XIII (FR75)]]
In 1925, Alice Sollier, née Alice Dubois, was awarded the croix de chevalier of the [[Legion of Honour]], with the citation:
{{Blockquote |quote={{lang|fr|En l'absence du docteur Sollier, mobilisé dès le 2 août 1914, a assumé la direction pendant toute la durée de la guerre du {{ill|Hôpital Ambroise-Paré (Boulogne-Billancourt)|lt=Sanatorium de Boulogne sur Seine|fr}} que dirigeait ce praticien. Mme Sollier avec un rare dévouement a notamment assuré l'évacuation fin août 1914 de tous les malades sur la zone de l'intérieur. Elle les a de nouveau réunis dans l'établissement après la Bataille de la Marne (1914). (In the absence of Dr. Sollier, who was called up on 2 August 1914, she took over the management of the Boulogne-sur-Seine Sanatorium, which she ran for the duration of the war. With rare dedication, Mrs. Sollier ensured the evacuation of all patients from the interior at the end of August 1914. She reunited them in the establishment after the [[First Battle of the Marne|Battle of the Marne]]).}} }}
Sollier's patron in the order was Countess [[Anna de Noailles]], who was treated twice at the Boulogne sanatorium and in 1924 at the Saint-Cloud clinic.<ref name="Pie" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Recherche - Base de données Léonore |url=https://www.leonore.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr/ui/notice/347821#spotlight |access-date=2026-02-01 |website=www.leonore.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr}}</ref><ref>Étienne Vaissière, ''[http://www.ghcaraibe.org/articles/2014-art29.pdf Mathieu-Dubois, un remarquable destin familial]'', Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe</ref>
==Legacy== Following proposals to name a street for her in [[Crépy-en-Valois]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pôle de Santé du Valois |url=https://polesantevalois.com/ |access-date=2026-02-02 |website=Crépy-en-Valois |language=fr-FR}}</ref> on 20 December 2024, the conseil municipal de [[Compiègne]] approved the creation of a street bearing Alice Sollier's maiden name in the Musicians' Quarter, which was inaugurated in 2025.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" />
A square in the [[13th arrondissement of Paris]] was named {{ill|Place Alice-Mathieu-Dubois|fr}} in June 2025.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2025 DU 111 Dénomination place Alice Mathieu-Dubois (13e) |url=https://a06-v7.apps.paris.fr/a06/jsp/site/plugins/solr/modules/ods/DoDownload.jsp?id_document=180423}}</ref>
In 2026, Sollier was announced as one of 72 historical women in STEM whose names have been proposed to be added to the [[List of the 72 names on the Eiffel Tower|72 men]] already celebrated on the [[Eiffel Tower]]. The plan was announced by the Mayor of Paris, [[Anne Hidalgo]], following the recommendations of a committee led by [[Isabelle Vauglin]] of ''{{lang|fr|Femmes et Sciences}}'' and Jean-François Martins, representing the operating company which runs the Eiffel Tower.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eiffel Tower: a list of 72 women scientists will soon be inscribed on the Parisian monument |url=https://www.sortiraparis.com/en/news/in-paris/articles/340564-eiffel-tower-list-of-72-women-scientists-soon-to-be-honored-on-the-paris-landmark |access-date=2026-02-02 |website=www.sortiraparis.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2026-01-26 |title=Eiffel Tower to honor 72 women scientists for posterity |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/01/26/eiffel-tower-to-honor-72-women-in-science-for-posterity_6749828_7.html |access-date=2026-02-03 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Les noms des 72 femmes pour la Tour Eiffel ont été révélés. |url=https://www.femmesetsciences.fr/news/les-noms-des-72-femmes-pour-la-tour-eiffel-ont-%C3%A9t%C3%A9-r%C3%A9v%C3%A9l%C3%A9 |access-date=2026-02-08 |website=Femmes & Sciences |language=fr}}</ref><ref>[https://10ca8303-b3dc-4a91-9dcc-2d2b91792b47.usrfiles.com/ugd/10ca83_3838bd19a41a4e83927cfc8fe0f50404.pdf 72 femmes de sciences pour la tour Eiffel] ''Femmes & Sciences'' (in French). Retrieved 2026-02-08</ref>
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * Pierrette Caire Dieu, «[https://www.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/sfhm/chm/chmx2020/chmx2020x04.pdf Le docteur Alice Mathieu-Dubois épouse Sollier (1861-1942). Un destin d'exception]», ''Carnets d'histoire de la médecine'', vol. 2020-4, p. 1-19. * Josette Dall'Ava-Santucci, «Au XIXe siècle, les femmes à l'assaut de la médecine», ''La Revue du praticien'', 2005, 55. * Le Maléfan, Pascal. «La psychothérapie naissante au sanatorium du Dr Sollier (1861-1933). À propos de Cam. S., délirante spirite», ''Bulletin de psychologie'', vol. 516, no. 6, 2011, pp. 559–571.
==External links== * {{Commons-inline}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sollier, Alice}} [[Category:1861 births]] [[Category:1942 deaths]] [[Category:French women medical doctors]] [[Category:People from Compiègne]] [[Category:People from Paris]] [[Category:University of Paris alumni]] [[Category:French recipients of the Legion of Honour]] [[Category:Medical doctors from Paris]] [[Category:Women scientists named on the Eiffel Tower]]