Evening Dispensary For Working Women and Girls

The Evening Dispensary for Working Women and Girls was an innovative and community institution that offered poor women the opportunity to receive medical treatment and education. It educated the Baltimore public on health matters and provided women seeking medical degrees, an opportunity to learn and gain experience.

History

Opened on March 1, 1891, and closed on March 1, 1910,^[1] the Dispensary was founded by two Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania graduates, Dr. Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead and Dr. Alice Hall. The two came to Baltimore and connected with the organization who petitioned Johns Hopkins Hospital and gained the interest of other individuals in Baltimore to open the clinic. During its existence, it had the same board of managers consisting of Alice T. Hall, Kate Campbell Hurd (Mead), Elizabeth T. King, Julia R. Rogers, Bertha M. Smith, and Kate M. McLane, Anne Galbraith Carey. Their staff included Lilian Welsh, Mary Sherwood, Florence Sabin, and Elizabeth Hurdon, all devoted their time to practice medicine and help patients. Women physicians during this time lacked the opportunities necessary for their field, and the dispensary also provided lectures, medical training, and opportunities to women of higher education seeking post-graduate experience.^[2] The free care was offered to the poor and needy, it established clean milk distribution for sick babies,^[3] the first visiting nurse and public bath,^[4] a social service department, provided a study of midwives and birth registration in Baltimore, as well as a study of tuberculosis.^[1] Women now had the opportunity to find care from doctors of the same sex.^[5]

References

1 2 More, Ellen S. (2009-06-01). Restoring the Balance: Women Physicians and the Profession of Medicine, 1850-1995. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674041233.
↑ Creese, Mary R. S. (2000-01-01). Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780585276847.
↑ Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy (2003-12-16). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge. ISBN 9781135963439.
↑ Williams, Marilyn T. (1991-01-01). Washing "the Great Unwashed": Public Baths in Urban America, 1840-1920. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 9780814205372.
↑ Directory of the Charitable and Beneficent Organizations of Baltimore and of Maryland: Together with a Summary of Laws, Etc. Press of the Friedenwald Company. 1892-01-01.

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[:0-1] 1 2 More, Ellen S. (2009-06-01). Restoring the Balance: Women Physicians and the Profession of Medicine, 1850-1995. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674041233.

[2] Creese, Mary R. S. (2000-01-01). Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780585276847.

[3] Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy (2003-12-16). The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives From Ancient Times to the Mid-20th Century. Routledge. ISBN 9781135963439.

[4] Williams, Marilyn T. (1991-01-01). Washing "the Great Unwashed": Public Baths in Urban America, 1840-1920. Ohio State University Press. ISBN 9780814205372.

[5] Directory of the Charitable and Beneficent Organizations of Baltimore and of Maryland: Together with a Summary of Laws, Etc. Press of the Friedenwald Company. 1892-01-01.