On this day in Mary Harris Thompson founded the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children
Photo: Mary Harris Thompson, The Biographical Cyclopaedia of American Women, 1925.
On this day in 1865, American physician Mary Harris Thompson founded the Chicago Hospital for Women and Children, becoming both chief surgeon and physician, and head of staff – positions she kept for the rest of her life.
Thompson was one of the first women to practise medicine in Chicago. At the time, one of the two city hospitals did not admit women patients, and women were not yet permitted to be on any of Chicago’s hospital staff.
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