(May 22, 1825 – July 28, 1901) was the second woman to earn a medical degree in the United States (and the first in MA) from a recognized (non-sectarian or allopathic) medical institution after Elizabeth Blackwell, graduating in 1852,[1] and the first woman to earn a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University Medical School, then known as the Cleveland Medical College of the Western Reserve College.

In 1845, she married dentist Champion Clark, then bore a daughter who died within a year. Her husband succumbed to typhoid fever dying in March 1848.[2] She found her way to Cleveland, Ohio where under the leadership of Dean Delamater, she became the first female graduate of the Cleveland Medical College (now Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine), in 1852.

When Emily Blackwell (Elizabeth's sister) graduated from the Cleveland Medical College to become the 3rd female to earn an MD in the US, Nancy traveled from Boston to attend and congratulate her.  To further her education Nancy traveled to Europe, finding herself on the same ship as Emily Blackwell.  When she asked Emily to join her in Europe, the Blackwell’s decided that she represented potential competition and Emily declined, Elizabeth referring to Nancy as “a pretty little thing and that’s all”

Clark returned to Massachusetts, where she practiced medicine in Boston from April 1852 to August 1854 but stopped after she was unsuccessful in gaining admission to the Massachusetts Medical Society due to being a woman.  She was clearly qualified, but at the time the MMS required censors to interview all applicants or be fined.  They did not want to admit her, but they did not want to be fined.  The leadership at MMS agreed to cover any penalties that they may encounter and with that she was denied entrance.  In 1856, she married Amos Binney of Boston and had six children. After raising the family, she returned to medicine in 1874 opening a free dispensary for women in Boston.

Nancy died in 1901 and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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(October 8, 1826-September 7, 1910).  The younger sister of the more famous Elizabeth Blackwell, she looked up to her older sister and followed her direction into the medical profession (“Emily, I claim you, to work on my reform-will you answer to the call and let us sketch our futures together?”- no pressure there!).  She later worked with Elizabeth to open the New York Infirmary for Women and Children (1857) as well as the Women’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary (1868).

Although her sister blazed a trail for women into medical school, in some ways the event of Elizabeth’s graduation stimulated the opposition. Geneva Medical College, where Elizabeth graduated first in her class, closed the doors just after and Emily’s application was rejected.  Rush Medical College in Chicago admitted her but then rescinded her admission after a year.  Finally, Emily was admitted and graduated from Western Reserve in Cleveland in 1854, graduating after Nancy Talbot Clark, as the third female medical graduate in the US.

Her relationship with Elizabeth took the form of implementer to Elizabeth’s leadership and system focus.  While Elizabeth championed causes, Emily focused on seeing patients, organizing day to day functions and raising money to keep the doors open.  When Elizabeth moved permanently to England in 1869, Emily served as dean and the college evnetually graduated over 350 women doctors. 

Emily and her partner, Elizabeth Cushier adopted a baby named Nanny in 1870 and at the turn of the century they retired.  Emily is buried in a plain grave on Martha’s Vineyard where members of the Blackwell family would summer.

For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Blackwell

(April 6, 1927 – October 15, 2010)  was the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School in 1951 (the first class with women was graduated in 1949).

She was the only child of a Methodist minister and a school teacher in Pittsburgh, Texas. She earned her bachelor's degree in three years from Texas College.  Since she was considered too young to attend medical school, she went to Tufts University where she received her master's degree in biology. 

She was the first woman to do a surgical residency at Boston City Hospital and to become a member of the Boston Surgical Society

All of these achievements faded back as she rose to prominence opposing Roe v. Wade and asserting that it was analogous to the Dredd Scott Decision of 1857 declaring that Blacks were property without rights.  This gained her instant national attention.

According to Jefferson, one root of her opposition to abortion was her dedication to the Hippocratic oath, which morally bound her to the preservation of life.  Within the black community Jefferson advocated for the pro-life cause by becoming a member of Black Americans for Life.

She had strong opinions and was not afraid to voice them during speeches, rallies, and meetings for a variety of organizations.

In recognition of her efforts in medicine and pursuit of social justice during her life, she has received 28 honorary degrees from universities and colleges.

She held conservative political and social values, opposing the Equal Rights Amendment on the basis that it is unnecessary as the Constitution has no in-built inequity.  Jefferson also expressed opposition to welfare and busing.

Her personal achievements reflect an approach of advocating for the rights of individuals rather than advocating for the rights of groups (such as Blacks or Women).  In this way she had some similarities to Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female MD in the US (who did not support women’s suffrage and declined an invitation to the Women’s Rights Convention in Worcester, MA).

Jefferson died in her Cambridge home on October 15, 2010, at the age of 83 years. She was divorced and had no children. She was buried in her hometown of Carthage, Texas.

More Information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Fay_Jefferson

(1845-1926)  Noted for becoming the first African American Licensed nurse, she was born in Boston, educated at the Phillips School which became integrated in 1855 and started working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children (run by  Maria Zakrzewska) in her teens and entered their school of nursing in 1878 at age 33.  She practiced as a private nurse given discrimination that she encountered in public hospitals.  She was known for her efficiency, caring manner and patience.  After decades as a private nurse, Mahoney became the director of the Howard Orphanage Asylum for black children in Kings Park, Long Island in New York City. She served as the director from 1911 until 1912.

She finally retired from nursing after 40 years in the profession. However, she continued to champion women’s rights. After the 19th Amendment was ratified in August 1920, Mahoney was among the first women who registered to vote in Boston.

Mahoney lived until she was 80. After three years of battling breast cancer, she died on January 4, 1926. She is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Everett, Massachusetts.

For more information: https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mahoney

(27 October 1910 – 12 January 2000) was an American chemical engineer who designed the first commercial penicillin production plant.  Prior to the development of deep-tank fermentation penicillin was available only in very small quantities.  Indeed, staff collected urine from those given penicillin and reprocessed it to administer the penicillin to other patients.

She was the first female member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.  She received her Doctor of Science degree in chemical engineering from MIT in 1937, the first woman to earn a doctorate in the subject from MIT. 

Hutchinson started her professional career with E. B. Badger in Boston. During the Second World War, while working with Pfizer, she oversaw the design of production plants for the strategically important materials of penicillin and synthetic rubber. Her development of deep-tank fermentation of penicillium mold enabled large-scale production of penicillin. She worked on the development of high-octane gasoline for aviation fuel. 

Hutchinson retired in 1961, and later became an overseer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

She died 12 January 2000, aged 89, at her home in Weston, Massachusetts.

More Information: https://www.aiche.org/chenected/2024/03/chemical-engineering-pioneer-and-some-her-descendants

Barbara Stimpson, MD (1898-1986) was in the third class to graduate women at Columbia in 1923.  She went on to train in surgery, then orthopedics and became the first woman certified in surgery.  During WWII female physicians were not eligible to serve.  When the need for doctors in England grew desperate, the Red Cross solicited volunteers in the US and Dr. Stimpson shipped out, joining the effort in England even before the US entered the war.  When it was learned that an American was serving in the British military, she was called before the authorities and invited to transfer to the Americans, but without rank.  She refused and after some lobbying of her cousin Henry Stimpson, FDR’s Secretary of War,  FDR signed the Sparkman-Johnson Act, authorizing the Army and Navy to grant women physicians commissions for the duration of the war (plus 6 months!).

For more information: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/talented-valiant-female-surgeon-joined-allied-forces-wwii-broke-barriers-along-way-180985952/ 

Mary Edwards Walker (1932-1919).  File this one under “people are complicated”.  Known more for her political activism then her medicine, she graduated from the Syracuse Eclectic Medical College in 1855.  She entered practice with her husband shortly afterward but found that their patients would not accept a woman doctor.  Not just an eclectic physician, she appears to have been rather eclectic herself.

She tried enrolling as a doctor in the Civil War but was turned down because she was a woman, eventually becoming a contract surgeon and caring for many injured soldiers.  Traveling behind enemy lines she was captured, accused of espionage and imprisoned. She was the only woman awarded the Medal of Honor (by Andrew Johnson).

She was also an abolitionist, women’s suffragist, prohibitionist. 

Her causes were not aided by her insistence on wearing men’s pants, which she found more comfortable (even wearing them in lieu of a wedding dress).  Initially she wore a dress over the pants, but later simply wore pants and a top hat.  This got her arrested more than once for impersonating a man.  Missing from many of her profiles was that she was not alone in her choice of wearing pants.  Victorian dress could involve 15 yards of cloth, be restrictive and heavy.  Referred to as Reform Dress, this emerged as part of the women’s rights movement in the 1850s, spearheaded by activists like Amelia Bloomer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony.

As the years passed her obstinacy increasingly became an issue.  Disagreements within the Women’s Suffrage Movement lead to her being ostracized. 

In 1917 her Medal of Honor was rescinded because she had been a civilian employee. It was later restored in 1977.

History has treated her more kindly and, in 2024, she was one of five women chosen for the American Women Quarters series.

For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Edwards_Walker

(1829-1902), born in Berlin, Germany she initially trained and practiced as a midwife.  When her quest for a career in medicine brought her to New York, she made the acquaintance of Elizabeth Blackwell.  Blackwell recognized her potential as well as an opportunity.  She arranged for maria to enroll in the Western Reserve Medical School in Ohio, where her sister Emily had graduated.  Returning to New York in 1856 she joined the Blackwells in practice and helped establish the New York Infirmary for Women and Children in 1857.

Seeking more opportunity, she traveled to Boston, initially teaching Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children at the Female Medical College.  She resigned after some disagreements with the founder and established the New England Hospital for Women and Children.  It was groundbreaking in many ways including being the first hospital to offer a training school for nurses.  Mary Elizabeth Mahoney, the first African American nurse was trained there.

Hoping to open more medical schools to women, Zakrzewska, along with Emily Blackwell, Lucy Sewell, Helen Morton, Mary Putnam Jacobi, and many other women, sent a letter to Harvard University. They offered $50,000 to establish a medical program for women. The university denied this offer. Their hopes were not shaken. This offer was accepted by Johns Hopkins University and opened its doors to women the successive year.

Today, the New England Hospital for Women and Children lives on as the Dimock Center.  The Center’s Zakrzewska Building was built in 1872.

For more information see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Elizabeth_Zakrzewska