Page 7 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 53 Early Spring 2025
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had a female doctor in the early years  Scott Joplin pounding out his rags on the  comments from male students and fac-
     of the 20th Century. Since I assumed I’d  piano in the American Pavilion or sam-  ulty: A Tufts professor was heard to com-
     never know for sure whom our crocodile  pled Wrigley’s new Juicy Fruit Gum.  ment,  “No  real  lady  will  wish  to  study
     bag belonged to, I figuratively assigned                                     medicine!”  Some  women  medical  stu-
     it to Dr. Carrie North, and could already                                    dents in Philadelphia were subjected to
     imagine her walking from her home near                                       “spitting and jeering” by male students
     the post office up and down Main Street                                      while  attempting  to  attend  lectures  at
     as she attended to the medical needs of                                      the  Pennsylvania  Hospital.  But  despite
     the citizens of our town. Who was this                                       the  obstacles  they  encountered,  2432
     intelligent and courageous woman who                                         female  doctors  were  practicing  in  the
     dared to enter an elitist profession dom-                                    U.S. by 1880, and 7387 in 1900, the year
     inated by men? And what was the gener-                                       Carrie began working in Wallingford.
     al status of female physicians during the
     time this bag would have been in use?         1893 Chicago World’s Fair      Carrie North graduated from Tufts with
                                                                                  her doctor of medicine degree in 1898 in
     Following are some New England female  Tufts College of Medicine: c.1885-    a class of 69 men and 14 women. Several
     doctors  who  attended  women’s  medi-  1898                                 articles in the Boston Evening Transcript
     cal schools and the dates they received  With a household of doctors and other  described  the  graduation  ceremonies
     their degrees at the latter half of the Vic-  educated  family  members,  it  was  nat-  and  festivities:  “After  the  chapel  exer-
     torian age.                           ural that Carrie might decide to attend  cises,  the  guests  and  students  strolled
                                           medical school. Many women attempt-    around the grounds which were in per-
             Sophia Penfield 1869:         ing to enter the profession in those days  fect  condition  to  make  this  enjoyment
        Connecticut’s first woman doctor.   applied  to  medical  institutions  specifi-  doubly  pleasant.  Informal  receptions
              Practiced in Danbury.        cally designated for women, such as: the  were  held  by  little  groups  seated  here
                                           Female Medical College of Pennsylvania;  and  there  under  the  fine  shade  trees
              Mary Moody 1874:             Women’s Homeopathic College of New  before dinner.” Later, papers were pre-
            Practiced in New Haven.        York City; the New England Female Med-  sented,  speeches  made,  and  President
                                           ical College in Boston; and the Women’s  Elmer  H.  Capen  welcomed  the  assem-
          Rebecca Lee Crumpler 1864:       Medical College of New York. But these  bled crowd. Carrie’s family in the audi-
      First African-American female doctor.   kinds of schools were viewed as inferi-  ence must have been very proud of her
         Practiced in Boston and Virginia.  or, with less demanding curricula. From  accomplishment. Her name was listed in
                                           the  fact  that  she  applied  to  Tufts  Col-  several newspapers along with the rest
           Harriet Judd Sartain 1854:      lege  (now  University)  Medical  School,  of her class. Her hometown newspaper
             Practiced in Waterbury.       an  esteemed  mostly  male  bastion,  we  printed,  “Carrie  North  is  a  full-fledged
                                           can infer that Carrie was a smart, con-  doctor.”
     A Goshen Childhood: 1874-1885         fident,  and  ambitious  young  woman,
     Without much to go on, I tried to piece  pushing  the  boundaries  of  acceptable  Post-Graduation: 1898-1900
     together an outline of events in Carrie’s  behavior  for  her  sex.  Tufts  opened  its  Perhaps  doctor  North  received  the
     life.  [She  rarely  used  her  given  name,  medical school in 1883 and accepted a  crocodile  doctor’s  bag  as  a  graduation
     Caroline.] I searched for her in Walling-  small number of women from the start.  gift from her physician father. Whoever
     ford  City  Directories,  medical  directo-  It is possible that she worked to pay for  owned  our  bag  in  the  WHPT  archives
     ries,  Connecticut  and  Massachusetts  her education as many women did. But I  may have taken a cross-Atlantic voyage
     newspapers, yearbooks, and genealogy  suspect her family was fairly well off and  around this time. Adhered to the end of
     databases. She was born in Goshen, Con-  able to pay her tuition at Tufts. It would  the bag are the remains of a blue Cunard
     necticut in 1874 into a prominent family  be interesting to know more about her  decal.  In  1899,  the  intermediate  class
     of  doctors  and  state  and  local  elected  life in Boston during her college days.  liner Ivernia was launched by Cunard to
     officials. The middle child, she had two                                     much fanfare. It was outfitted to accom-
     brothers, Joseph and Harry. Though she  It is probable that she heard disparaging  modate  both  freight  and  passengers.
     later went on to receive her medical de-
     gree,  it  is  unclear  what  kind  of  under-
     graduate  education  she  had.  In  those
     days one did not necessarily need a col-
     lege degree to get into medical school,
     so she may have had only a high school
     background. A newspaper reported that
     during the summer of 1893, Carrie and
     a  girlfriend  travelled  alone  to  attend
     the  Chicago  World’s  Fair.  It  must  have
     been an eye-opening experience for the
     young  woman  from  rural  Connecticut.
     She  probably  rode  on  the  world’s  first
     Ferris  wheel,  toured  the  life-sized  rep-
     licas of Columbus’s ships, and tried out
     the first zipper. Perhaps she even heard
                                                                     Randall’s Island Hospital

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