Changing the Face of Medicine

S. Josephine Baker, M.D., Dr. P.H., was a prominent public health physician during the first half of the 20th century. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-058326, ca. 1920

Women physicians – the challenges they have faced to practice medicine and the impact they have had on the profession – are the focus of a traveling exhibition on display January 5 through February 16, 2007 at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and co-sponsored by UC’s Academic Health Center Information Technology & Libraries (AIT&L) and University Libraries.

“Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians,” organized by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the American Library Association with support from the National Library of Medicine, the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the American Medical Women’s Association, tells the extraordinary stories of American women who wanted to practice medicine and the struggles they often faced to gain access to medical education and to practice in the specialties they chose.

Since the mid-1800s when Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to earn an M.D. degree from an American medical school, woman have made enormous strides in every area of medicine and have achieved great success in work once considered “unsuitable” for women. Women physicians are now found in every branch of medicine. They are researchers on the cutting edge of new medical discoveries, educators, surgeons, family practioners, specialists, and government officials.

“Changing the Face of Medicine” features the life stories of a rich diversity of women physicians from around the nation and highlights the broad range of specialties women are involved in today. The exhibit contains messages of hope, inspiration, and perseverance.

Women physicians today are benefiting from the career paths carved out by a long line of American women beginning in the mid-19th century. Some early physicians featured in the exhibition are Matilda Evans, the first African-American physician to be licensed in South Carolina, and Ann Preston, the first woman dean of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. Among the many other doctors whose stories appear in the exhibition are Antonia Novello, the first woman Surgeon General of the United States, and Catherine DeAngelis, the first woman to be appointed editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Cincinnati and UC are well-represented in the exhibit by five physicians:

• Elizabeth Blackwell, who at age 11 settled near Cincinnati from England, was the first woman to receive an M.D. degree from an American medical school in 1849.
  
  
• Emily Blackwell, with her sister, Elizabeth, and fellow physician Marie Zakrzewska, founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, the first hospital run by women and the first in the U.S. dedicated to serving women and children.
  
  
• Marilyn Hughes Gaston, graduate of UC’s College of Medicine, was the first African-American woman to direct a public health service bureau and a pioneer in the study and treatment of sickle-cell disease.
  
  
• Dr. Jane Henney, Senior Vice President and Provost for Health Affairs at the University of Cincinnati, was the first woman to be named commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
  
  
• Dr. Clarice D. Reid, graduate of UC’s College of Medicine, was from 1962 to 1968 the only African-American pediatrician in private practice in Cincinnati.

The exhibition can be viewed online at <www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine>. The Web site contains the inspirational profiles of over 300 women physicians, a section called “Share Your Story” that allows the public to add the names and biographies of women physicians they know, as well as lesson plans for classroom activities and educational and professional resources for anyone considering medicine as a career. In addition, another Web site accompanying the exhibition <www.nlm.nih.gov/locallegends> features outstanding women physicians from every state.

The traveling exhibition is based on a larger exhibition that was displayed at the NLM from 2003-2005. The exhibition will be presented in libraries across the country through 2010.

Programs and other events have been planned in connection with the exhibition in Cincinnati. Contact Melissa Cox Norris at (513) 556-1558 or at melissa.norris@uc.edu for more information or visit <www.aitl.uc.edu/changingthefaceofmedicine>.

Visiting the Exhibition:

“Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians” will be on display at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County in the Main Library Atrium January 5 through February 16, 2007.

Admission is free and open to the public during regular library hours:

Sunday 1pm-5pm
Monday 9am-9pm
Tuesday 9am-9pm
Wednesday 9am-9pm
Thursday 9am-6pm
Friday 9am-6pm
Saturday 9am-6pm

The library is located at 800 Vine Street. For
directions, visit <www.cincinnatilibrary.org/main/howgetto.asp> or call (513) 369-6900.

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