Alice Hamilton

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Alice Hamilton, Doctor of Medicine, around 1920
left to right: Norah, Alice, Margaret and Edith Hamilton , about 1890

Alice Hamilton (born February 27, 1869 in Fort Wayne , Indiana , † September 22, 1970 in Hartford , Connecticut ) was an American pathologist and pioneer for social reforms and the first woman to teach (as an assistant professor ) at Harvard University .

Life

Alice was the second of four daughters of the wealthy Montgomery Hamilton and his German wife Gertrude Pond. In the early years, she was educated at home, and at the age of seventeen, she attended the prestigious school for girls Miss Porter's School in Farmington , in the US state of Connecticut . After graduating from high school, she began her medical studies at the University of Michigan , where she received her doctorate in medicine in 1893 and interned at the Minneapolis Hospital for Women and Children and the New England Hospital for Women and Children . Shortly thereafter, she traveled to Europe and studied bacteriology and pathology at the universities of Munich and Leipzig from 1895 to 1897. After returning to the United States, she continued her postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University .

In the same year 1897 Hamilton moved to Chicago , where she worked as a professor of pathology at the Woman's Medical School of Northwestern University worked and taught. In Chicago, Hamilton became a member and resident of Hull House , the founder of which was the social reformer Laura Jane Addams (1860-1935). Many higher educated men and women were enthusiastic about Addams' social engagement and stayed at Hull House for a period of time. They made educational offers, led language courses or gave practical instructions for household and hygiene. Young girls were able to expand their theoretical college education through social skills. Over the years, kindergartens, baby care and finally a children's clinic have been established. The latter came about on the initiative of Hamilton, who lived in Hull House for twenty years.

In 1907 she researched the occupational diseases with the existing literature from abroad and from 1908 published some articles in medical journals. In 1910 she became a member of the newly formed Occupational Diseases Commission of Illinois , the first such investigative authority in the United States. For the next decade, she studied a variety of questions for a variety of state and federal health boards.

In 1919, Hamilton became an assistant professor in the newly established department of industrial medicine at Harvard Medical School, a college of Harvard University . The New York Tribune reported on the appointment in an article titled A Woman on Harvard Faculty - The Last Citadel Has Fallen - The Sex Has Come Into Its Own (loosely translated: A woman teaches at Harvard - The last bastion has fallen - That Gender comes into its own ).

Hamilton was a prominent critic in 1924 of adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline . In 1935 she retired from Harvard and became a medical advisor to the US Division of Labor Standards .

  • Dr. Alice Hamilton at Harvard University, 1919

  • Alice Hamilton in anatomy class, circa 1893

  • Postage stamp in honor of Hamilton

Awards

  • 1944 entry on the list of important men in science of the 20th century
  • 1947 Lasker Award
  • Since 1993, the American Public Health Association (APHA) section Occupational Safety and Health (OHS) has presented the Alice Hamilton Award

literature

  • Barbara Sicherman: Alice Hamilton: A Life in Letters. University of Illinois Press, 2003, ISBN 0-252-07152-2 .
  • Exploring the Dangerous Trades: The Autobiography of Alice Hamilton. MD Northeastern University Press, 1985, ISBN 0-930350-81-2 .

Web links

Commons : Alice Hamilton  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

  1. ↑ in Leipzig a woman was registered for the first time in 1906: 100 years of women's studies
  2. ↑ with restrictions (Reiter 1971-1920) , e.g. B. she was not allowed to take part in academic processions
  3. ↑ 2006 OHS Section Awards Program. (PDF; 120 kB) APHA, October 23, 2006, p. 6 , archived from the original on July 25, 2008 ; accessed on July 18, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Hamilton, Alice
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pathologist and first female professor at Harvard University
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH Fort Wayne , Indiana
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1970
Place of death Hartford , Connecticut