Emma Hamilton Dancing

Born in 1862 in North Garden, Virginia, Henry Floyd Gamble grew up near Charlottesville, Virginia, where his family settled after the Civil War. As a boy, he worked on the estate of John Staige Davis, a professor of medicine at the University of Virginia and former surgeon in the Confederate Army. Davis’ son gave Gamble lessons secretly, but when the doctor found out he ended the schooling. Gamble then paid a tutor to teach him at night.

Gamble graduated from the preparatory department and the undergraduate program at Lincoln University, earning his BA in 1888. He then graduated from the Yale School of Medicine in 1891. While a student, Gamble worked as a janitor and a waiter to pay expenses.

Gamble briefly practiced medicine in Charlottesville before moving to Charleston, West Virginia. There he established a medical practice and served as president of the National Medical Association, an organization of Black physicians, and helped establish a state chapter in West Virginia. Deeply involved in civic and church affairs, Gamble was a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Gamble married twice and had four children. He died in 1932 in Charleston, West Virginia.