Lilian Welsh

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Lilian Welsh (born March 6, 1858 in Columbia (Pennsylvania) ; † February 23, 1938 there ) was an American doctor, educator and university teacher.

life and work

Welsh was the fourth daughter of Annie Eunice and Thomas Welsh and graduated from Columbia High School in 1873. She graduated from State Normal School in 1875, and after completing her undergraduate studies, she returned to Columbia High School as a principal for 5 years. In 1886 she began studying medicine at Medical College in Pennsylvania and received her doctorate in medicine in 1889. From 1889 to 1890 she studied at the University of Zurich , and took the university's first course on bacteriology with her friend Mary Sherwood . In 1890 she became a doctor at the State Hospital for the Insane in Norristown, Pennsylvania . In 1892 she founded a private practice with Sherwood in Baltimore . Although both women were qualified doctors, prejudice against women doctors prevented their practice from flourishing. In 1894 Welsh became professor of physiology and hygiene at Woman's College in Baltimore (now Goucher College ). Known in college as an outspoken advocate of women's health and hygiene, she was the only female full professor for several years. Under her chairmanship of the Sports Department from 1894 to 1924, Goucher College became the national leader in the field of physical education for women. Not only were the department's practices advanced, the facilities, which consisted of multiple buildings and outdoor spaces, were also state-of-the-art.

Around the same time, Welsh and Sherwood took over the evening division for working women and girls, founded by doctors Kate Campbell Hurd-Mead and Alice Hall. This privately owned, non-profit organization provided women doctors with the opportunity to practice medicine and promoted women's health in public. The facility was a leader in obstetrics, dealing with both prenatal care and postnatal care for the mother and child.

Welsh Hall on the Goucher College campus. Under Welsh, Goucher College became a national leader in the field of physical education for women

Welsh was appointed to the Maryland State Tuberculosis Commission to study the spread of tuberculosis and propose a treatment and prevention plan. She was one of two women appointed to a commission for the investigation and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. In addition to preventing disease, she was a proponent of adequate sanitation and was involved in the children's charity movement.

In 1897 she became secretary of the Baltimore Association for the Advancement of University Women Education, which campaigned for the admission of women to the Johns Hopkins University graduate school , which was realized in 1908. She also recognized that women's suffrage was essential to the struggle over all women's issues. In 1916 she became the faculty director of the Equal Suffrage League chapter of Goucher College and inspired many students to campaign for the right to vote. She was a member of the National American Woman Suffrage Association and was also a founding member of women's organizations in Baltimore such as the Arundell Club and the Arundell Good Government Club. After the death of her longtime companion, Mary Sherwood, she returned to Columbia in 1935 and died there three years later of European sleeping sickness .

In 2017 she was posthumously inducted into the Maryland Women's Hall of Fame .

Publications (selection)

  • 1916: "Women in Medicine". The Baltimore Sun.
  • 1916: The Significance of Goucher College for Medicine. Baltimore, MD: Goucher College. OCLC 80277045.
  • 1923: Fifty Years of Women's Education in The United States. Baltimore. OCLC 80050825.
  • 1925: Reminiscences of Thirty Years in Baltimore. Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Company. OCLC 2370045.

literature

  • Geraldine J. Clifford: Those Good Gertrudes: A Social History of Women Teachers in America. JHU Press, ISBN 978-1421414348 .
  • Edward T. James: Notable American women, 1607-1950, Cambridge, MA, The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1971.
  • Mary RS Creese: Ladies in the Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800-1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research, Scarecrow Press, 2000.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Welsh, Lilian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American doctor, educator and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Columbia, Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1938
Place of death Columbia, Pennsylvania