Early Women Members

I was working on a project where someone asked me who was the earliest female member of the Faculty. I didn't immediately know, so went to hunt up the answer. And in honor of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, I thought today was the perfect day to post it. 

In 1882, the Faculty changed the by-laws to to read "members" instead of "gentlemen." At that time, women and African Americans were attending medical school and wanted to join their fellow physicians at the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland. 

Women were admitted to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine right from the beginning, because women had come up with the funding that was needed for the school to open, and that was the condition of the gift. University of Maryland didn't admit women until 1919, which was surprising to me. However, in 1882, the Women's Medical College opened in Baltimore and continued to operate until about 1910. 

When I went through the Medical Annals of Maryland (1799-1899), I searched for some keywords to try and find the women members. Luckily, the Annals is on-line and digital, otherwise, it would be impossible to do a search, as there are 340 pages of biographies of physicians!

I have come up with a list of 13 female physicians who were members of the Faculty between 1880 and 1899, when the book was published. Here is a list of the women, and the years they became members of the Faculty. (Click on the name to read a brief biography.)

Amanda Taylor Norris  1886*

Anna Louise Kuhn  1889**

Alice Hall-Chapman  1890

Isabella Godfrey  1890

Laura Ewing Reading  1890

Mary Sherwood  1892

Claribel Cone  1894

Flora Pollack  1894

Edith Eareckson  1895

Lillian Welsh  1895

Adeline Elwell Portman  1896

Louise Erich  1897

Louise Holmes  1898

*Amanda Taylor Norris was the first women physician in Baltimore who had a degree from a regular college. 

**Anna Louise Kuhn was the first woman to graduate with a degree in medicine in Baltimore.