CONTRIBUTIONS OF KENTUCKY ’ S WOMAN PHYSICIANS : 1775-2017
Gordon R . Tobin , MD
National Women Physician Day , February 3 rd , occurs on the birthday of Elizabeth Blackwell ( 1821-1910 ), the first woman to receive a United States medical diploma ( Geneva Medical College , 1849 ). Previously , she taught school in Henderson , Kentucky ( 1844 ). The contributions of Kentucky female physicians have been equally spectacular and should be honored on this occasion .
Any discussion of women in medicine requires recognition of the long-standing , severe discrimination they faced in obtaining medical education , which is well-illustrated by the biographies herein . For example , there were no women educated at the University of Louisville School of Medicine from its 1837 founding until 1916 , when Dorothy Vissman took an embryology course , and then enrolled in the 1918 class . Into the late 20 th century , women ’ s acceptances remained severely limited . I recall the University of California San Francisco in the 1960s limiting women to 5 percent of the medical class , while none were admitted to dentistry . Currently , compensation for academic female physicians ’ lags substantially , and access to leadership positions remains restricted . This makes more remarkable the achievements of the women described herein for their determination , perseverance and talent . This also calls for ongoing attention to the fairness we proclaim , but don ’ t always serve .
Fig . 1
DR . FRANCIS COOMES The first physicians to practice in Kentucky were two , Francis ( aka Jane ) Coomes and George Hart , who were among the first 1775 settlers in Fort Harrod ( now Harrodsburg ), Kentucky ( Fig . 1 ). Dr . Coomes also served as the first school teacher in the territory . Both Dr . Coomes and Dr . Hart were apprenticeship-trained , an appropriate credential for the times , as only two small American schools existed ( College of Philadelphia Medical Department , est . 1765 , and Kings College Faculty of Physic , New York , est . 1767 ). Interestingly , proportionally more medical care was delivered by women of that era than would occur during much of the next 150 years of school-trained physicians .
DR . SARAH MCCURDY FITZBUTLER ( 1847-1922 ) Sarah McCurdy Fitzbutler became the first
Fig . 2 woman , and first African-American woman , to graduate from a Kentucky medical school ( Fig 2 ). Her dual achievements were particularly heroic , as the fierce discrimination visited upon women was even worse for African-Americans in American medicine . Sara Fitzbutler and her husband , Dr . William Henry Fitzbutler , came from Michigan to
Louisville in 1872 , where he became
Fig . 3 Louisville ’ s first African-American physician . In 1888 , he founded here the only school that would accept African-Americans , the Louisville National Medical College ( Fig . 3 ). After raising their children , she entered the school and became Kentucky ’ s first woman and African-American woman graduate and first woman medical educator . Together , the Fitzbutlers advocated relentlessly for education for all , for equality , and for universal human rights . She supervised the college ’ s hospital , which was praised for its high standards . After Henry ’ s 1901 death , she continued to lead the school and hospital until 1912 , and she provided voluminous charity care for Louisville ’ s African-American citizens .
DR . LILLIAN H . SOUTH ( 1879-1996 )
Lillian South , of Bowling Green and later Louisville , became the first woman Vice President of the American Medical Association in 1914 ( Fig . 4 ). She was a highly-skilled bacteriologist , and was a key member of Dr . J . N . McCormack ’ s public health cabinet and
Fig . 4 legislative advocacy team in the early 20 th century . She was appointed State Bacteriologist and was an early champion of public sanitation and vaccinations . She also led the hookworm eradication campaign , and many other sanitation and communicable disease initiatives .
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