02-27 TABLE of CONTENTS:
Who was Dr. Alice Hamilton
DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
QUOTE by
Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Dr. Alice Hamilton
[A girl, 11, emailed me to ask for
information about someone named Dr. Alice Hamilton. Her teacher knew nothing
about her, the encyclopedias weren't much help, and her classmates were
feeling sorry for her for having drawn such an unknown person for her "Women's
History" assignment.
Unknown... How could such a giant in the fields of
pathology and industrial medicine be so completely erased from our HIStories
so that in less than a half century, she is a no one. -- IS]
Dr. Alice Hamilton single-handedly developed industrial
toxicology and fought in the courts, before Congress, and in legislatures
for safer working conditions for workers who were dying or being crippled
by the poisons and noxious chemicals used in manufacturing... an accomplishment
which ranks among the greatest life-saving practices of all medicine.
Born February 27, 1869, Dr. Alice Hamilton, pioneer
in industrial toxicology. Her mother encouraged her daughter in opposition
to the rest of the extended family. Her older sister Edith Hamilton is
the writer famed for her works on mythology.
AH is quoted as saying, "For
me the satisfaction is that things are better now, and I had some part
in it." She was one of the two greatest authorities on industrial
poisonings extant in the world at the time, a field she practically invented.
Her Industrial Poisons in the United States
(1925) was the first U.S. text on the subject, and Industrial Toxicology
(1934) one of the great standards. However, she was not just an academic,
she worked in the field and went into mines and campaigned vigorously before
government bodies.
In 1919, AH became assistant professor of industrial
medicine at the Harvard Medical School (after 1925 at the School of Public
Health) "because there was no one else in my
field," and in 1935 became professor emeritus. She was Harvard's
first woman professor and was barred from entering the Harvard Club, from
marching in commencement, and from claiming her quota of football tickets
because she was a woman. Harvard did not admit women as students until
1945.
She was also recognized as one of the world's great
authorities on bacteriology. She was the first woman to receive the prestigious
Lasker Award from the American Public Health department.
[Continued in WOA
02-28: Revealing the "unknown" Dr. Alice Hamilton.]
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
02-27 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and
EVENTS
B. 02-27-1847, Ellen Terry, one of the most
famous stage actresses of the English-speaking world.
B. 02-27-1850, Laura Elizabeth Howe Richard,
author of nearly 80 books including Captain
January which sold 300,000 copies. Daughter of Julia Ward Howe, her
autobiography is Stepping Westward (1931).
B. 02-27-1865, Mary Frances Isom, remarkable
librarian who helped make library service a reality for the people
of Portland, Oregon and the surrounding area. During World War I she organized
libraries for various military areas as well as in France.
B. 02-27-1869, Alice Hamilton, first woman
to study pathology and who created the new medical field of industrial
disease. Her efforts pioneered legislation to protect industrial workers.
She was the first woman named to the Harvard Medical School.
B. 02-27-1888, Lotte Lehmann, German-American
lyric-dramatic soprano and writer. She was barred from her native Germany
because she refused to cooperate with the Nazis. LL wrote several memoirs
and musical interpretations.
B. 02-27-1907, Mildred Bailey, one of the better
band singers of the big band era. Tagged Mr. and Mrs. Swing she led
a band with her husband Red Norvo, did solo vocals, and had her own radio
show.
B. 02-27-1930, Joanne Woodward, won Academy
award for best actress, The Three Faces of Eve (1957) and nominated
for several others. Won several Emmys for her TV work.
B. 02-27-1932, Elizabeth Taylor, a complex
and headline grabbing private life and her violet eyes in a exquisite face,
often eclipses the fact that she has won two Academy Awards for best actress:
Butterfield 8 (1960) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
(1966) and been nominated three other times. Helped form pioneer AIDS-fighting
organization Am-Far and is a cosmetic executive. Her mother was actress
Sara Sothern.
B. 02-27-1936, Sonya Johnson, excommunicated
from the Mormon Church for supporting the Equal Rights Amendment for
women. Become a social activist for women's rights and a writer of feminist
literature.
B. 02-27 (year unknown) Helen Kim, president
of EWHA College, Seoul, Korea 1938-1961.
B. 02-27-1980, Chelsea Clinton, daughter
of President Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
QUOTES DU JOUR
STANTON, ELIZABETH CADY:
"But standing alone
we learned our power; we repudiated man's counsels forevermore and solemnly
vowed that there should never be another season of silence until we had
the same rights everywhere on this green earth, as man."
--
Elizabeth Cady Stanton in The History of Woman Suffrage.
| PRIOR DATE |
| HOME |
| WOA INDEX |
| NEXT DATE |
| RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE
|
|