published by By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 09:56 EST, 28 July 2013 | UPDATED: 12:43 EST, 28 July 2013 She was a 'doctor, dietician, psychologist, bail-goer and friend' to thousands of mostly African Americans crippled by poverty in the 1950s. Yet tireless South Carolina nurse-midwife Maude Callen - who delivered hundreds of children, cared for the elderly and educated midwifery students in a 400-mile area 'veined with muddy roads' - never considered herself a hero. Her's was a labor of love, captured in these extraordinary black and white photographs taken by legendary shooter W. Eugene Smith for LIFE magazine.
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The work of Southern Carolina nurse-midwife Maude Callen was documented in extraordinary photos published in LIFE magazine in 1951
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Legendary photographer W. Eugene Smith captured Callen as she delivered babies and cared for the elderly
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Smith's photo essay is considered one of the best ever published by LIFE
@placeholder's 20 picture-strong essay, splashed across a dozen pages in December 1951, was considered 'one of the most extraordinary photo essays ever to appear in [LIFE] magazine.'