Dr. Anna Elizabeth Broomall

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In: 19th Century Women, Activists, Medicine, Motherhood, Women's Rights

Anna Elizabeth Broomall (1847-1913) suffered name-calling, spit wads, and the anger of fellow male students in her battle to become a renowned physician of obstetrics. Anna Broomall was born in Upper Chichester, Pennsylvania to a well-to-do Quaker family. Her mother died in her infancy, and Broomall was raised by an aunt and uncle. Her father, John Broomall, a successful lawyer, and later U.S. Congressman, sent her to private academies in the area. She, at first, wanted to become a lawyer, but no opportunities existed at the time to study law. Instead, she decided to become a doctor. Her father, a supporter of women’s rights, encouragedRead More →

Mary Putnam Jacobi

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In: 19th Century Women, Education, Medicine

When I was in high school, girls who had their period were allowed to sit out of gym. While that has certainly changed, the practice grew out of the 19th century belief that women were deathly sick during their menses. Most physicians believed that women did not have the strength to attend institutions of higher learning or pursue physical activity when menstruating and that they risked serious illness and even infertility unless they rested completely. One physician of the times did not. Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi (1842-1906) was one of the few women to become a physician in the 19th century. Despite her father’s beliefRead More →

The Westbrook Drives

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In: 19th Century Women, Activists, Authors, Medicine

Henrietta Payne Westbrook (1834-1909) was a physician, reporter ,and author, who was also a close friend and early supporter of Ida Craddock, the heroine of my new novel Censored Angel: Anthony Comstock’s Nemesis. A believer in the right of a woman to choose her own husband, she was the free-love wife of the American secular advocate, Richard Brodhead Westbrook, a former minister, and later a lawyer and judge in Philadelphia. (Note: In a free-love marriage a couple choose to live as a married couple without benefit of a marriage license. For a definition see Free Love.) In 1880, Henrietta Westbrook graduated from Women’s Medical CollegeRead More →