The therapeutic benefits of cold water treatments have been in the news and social media lately. One 19th century practitioner was Dr. Mary Olney Brown, pictured here. Dr. Brown was affectionately called “Coldwater Brown,” to distinguish her from another Olympia woman with the same last name, known as “Presbyterian Brown.” Dr. Brown is better remembered today for her ardent promotion of universal suffrage.
L. Wilson Clark photo, about 1880, Courtesy State Capital Museum collection, Washington State Historical Society, catalog C1954.469.2
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian 2022