Dr. Albert Schweitzer at the Mission Hospital, French Equatorial Africa, Lambaréné (now Gabon)

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952, largely for the establishment with his wife of a hospital in west central Africa, in what is now Gabon. Schweitzer regarded his medical work in Africa in Christian terms, a response to Jesus’s call to become “fishers of men,” and a small compensation for Europe’s colonization of Africa, which he decried. Despite his enlightened attitude, Schweitzer once declared that, “The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother.” He opposed Gabonese independence and he was criticized for depending on European nurses at his hospital, rather than training nurses within the local population.

This photograph shows Schweitzer as paternalistic healer with white pith helmet, apron, and stethoscope. He seems cut off from the world of his patients, despite his desire to help the needy.