| Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia | |
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| Geography | |
| Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Coordinates | 39°58′29″N75°10′20″W / 39.974858°N 75.172095°W |
| History | |
| Opened | 1861 |
| Links | |
| Lists | Hospitals in Pennsylvania |
The Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia was established in 1861 [1] to provide clinical experience for Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania students, a group of Quaker women, particularly Ann Preston.
Its purposes were to “establish in Philadelphia, a Hospital for the treatment of diseases of women and children, and for obstetrical cases; furnishing at the same time facilities for clinical instruction to women engaged in the study of medicine, and for the practical training of nurses; the chief resident physician to be a woman.” [2] Though most medical care in the 19th century occurred at home or in a practitioner's office, the “teaching hospital” could provide, as clinical material, many patients gathered in one place for some time, who could be examined while the course of their diseases were observed. [1]
Woman's Hospital accepted its first patient, to the Lying In Department (maternity), on December 16, 1861. [1] By April 1862, twelve patients occupied beds. [3] The Woman's Hospital grew steadily; by 1875 it housed 37 beds, treated nearly 2,000 patients at their homes (home visits were carried out largely by students), and saw more than 3,000 visitors in its dispensary. [4] Women and children were admitted “without regard to their religious belief, nationality, or color.” They generally did not accept pregnant women who were unwed. At least one woman staff physician pleaded for “sympathizing care,” saying it could do more to change a life than moralistic rejection. [5]
In 1867, the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania legally changed its name to Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. [6] In 1874, the college began construction of its own building, thanks to an earlier bequest of Isaac Barton, one of the corporators. [7] The new location was adjacent to the Woman's Hospital of Pennsylvania on North College Avenue. The architecture contract was given to Addison Hutton. [7] In 1888, Dr. Anna Broomall established the hospital's outpatient maternity clinic (the first in the United States). [8]
Pennsylvania Hospital is a private, non-profit, 515-bed teaching hospital located in Center City Philadelphia and is part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Founded on May 11, 1751, by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Bond, Pennsylvania Hospital is one of the earliest established public hospitals in the United States. It is also home to America's first surgical amphitheatre and its first medical library. The hospital's main building, dating to 1756, is a National Historic Landmark.
Drexel University College of Medicine is the medical school of Drexel University, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The medical school represents the consolidation of two medical schools: Hahnemann Medical College, originally founded as the nation's first college of homeopathy, and the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first U.S. medical school for women, which became the Medical College of Pennsylvania when it admitted men in 1970; these institutions merged in 1993, became affiliated with Drexel University College of Medicine in 1998, and were fully absorbed into the university in 2002.
The Sloane Hospital for Women is the obstetrics and gynecology service within NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) in New York City. It was founded in 1886 with Columbia P&S as a training and treatment center for obstetrics. It has provided over 100 years of obstetrical care. The hospital is located within Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital.
A maternity hospital specializes in caring for women during pregnancy and childbirth. It also provides care for newborn infants, and may act as a centre for clinical training in midwifery and obstetrics. Formerly known as lying-in hospitals, most of them, like cottage hospitals, have been absorbed into larger general hospitals, where they operate as the maternity department.
Margaret Dorothea Craighill was an American psychiatrist. She was born in Southport, North Carolina, the daughter of Colonel William E. Craighill and Mrs. Mary Craighill. Craighill was a third generation officer following in the footsteps of her grandfather, Brigadier General William Price Craighill, and her father. Both men graduated from the United States Military Academy, commonly referred to as West Point, in West Point, New York. On May 28, 1943, she became the first woman commissioned officer in the United States Army Medical Corps. Major Craighill served through World War II and afterward worked with the Veterans Administration. She died on July 20, 1977, in Southbury, Connecticut.
Ann Preston was an American physician, activist, and educator. As head of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, she was the first female dean of a medical school in the United States of America.
The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) was a Philadelphia medical college founded for women in 1850. It was the second medical institution in the world established to train women in medicine to earn the M.D. degrees after the New England Female Medical College in Boston, which was established two years earlier in 1848.
Virginia M. Alexander was an American physician, public health researcher, and the founder of the Aspiranto Health Home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Linda Bartels Lange was an American bacteriologist known for her study of cancer, tuberculosis, and infectious diseases.
Martha Tracy served as dean of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) from 1917 to 1940, leading the institution through the Great Depression. She created a department of preventive medicine within the college and was the first professor of preventive medicine at WMC.
Emeline Horton Cleveland was an American physician and one of the first women to perform major abdominal or gynecological surgery in the United States. She became one of the first woman physicians associated with a large public hospital in the United States, and she established one of the first nursing assistant training programs in the country.
Amy Stokes Barton, a pioneer woman ophthalmologist, was born in Camden County, New Jersey, October 1, 1841, daughter of Joseph Barton, a farmer, and Rachel B. Evans.
Henry Leffmann was an American chemist, physician and writer.
Isabel "Belle" Cobb was a Cherokee physician and educator best known for being the first woman physician in Indian Territory.
Ruth Webster Lathrop was an American physician and medical school professor, who taught physiology at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
Marion Spencer Fay was an American physician, dean, teacher, and advocate. She was president and dean of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Fay received her bachelor's degree at Newcomb College at Tulane University. She studied for her master's at the University of Colorado. Her PhD work was at Yale University where she focused on physiologic chemistry.
Mary Wade Griscom was an American physician and medical school professor in China, India, and Persia.
Alice Weld Tallant was an American physician and medical school professor. When her employment as a professor of obstetrics was terminated at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, it sparked the "Tallant Affair", in which students staged a strike and several colleagues resigned their positions in protest.
Margaret F. Butler was an American physician who chaired the otorhinolaryngology department at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. In 1908, she became the first woman to preside over an international congress of physicians, as the only woman and only American in attendance. She was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Anna Elizabeth Broomall was an American obstetrician, surgeon, and educator who taught obstetrics at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. She established the first maternal health and prenatal care clinic in the United States, located at the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, and used surgical innovations to reduce maternal mortality.