We are glad to learn that the number of lady students at the Medical Colleges are increasing and that they have thus far been very successful. Eight ladies graduated from the Female Medical College of Philadelphia, on the 30th of December. The names are as follows: Hannah E. Longshore, Philadelphia; Anna M. Long-shore, Bucks Co. Pa.,; Angenette A. Hunt, New York; Mrs. Martha M. Swain, Boston, Mass; Ann Preston, Phebe Way, Susanna H. Ellis, Chester Co. Pa.,; Mrs. Francss G. Mitchell, Philadelphia; late of England.
The majority of the class now attending are from Pa. Three however are from this State, two from New Jersey, one from Virginia, and one from Ohio.
Boston has a flourishing Female College. The College at Syracuse in this State, we believe, has its class of lady students; and at Rochester there is a large class in the Eclectic Medical College, under the instruction of Mrs. L. F. Fowler, of New York, who is one of the Professors of the Institution. The Cleveland Herald , gives an account of the great suceess of the ladies who have attended the Medical Lectures in that city.
Providence, R. I., has a Female Physician Miss M. H. Mowry, who is said to have the most extensive and successful practice of any phycian in that city. Boston has its Harriet K. Hunt, and New York its Elizabeth Blackwell . All this proves that woman has capacities which will enable her to master any profession; and all that is needed is for her to enter upon the new field to which a few noble pioneers have led the way. Prejudice is fast giving way before the light of the present day, and ere long it will be no strange thing to see a female physician in every community. Other avenues of usefulness and profit will open to woman just so fast as she earnestly seeks to enter them, and will herself lead the way.
Notes
Founded by Quakers in 1850 to enable women to become physicians, the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania attracted female students from across the country who sought a medical education denied them at most established schools.
Educated in Quaker schools in southeastern Pennsylvania, Ann Preston (1813-1872) enrolled in the first class of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania and graduated two years later at the age of 38. Appointed a professor of physiology and hygiene there in 1853, she in 1866 became the college’s first woman dean. Preston then convinced other educational clinics and medical societies in Philadelphia to end their exclusion of female students.
Source
Collection: The Lily
Publication: The Lily
Date: February 1, 1852
Title: Female Physicians
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