Skip to main content

Full text of "Reminiscences of thirty years in Baltimore"

See other formats


^JU^Y^A-cJ.^     ^^-^^ 


c^'^^^ 


^'\. 


LILIAN  WFXSH,  M.  D.,  LL.  D. 


REMINISCENCES    OF    THIRTY 
YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 


REMINISCENCES 

OF  THIRTY  YEARS 

IN  BALTIMORE 


By  LILIAN  WELSH,  M.  D.,  LL  D. 


ILLUSTRATED   WITH 
SIX  PHOTOGRAPHS 


1925 

THE  NORMAN,  REMINGTON  CO. 

BALTIMORE 


Copyright,  1925,  by 
THE  NORMAN,  REMINGTON  CO. 


Published  December,  1925 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Page 
INTRODUCTORY    xi 

CHAPTER  I. — Observations   on   Secondary  Education   for   Girls   in 

Baltimore,   1892-1900.— Physical   Education    1 

CHAPTER  n. — Opportunities  for  College  and  University  Educa- 
tion of  Women  in  Baltimore,  1892-1916. — Baltimore  Associa- 
tion for  the  Promotion  of  University  Education  of  Women...     16 

CHAPTER  HI. — Baltimore's  Great  Contribution  to  Medical  Educa- 
tion with  Special  Reference  to  the  Medical  Education  of 
Women    31 

CHAPTER    IV.— Medical    Experiences    in    Baltimore,    1892-1924.— 

Evening  Dispensary  for  Working  Women  and  Girls 48 

CHAPTER  V. — The  Woman's  Club  Movement  in  Baltimore. — The 
Arundell  Club,  The  Arundell  Good  Government  Club,  The 
Maryland  State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 62 

CHAPTER  VI.— Women's  Activities  in  Public  Health.— The  Tuber- 
culosis Commission. — The  Vice  Commission. — Child  Welfare. 
— Food  Conservation. — Clean  Milk  79 

CHAPTER  VII. — Personal  Experiences  in  the  Suffrage  Campaign..     98 

CHAPTER  VIII. — Personal  Experiences  as  a  Member  of  the  Goucher 

College  Faculty   114 

CHAPTER     IX. — Personal     Experiences     with     Goucher     College 

Students   140 

CHAPTER  X.— Conclusion  160 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Lilian  Welsh,  M.  D.,  LL.  D Frontispiece 

Page 
Lilian  Welsh  and  Mary  Sherwood,  as  Students  at  the  University  of 

Ziirich,  1892  50 

Dr.  Lilian  Welsh  and  Dr.  Mary  Sherwood 82 

Photographs  of  the  Suffrage  Parade,  March  3,  and  the  Inauguration 
Parade,  March  4,  1913,  Showing  Contrasts  in  Police  Pro- 
tection       112 

Goucher  College   134 

Future  Campus  of  Goucher  College  at  Towson,  Maryland 156 


REMINISCENCES    OF    THIRTY 
YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 


INTRODUCTORY 

From  time  to  time  my  students  in  Goucher  College 
have  asked  me  to  put  into  some  permanent  form  the 
personal  experiences  and  observations  from  which  I 
drew  many  illustrations  to  emphasize  special  points  in 
my  course  with  them  in  personal  and  public  hygiene. 
One  year  ago,  when  I  talked  informally  to  the  Alumnae 
Council  I  said  I  should  employ  some  of  the  leisure  com- 
ing to  me  with  my  retirement  from  active  connection 
with  Goucher  College  in  writing  reminiscences  of  my 
life  in  Baltimore,  covering  as  it  has  a  very  interesting 
period  in  the  history  of  the  education  of  women,  of 
their  political  enfranchisement,  of  their  organizations, 
and  of  their  part  in  the  applications  of  the  principles  of 
hygiene  to  social  ills.  In  the  year  that  has  passed  I  have 
been  asked  a  number  of  times  about  the  book  I  had 
promised  the  Goucher  Alumnae.  I  should  probably 
have  returned  to  Baltimore  without  any  attempt  at  keep- 
ing this  promise  had  not  a  combination  of  circumstances 
in  the  last  week  thrown  me  so  completely  on  my  own 
resources  that  I  took  to  my  pad  and  pencil  as  a  last  re- 
sort for  amusement  and  diversion.  I  arrived  at  this 
charming  resort  on  Lake  Maggiore  in  the  rain.  For  five 
days  and  nights  it  rained  almost  without  intermission, 
sometimes  gently  when  we  ventured  out  of  doors,  but 
mostly  in  torrents  which  kept  us  under  shelter.  Walk- 
ing, motoring,  lake  trips  were  impossible  and  no  books 
were  available  for  reading.  I  have,  therefore,  spent 
several  hours  each  day  in  writing  what  has  proved  so 


interesting  to  me  that  I  venture  to  pass  it  on  to  the  alum- 
nae as  a  contribution  to  their  share  of  the  Greater 
Goucher  Fund.  If  its  publication  and  sale  yields  nothing 
there  will  be  at  least  no  loss  to  the  fund.  As  its  contents 
may  be  of  interest  not  only  to  my  Goucher  students,  but 
to  that  large  body  of  women  of  Maryland  with  whose  or- 
ganizations I  have  had  so  much  pleasure  in  working,  I 
have  ventured  to  dedicate  the  small  volume  to  these  two 
groups  of  women — to  my  Goucher  students  and  to  the 
women  of  Maryland  with  whom  I  have  worked  and 
with  whom  I  have  seen  some  of  our  dreams  come  true. 

Baveno,  Italy,  June  1,  1925. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY 
YEARS   IN   BALTIMORE 

Chapter  I 

Observations  on  Secondary  Education  for  Girls  in  Balti- 
more,  1892-1900 — Physical  Education 

On  the  22d  of  February,  1892,  I  arrived  in  Balti- 
more to  join  my  friend.  Dr.  Mary  Sherwood,  in  an  at- 
tempt to  establish  ourselves  in  the  practice  of  medicine. 
Dr.  Sherwood  had  come  to  Baltimore  fourteen  months 
previously  to  join  members  of  her  family  temporarily 
resident  in  Baltimore,  while  her  brother  was  completing 
his  graduate  work  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University.  Her 
family  had  departed  and  left  her  in  a  lonely  office,  but 
she  had  found  herself  in  the  stimulating  atmosphere  of 
the  pre-medical-school  days  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hos- 
pital when  anyone,  man  or  woman,  able  to  work  in  medi- 
cal laboratories  or  to  profit  in  medical  wards,  and  de- 
sirous of  doing  so,  was  made  welcome  to  a  share  in  the 
most  stimulating  medical  companionship  that  possibly 
our  country  has  ever  known.  We  regard  it  as  a  lucky 
chance  which  took  us  to  Baltimore  at  that  particular 
time.  Neither  of  us  was  quite  convinced  that  we  wanted 
even  to  try  to  practice  medicine.  We  had  both  been  edu- 
cated for  the  profession  of  teaching  and  had  served  an 
apprenticeship  as  teachers  before  we  were  drawn  to 
medicine  primarily  by  our  interest  in  science.  Our  inter- 
est in  education,  and  especially  in  the  education  of  girls 


2        REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

and  women,  was  naturally  keen  and  we  made  early  con- 
tacts in  Baltimore  with  women  interested  in  advancing 
opportunities  for  women's  education. 

At  that  time  the  standard  school  for  girls  of  genteel 
families  in  the  city  of  Baltimore  was  the  finishing  school 
or  the  young  ladies'  seminary.  The  high  schools  were 
looked  upon  as  places  for  girls  who  could  not  afford 
to  pay  for  their  education,  or  as  places  for  "females" 
who  were  unfortunate  enough  to  be  compelled  to  teach 
school,  or  to  earn  a  living  in  some  way  that  needed  at 
least  a  modicum  of  education.  A  little  more  than  fif- 
teen years  after  the  Bryn  Mawr  School  appeared  on 
the  Baltimore  horizon,  the  old-fashioned  boarding  and 
day  school  for  educating  young  ladies  had  disappeared 
and  the  high  schools  were  preparing  girls  for  college 
and  otherwise  giving  them  a  liberal  education. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  estimate  the  influence  of  the 
Bryn  Mawr  School  for  Girls  upon  the  advancement  of 
educational  opportunities  for  women  in  Baltimore.  It 
was  a  direct  assault  upon  the  intrenched  prejudices  of 
a  conservative  community  as  to  what  constituted  a  fitting 
education  for  its  daughters.  College  education  was 
taboo.  So  far  as  I  can  ascertain  previous  to  the  found- 
ing of  this  school  for  girls,  primarily  intended  as  a  col- 
lege preparatory  school,  only  two  native  Baltimore 
women  had  obtained  college  degrees  from  any  standard 
institution. 

In  the  same  year  that  the  Bryn  Mawr  School  was 
opened  the  Baltimore  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  had  taken  action  to  establish  in  Baltimore 
a  college  for  women.  When  the  Woman's  College  of 
Baltimore,  now  Goucher  College,  opened  its  doors  it 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE        3 

was  obliged  to  begin  its  career  on  a  non-collegiate  basis, 
receiving  as  students  those  whose  preparation  for  col- 
lege must  be  completed  in  so-called  college  classes; 
otherwise  it  could  receive  few  students  from  Baltimore. 
Subsequently  when  it  was  able  to  exclude  from  its  col- 
lege classes  students  preparing  for  college  entrance  it 
was  found  necessary  to  carry  on  a  college  preparatory 
school,  the  Girl's  Latin  School,  for  ten  or  twelve  years 
until  the  Eastern  and  Western  High  Schools  were  able 
to  prepare  students  to  meet  college  entrance  require- 
ments. 

I  have  often  heard  Dr.  Goucher  say  that  when  the 
Woman's  College  opened  for  the  reception  of  students 
the  only  girls  from  Baltimore  public  schools  who  could 
have  passed  the  entrance  examinations  were  those  gradu- 
ated from  the  colored  high  school.  The  reason  for  this, 
he  said,  was  that  the  colored  voters  demanded  that  their 
boys  should  have  opportunities  for  education  equal  to 
those  of  white  boys  in  the  City  College,  and  as  the  col- 
ored high  school  was  coeducational  the  girls  could  get 
there  a  kind  of  education  not  available  to  girls  in  the 
Eastern  and  Western  High  Schools. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  someone  who  knows  the  his- 
tory of  the  Bryn  Mawr  School  from  its  beginning  will 
permanently  record  an  adequate  description  of  its  found- 
ing and  its  founders.  I  am  merely  trying  to  record  my 
own  observations  and  inferences.  In  1892,  when  I  came 
to  Baltimore  to  reside,  I  found  what  to  me  was  unique 
in  my  experience  of  secondary  schools  for  girls.  Here 
was  a  beautiful  building,  built  for  school  purposes, 
adequately  equipped  not  only  with  the  ordinary  school 
appliances,  but  with  an  esthetic  setting  lacking  in  any 


4        REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

school  I  had  hitherto  seen,  a  curriculum  designed  to 
make  girls  work  their  minds,  arranged  in  orderly  se- 
quence leading  to  a  definite  end;  a  staff  of  teachers,  all 
college  graduates,  carefully  chosen  and  well  paid.  As 
a  teacher  eager  for  the  improvement  of  conditions  for 
the  education  of  girls  it  was  a  great  joy  to  find  such  a 
school;  as  a  physician,  however,  who  was  seeing  the 
dawn  of  the  era  of  preventive  medicine  one  department 
of  this  school  made  an  especial  appeal.  I  found  an  old 
acquaintance  of  mine.  Dr.  Kate  Campbell  Hurd,  in  the 
position  of  medical  director  of  this  school.  Dr.  Hurd 
had  been  selected  by  the  Board  of  the  school  and  had 
been  required  to  make  special  preparation  for  this  posi- 
tion by  study  and  observation  in  the  United  States  and 
Europe.  She  was  brought  to  Baltimore  for  the  special 
object  of  doing  health  work  in  the  school.  She  was  not 
a  Baltimore  physician  who  snatched  a  few  hours  of  a 
busy  day  from  the  practice  of  medicine  to  devote  to 
seeing  children  referred  to  her  by  some  more  or  less 
observant  teacher.  She  was  engaged  by  the  school  to 
devote  her  time  primarily  to  the  study  of  the  health 
needs  of  the  children  of  the  school,  and  was  permitted 
to  practice  medicine  only  in  so  far  as  it  did  not  inter- 
fere with  her  school  duties.  This  was  pioneer  work  in 
medical  inspection,  and  so  far  as  I  know  was  the  first 
time  a  secondary  school  either  for  boys  or  for  girls  had 
made  adequate  provision  for  such  work. 

The  same  year  Dr.  Hurd  came  to  Baltimore  as  medi- 
cal director  to  the  Bryn  Mawr  School,  Dr.  Alice  Hall 
was  called  to  the  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore  to  lay 
the  foundations  of  preventive  health  work  in  a  woman's 
college.    This,  too,  was  pioneer  work.     Physicians  had 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 


been  attached  to  schools  and  colleges  before  this  time, 
but  their  duty  was  primarily  to  care  for  the  sick.  In 
these  two  schools  in  Baltimore  the  physicians  were  em- 
ployed for  an  entirely  different  purpose.  At  the  Wom- 
an's College  it  was  not  thought  advisable  to  put  the  care 
of  the  resident  students  when  they  were  sick  in  the  hands 
of  a  woman  physician.  Dr.  Goucher  told  me  this  when 
I  became  associated  with  the  college  six  years  after  Dr. 
Hall  had  inaugurated  her  work.  He  said  the  resident 
students  came  from  all  parts  of  the  country  and  their 
parents  might  not  be  satisfied  to  feel  that  they  were  in 
the  care  of  a  woman  physician.  The  Bryn  Mawr  School 
had  no  provision  for  resident,  boarding  pupils.  All 
pupils  came  from  well-to-do  families  in  Baltimore,  hav- 
ing their  own  physicians,  so  that  the  medical  school 
work  was  designed  to  be  exclusively  preventive  and  cor- 
rective. 

There  was,  of  course,  opposition  to  this  health  work 
and  the  methods  instituted  to  carry  it  on  both  from  par- 
ents and  from  physicians  on  the  usual  ground  of  inter- 
ference with  personal  liberty,  that  is  the  liberty  of  the  in- 
dividual to  enjoy  poor  health  unmolested,  or  to  dissemi- 
nate disease  to  others.  I  remember  well  the  letter  an  irate 
father  wrote  to  the  President  of  the  Woman's  College 
after  I  had  made  a  physical  examination  of  his  daugh- 
ter. He  said  if  he  sent  his  daughter  to  school  in  clean 
clothes  it  was  no  one's  business  to  make  any  further  in- 
quiries about  her  health;  his  own  physician  would  at- 
tend to  that.  Dr.  Sherwood  in  her  early  experience  as 
medical  director  of  Bryn  Mawr  School  had  many  de- 
pressing encounters  with  family  physicians  as  well  as 
with  parents  in  her  earnest  efforts  to  prevent  physical 


6        REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

deformity  and  correct  physical  defects.  Both  at  the 
Bryn  Mawr  School  and  Goucher  College,  however,  the 
authorities  have  always  been  in  thorough  sympathy  with 
all  measures  and  methods  recommended  by  their  medi- 
cal directors  for  the  prevention  of  disease  and  the  pro- 
motion of  health,  and  have  fearlessly  carried  them  out. 
Health  supervision  of  some  kind  has  today  become  such 
a  sine  qua  non  in  connection  with  schools  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  realize  that  it  made  its  way  so  slowly  and  with 
so  much  opposition. 

More  than  thirty  years  passed  after  the  Bryn  Mawr 
School  and  the  Woman's  College  had  inaugurated 
methods  of  health  supervision  for  their  students  before 
the  Eastern  and  Western  High  School  girls  had  any 
similar  provision.  In  1921  a  school  nurse  was  assigned 
to  each  of  these  schools,  and  in  1922  a  woman  doctor 
was  attached  to  them  to  make  medical  examinations.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  thorough-going  courses  in  modern 
hygiene  may  soon  form  part  of  the  required  courses  for 
all  our  high  school  girls.  Medical  examinations  of  chil- 
dren and  follow-up  work  by  school  nurses  was  begun 
in  primary  schools  much  earlier,  about  1906. 

When  under  its  new  charter  Baltimore  obtained  a 
small  and  efficient  school  board,  Mr.  Joseph  Packard, 
President  of  the  Board,  called  on  Dr.  Sherwood  and 
me  to  discuss  possible  physical  examinations  of  pros- 
pective teachers  for  the  Baltimore  public  schools. 
The  public  health  campaign  for  the  study  and  preven- 
tion of  tuberculosis  was  in  its  first  stage.  This  was  the 
first  great  public  health  educational  movement  in  our 
country  systematically  undertaken,  and  under  its  stimu- 
lus the  supervision  of  health  in  schools,  industrial  es- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE        7 

tablishments,  etc.,  made  steady  progress.  Mr.  Packard 
explained  that  the  Board  had  taken  action  requiring  that 
prospective  teachers  for  the  schools  must  be  free  from 
physical  disabilities  that  would  interfere  with  their  work 
as  teachers.  He  asked  if  we  would  be  willing  to  ex- 
amine the  young  women  applicants  for  teachers'  posi- 
tions. He  explained  that  the  Board  did  not  desire  a 
complete  medical  examination  such  as  was  made  for 
life  insurance,  and  that  the  compensation  would  be  a 
nominal  sum.  The  commercial  side  of  medicine  never 
made  a  sufficient  appeal  to  Dr.  Sherwood  and  myself 
and  we  thought  not  at  all  of  the  compensation  offered, 
but  were  glad  of  the  opportunity  to  increase  the  num- 
ber of  observations  we  could  make  on  the  health  of 
young  women,  and  the  opportunities  offered  to  stimu- 
late in  teachers  an  interest  in  all  health  problems  as 
well  as  to  try  to  give  them  a  sane  and  sensible  attitude 
toward  their  own  health.  We  have  always  looked  upon 
a  physical  and  medical  examination  as  an  opportunity 
to  get  at  the  personal  attitude  of  the  girl  as  to  her  health 
and  to  try  to  change  it  if  desirable. 

I  have  never  ceased  to  be  surprised  at  the  permanent 
impression  often  left  by  a  chance  word  or  sentence 
used  during  these  examinations.  As  I  meet  my  for- 
mer students  of  Goucher  College  years  after  they  have 
graduated,  one  of  the  commonest  forms  of  greeting  is: 
"Oh,  Dr.  Welsh,  I  have  never  forgotten  something  you 
said  to  me  when  you  examined  me;"  and,  strange  to  say, 
no  two  girls  seem  to  remember  the  same  thing. 

Appointed  in  Mayor  Hayes'  administration,  from 
then  until  1923,  when  the  examinations  of  prospec- 
tive teachers  were  taken  over  by  the  Health  Depart- 


H        REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

merit,  Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  examined  all  candidates  for 
teaching  positions.  At  first,  until  traditions  had  been 
established,  we  occasionally  found  difficulty  in  breaking 
down  the  opposition  and  securing  the  co-operation  of  the 
girls  we  examined.  I  remember  one  girl,  sullen  and 
resentful  at  being  compelled  to  undergo  what  she  evi- 
dently considered  an  ordeal  and  a  violation  of  her  per- 
sonal liberty.  When  questioned  about  her  personal 
hygienic  habits  they  all  seemed  pretty  bad,  and,  at  last, 
in  spite  of  all  the  tact  I  could  use  she  broke  out  angrily 
telling  me  that  I  was  impertinent,  that  it  was  none  of  my 
business  as  to  how  she  ate  and  slept  and  what  kind  of 
clothes  she  wore.  I  told  her  what  she  said  was  quite 
true,  that  the  School  Board  simply  required  me  to  cer- 
tify that  she  had  no  contagious  disease  and  no  physical 
disability  that  would  prevent  her  from  teaching,  but  that 
I  felt  quite  confident  the  time  would  come  when  a  young 
woman  who  had  the  attitude  she  expressed  towards  all 
questions  of  health  would  be  regarded  as  a  greater 
menace  in  the  schools  than  one  who  had  certain  physical 
disabilities.  Gradually  the  candidates  themselves,  I 
think,  came  to  look  on  these  examinations  as  helpful 
and  as  giving  them  an  opportunity  to  talk  over  very 
freely  with  a  woman  physician  questions  of  the  most 
intimate  nature  upon  which  they  desired  to  have  some 
authoritative  statement. 

As  a  whole,  in  later  years  these  physical  examinations 
of  high  school  graduates  showed  that  few  girls  entered 
the  training  school  with  marked  physical  disabilities. 
We  were  able,  however,  to  secure  needed  attention  to 
adenoids,  tonsils  and  bad  teeth  by  refusing  to  pass  stu- 
dents physically  who  did  not  have  such  defects  reme- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE        9 

died  within  a  certain  given  time,  I  remember  saying 
once  to  a  Goucher  student  from  Baltimore,  in  her  senior 
year,  whose  tonsils  were  a  constant  source  of  depressed 
health  and  whom  I  could  not  persuade  to  have  them 
removed:  "Well,  it  is  a  pity  you  did  not  go  into  the 
training  school  instead  of  coming  to  college;  then  I 
wouldn't  have  passed  you  to  graduation  until  you  had 
had  those  offensive  organs  removed."  "Yes,"  said  she, 
"I  know  that.  You  got  my  sister's  out."  "Is  her  health 
better?"  I  asked.  "Yes,  indeed,"  she  said,  "but  I  can't 
bear  the  idea."  "Better  bear  the  idea  than  the  tonsils," 
I  urged. 

At  the  same  time  that  Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  were  asked 
to  serve  as  examiners  for  the  School  Board  we  were 
asked  to  serve  in  a  similar  capacity  for  the  Teachers' 
Retirement  Fund  Board,  and  from  its  beginning  we  have 
examined  the  women  teachers  who  have  been  retired.  I 
remember  well  the  first  group  that  presented  themselves, 
three  women  all,  I  think,  over  seventy-five  years  of  age, 
and  all  able  to  do  their  day's  work — a  healthy  trio.  On 
general  principles  I  have  always  certified  that  in  my 
opinion  a  woman  over  seventy  might  be  retired  for  phy- 
sical incapacity  even  though  ordinary  clinical  methods 
could  find  no  decided  disability.  I  remember  seeing  in 
my  office  one  hot  afternoon  a  woman  of  eighty  who  had 
walked  from  Lombard  and  Green  Streets  to  Charles  and 
Mount  Royal  Avenue.  She  was  a  teacher  of  sewing 
and  thought  it  time  for  her  to  retire.  She  had  no 
marked  disability  that  would  have  prevented  her  con- 
tinuing teaching  sewing,  but  I  gave  her  the  required 
certificate  stating  the  exact  truth.     The  following  Sep- 


10      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

tember  she  was  back  asking  for  reinstatment.  It  was 
during  war  time  and  the  supply  of  teachers  was  short. 

After  the  first  few  years  the  entire  work  for  the  Re- 
tirement Board  fell  to  me,  and  I  had  all  my  communi- 
cations with  the  Board  through  Miss  Mollie  Hobbs,  its 
efficient  secretary.  For  years  I  knew  Miss  Hobbs  only 
through  letters  and  telephone  conferences,  and  I  learned 
to  have  great  regard  for  her  sympathetic  attitude  and 
friendly  helpfulness  to  the  teachers  of  advancing  years 
and  those  who  suffered  from  illness.  Some  of  the  most 
pathetic  cases  my  profession  as  a  physician  has  brought 
me  in  contact  with,  I  have  found  among  these  teach- 
ers grown  old  or  disabled  in  a  service  hitherto  so  illy 
paid  that  provision,  by  themselves  unaided,  for  sickness 
and  old  age  has  been  impossible. 

Somewhat  to  our  surprise,  Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  found 
the  public  school  system  of  Baltimore  seemed  behind 
those  which  we  knew  most  about  in  states  north  of  Mary- 
land. In  1893  a  friend  of  Dr.  Sherwood's,  a  wealthy 
woman  from  New  York  State,  accustomed  to  spend  the 
winter  months  in  the  South,  decided  to  take  residence  in 
Baltimore  in  order  to  put  her  son  into  the  public  schools. 
Her  husband  in  his  lifetime  had  insisted  upon  sending 
the  children  to  public  schools,  and  she  was  anxious  to 
put  her  youngest  son  in  a  good  public  school.  She  as- 
sumed she  would  find  schools  of  high  grade  in  a  city  of 
the  size  and  importance  of  Baltimore.  She  and  Dr. 
Sherwood  tried  to  visit  the  school  to  which  her  boy 
would  be  assigned  and  were  refused  admission.  Appli- 
cation to  the  Superintendent's  office  disclosed  the  rule 
that  visitors  were  not  welcome  in  the  schools  and  could 
not  be  admitted  except  by  special  permission  from  the 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      11 

Superintendent's  office.  This  visit  to  the  Superintendent 
decided  the  lady  that  it  would  be  to  the  advantage  of 
her  son  to  place  him  in  one  of  the  good  private  schools 
for  boys  in  Baltimore. 

I  remember  well  with  what  indignation  a  professor 
at  Goucher  College,  from  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
told  me  in  1894  he  had  been  refused  admittance  to  the 
school  where  his  children  were  pupils.  The  reason  as- 
signed for  the  closed  door  was  that  shortly  before  the 
Baltimore  schools  had  won  unenviable  notoriety  in  a 
widely  published  report  on  their  inefficiency. 

Subsequently  in  1897  I  had  for  a  limited  time  op- 
portunity of  freely  visiting  the  schools  and  gaining  di- 
rect information  about  them.  When  Mr.  Alcaeus 
Hooper  was  elected  Mayor  of  Baltimore  he  offended  his 
political  friends  and  astonished  his  enemies  by  a  radi- 
cal change  in  the  kind  of  appointments  he  made  to  pub- 
lic boards.  In  addition  to  selecting  his  appointees  for 
their  fitness  rather  than  for  political  influence  he,  for 
the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  city,  appointed  women 
to  public  boards.  One  morning  in  January,  1897,  Dr. 
Sherwood,  who,  with  Miss  Kate  McLane,  had  already 
been  appointed  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Poor, 
now  called  Supervisors  of  City  Charities,  reading  aloud 
to  me  the  headlines  in  the  local  news  of  the  Baltimore 
Sun  read:  "Mayor  Hooper  has  appointed  a  new  school 
board."  "Good,"  I  said.  "He  has  appointed  a  woman." 
"Better,"  I  said.  "Why,  he  has  appointed  you."  My 
breath  being  taken  away  by  this  surprising  statement  I 
made  no  further  comment. 

The  School  Board  at  that  time  consisted  of  as  many 
members  as  there  were  councilmanic  districts  in   the 


12      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

city,  about  twenty-three,  I  think,  and  the  councilman  of 
the  district  usually,  I  was  told,  controlled  the  appoint- 
ment. The  school  system  was  undoubtedly  deeply  in 
politics.  Mr.  Hooper  had  served  as  a  school  commis- 
sioner for  many  years  and  knew  the  situation  thor- 
oughly. He  was  determined,  I  think,  to  completely  re- 
form the  entire  system.  He  thought  with  the  advice  of 
the  city  solicitor  that  the  law  could  be  interpreted  as 
giving  the  Mayor  the  right  to  appoint  a  new  board.  The 
personnel  of  the  Board  had  been  carefully  chosen.  On 
the  afternoon  of  the  day  the  appointments  had  been  an- 
nounced Mr.  Hooper  came  to  the  Woman's  College 
and  in  the  President's  room  he  administered  the  oath  of 
office  to  my  colleague.  Dr.  Joseph  Shefloe,  who  had  been 
named  a  member  of  the  Board  from  the  twenty-second 
or  twenty-third  ward,  and  to  me,  who  was  to  represent 
the  eighth  ward.  He  asked  us  to  come  to  the  City  Hall  at 
eight  o'clock  that  evening  when  he  proposed  that  the  new 
Board  should  take  possession  of  the  School  Board  offices, 
its  books  and  records.  These  offices  were  then  in  the 
City  Hall  and  I  remember  well  that,  after  we  had 
all  assembled  in  the  Mayor's  office,  we  marched,  a 
silent  group,  through  silent  halls  as  if  to  storm  a  pro- 
tected fortress.  The  Mayor's  plans,  however,  had  been 
laid  carefully,  the  Secretary  of  the  old  board  had  been 
won  over  with  his  keys,  and  we  found  ourselves  in  pos- 
session of  the  offices  without  opposition.  President 
Gilman  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  was  imme- 
diately elected  president  of  the  new  board  and  organiza- 
tion was  completed.  We  all  accepted  the  position  in  the 
spirit  expressed  by  President  Gilman  as  an  opportunity 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      13 

to  Stand  by  the  Mayor  in  the  performance  of  a  great 
public  duty. 

I  found  myself  occupying  the  seat  and  desk  of  Mr. 
Michael  Sheehan,  my  next  neighbor  was  Mr.  Daniel  Mil- 
ler. I  was  the  only  woman  on  the  board  and  was  the 
subject,  I  suppose,  of  considerable  curiosity.  I  was, 
however,  treated  with  the  greatest  courtesy  and  never 
felt  at  all  queer  or  out  of  place.  Indeed  I  felt  quite  in 
place,  and  even  had  I  found  it  necessary  at  any  time 
to  cross  swords  with  my  colleagues  on  questions  of  edu- 
cational policy  I  should  have  done  it  not  as  a  novice. 
I  had  been  trained  to  be  a  public  school  teacher  in  one 
of  the  oldest  and  largest  normal  schools  in  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania.  These  normal  schools  were  coeduca- 
tional and  the  number  of  men  students  at  that  time  al- 
ways exceeded  the  number  of  women.  I  had  taught  in 
coeducational  schools  of  all  grades  in  my  native  state 
and  also  in  its  normal  schools.  I  had  served  for  sev- 
eral years  as  the  only  woman  member  on  the  Board  of 
Control  of  the  Woman's  College.  I  was  accustomed  to 
study  educational  problems,  to  form  opinions  upon  them 
and  to  defend  these  opinions,  especially  where  girls  and 
women  were  involved. 

The  tenure  of  Mayor  Hooper's  reform  School  Board 
was,  however,  short.  Possession  may  be  nine  points  of 
the  law,  but  the  courts  decided  that  the  appointment  of 
this  board  was  not  legal  and  at  the  end  of  about  three 
months  we  vacated  our  seats  as  quietly  as  we  had  taken 
them. 

In  the  months  I  served  on  this  board  I  was  enabled 
to  get  a  good  knowledge  of  the  general  conditions  of 


14      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

the  Baltimore  public  schools.  Whatever  of  good  or  bad 
there  was  in  the  system  it  lacked  unity,  co-ordination, 
direction  and  supervision.  Mayor  Hooper  knew  the 
schools  well.  He  had  served  as  a  school  commissioner 
for  many  years  and  he  was  determined  if  it  was  within 
his  power  to  effect  a  complete  reorganization.  One  of 
the  first  committees  appointed  was  a  small  committee, 
of  which  I  was  a  member,  to  consider  this  particular 
subject.  Mr.  Gilman  was  chairman  and  we  had  many 
meetings  in  Mayor  Hooper's  office  with  Mr.  Hooper  al- 
ways present  and  always  taking  a  leading  part  in  the 
discussions.  He  was  determined  that  the  boys  and  girls 
in  the  public  schools  of  Baltimore  should  have  oppor- 
tunities as  good  as  the  best  in  the  country.  Mr.  Gilman 
insisted  that  the  first  step  was  to  search  the  country  for 
the  best  public  school  man  that  could  be  found  and  to 
call  him  to  Baltimore  as  Superintendent  of  Schools. 
The  soundness  of  such  a  proposition  was  so  obvious 
that  we  were  all  in  agreement.  I  often  wonder  what 
would  have  happened  if  Mayor  Hooper's  School  Board 
had  continued  in  office  and  proceeded  to  carry  out  this 
plan.  What  did  happen  subsequently  when,  under  a  new 
charter  and  a  small  and  efficient  board,  this  plan  was 
put  into  operation  is  common  history.  It  is  not  for  me 
to  discuss  the  troubled  and  unhappy  period  of  the  tran- 
sition of  the  public  schools  of  Baltimore  from  an  old  to 
a  new  order.  I  do  not  know  why  Mr.  Hooper,  who  as 
a  member  of  the  Board  of  School  Commissioners  was, 
I  think,  one  of  the  committee  which  eventually  invited 
Mr.  Van  Sickle  to  lead  the  schools  into  a  promised  land, 
became  his  bitter  opponent,  but  I  have  always  thought 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      15 

that  if  he  had  given  Mr.  Van  Sickle  his  continued  sup- 
port the  outcome  of  that  particular  historical  period 
would  have  been  different.  However,  "when  an  irresis- 
tible force  meets  with  an  unsurmountable  obstacle," 
nothing  can  happen  but  disruption. 

When  the  School  Board,  under  the  new  charter,  took 
office,  far  from  trying  to  keep  visitors  out  of  the  schools 
it  attempted  by  a  system  of  "school  visitors"  to  create 
a  closer  contact  of  parents  and  citizens  with  the  schools. 
In  1900  I  was  appointed  on  a  board  of  visitors  to  the 
Eastern  High  School,  then  housed  very  inadequately  in 
an  old  building.  It  had,  however,  sent  out  from  its 
doors  many  able  women  who  have  taken  an  active  part 
in  all  the  various  associations  of  women  which  have 
worked  in  our  city  for  social  and  civic  betterment.  By 
these  various  direct  contacts  with  the  public  schools  of 
Baltimore  I  have  kept  myself  well  informed  as  to  the 
education  offered  to  the  girls  of  our  city.  In  addition 
to  this,  I  number  among  my  good  friends  all  of  the 
Goucher  graduates  who,  as  teachers  in  the  Eastern  and 
Western  High  Schools,  have  had  a  large  share  in  bring- 
ing these  schools  to  a  high  state  of  efficiency.  It  is  im- 
possible to  estimate  the  influence  of  these  high  schools 
for  girls  upon  the  life  of  the  community.  I  often  think 
that  no  greater  opportunities  for  social  service  exist  than 
those  to  be  found  by  teachers  in  great  high  schools  for 
girls.  To  follow  this  thought  would  take  an  entire  book. 
Secondary  education  for  girls  in  Baltimore  has  been 
marked  by  steady  progress  in  the  thirty  years  I  have 
watched  its  development. 


16      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 


Chapter  II 

Opportunities  for  College  and  University  Education  of 
Women   in   Baltimore,    1892-1916.     Baltimore 
Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Uni- 
versity Education  of  Women 

In  1892  a  boy  who  desired  to  have  as  complete  a  gen- 
eral education  as  was  offered  by  any  schools  in  our 
country  could  secure  it  in  Baltimore  at  moderate  ex- 
pense. He  could  prepare  for  college  in  the  public 
schools,  could  proceed  to  the  Johns  Hopkins  University 
for  his  college  degree,  availing  himself  of  the  many 
scholarships  offered  there  to  boys  from  Baltimore  and 
Maryland.  If  he  desired,  he  could  go  on  to  graduate 
work  and  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  in  an  in- 
stitution which  was  the  leader  of  our  country  in  the 
character  of  its  university  work. 

With  a  Baltimore  girl  the  case  was  quite  different. 
The  community  was  indifferent  to  the  collegiate  educa- 
tion of  women  and  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  was 
averse,  if  not  hostile,  to  their  university  education.  The 
high  schools  could  not  prepare  girls  for  college,  and  the 
Woman's  College  of  Baltimore  had  begun  a  precarious 
existence  founded  on  high  hopes,  but  a  very  insufficient 
financial  basis.  In  order  to  secure  students  at  all  it 
was  necessary  for  it  to  offer  a  combined  preparatory 
and  collegiate  course  which  with  the  lack  of  endowment 
kept  this  college  for  many  years  without  the  pale  of  the 
standards  college  women  themselves  were  setting  up  as 
necessary  for  a  school  designated  as  a  college. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      17 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  the  first  systematic  at- 
tempt to  define  a  standard  American  college  was  made 
by  the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae  for  the  pur- 
pose of  upholding  standards  for  women's  education. 
This  organization,  founded  in  1885,  numbered  among 
its  leaders  able  women  of  the  generation  that  had  fought 
their  way  to  college  education  and  were  determined 
that  a  woman's  college  course  must  be  the  same  as  a 
man's  if  it  were  to  be  considered  as  good  as  a  man's. 
This  principle  once  established,  then,  they  said,  there 
might  be  grafted  upon  the  woman's  college  a  curricu- 
lum which  might  give  some  consideration  to  the  de- 
mand that  a  woman's  education  should  include  some 
special  preparation  for  her  functions  as  a  mother  and 
homemaker,  or  for  some  other  special  field  of  woman's 
work  if  it  could  be  shown  that  a  general  education  failed 
to  give  such  preparation.  Early  in  its  history  the  As- 
sociation appointed  a  committee  to  study  the  subject 
and  to  draw  up  a  definition  of  a  standard  college.  How 
well  it  did  its  work  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the 
Carnegie  Foundation  practically  adopted  the  definition 
as  worked  out  by  the  Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae 
as  its  definition  of  a  standard  American  college.  While 
some  of  the  colleges  which  had  been  admitted  to  the 
Association  as  charter  members  did  not  meet  the  re- 
quirements laid  down,  the  Association  jealously  guard- 
ed the  entrance  of  others  of  the  same  class.  The  Wom- 
an's College  of  Baltimore,  whatever  other  qualifications 
it  had  or  had  not,  lacked  an  endowment  fund  adequate 
for  its  maintenance  or  sufficient  to  insure  its  perpetuity, 
so  for  many  years,  even  after  its  record  for  scholarship 
placed  it  in  the  first  rank  of  women's  colleges,  it  could 


18      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

not  qualify  for  admittance  to  membership  in  the  Asso- 
ciation of  Collegiate  Alumnae. 

Dr.  Van  Meter  has  long  promised  us  a  history  of 
Goucher  College.  He  alone  can  tell  us  what  were  the 
motives  that  led  the  Methodist  Conference  of  the  Balti- 
more District  to  undertake  to  establish  a  woman's  college 
in  a  city  which  had  no  interest  in  the  collegiate  educa- 
tion of  women  and  no  desire  for  it.  Dr.  Guth  tells  me 
that  he  has  found  in  some  of  the  early  literature  of  the 
college  records  that  the  original  idea  was  born  in  the 
mind  of  a  woman,  a  member,  I  think,  of  the  First  Metho- 
dist Church.  At  any  rate,  it  is  to  the  Methodists  that 
Baltimore  owes  the  founding  in  the  city  of  a  college  for 
women. 

In  1892,  when  I  took  up  my  residence  in  Baltimore, 
I  heard  very  little  about  this  college.  It  was  usually 
spoken  of  as  the  Methodist  College  for  girls  and  re- 
ceived scant  consideration.  I  had  first  heard  of  it  in 
1889  while  I  was  studying  medicine  in  the  Woman's 
Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania.  A  meeting  had  been 
called  there  in  the  interests  of  founding  a  chair  of  pre- 
ventive medicine  in  this  medical  college,  to  be  the  first 
of  the  kind  in  the  world.  All  I  remember  of  the  dis- 
cussion was  that  the  leaders  had  very  hazy  ideas  of  what 
should  be  included  under  such  a  chair,  and  that  the  most 
attractive  speaker  was  Dr.  Alice  Hall  of  the  Woman's 
College  of  Baltimore,  who  explained  that  she  had  been 
called  to  a  professorship  in  this  college  of  liberal  arts 
to  develop  a  department  of  health  supervision  which 
should  deal  with  the  promotion  of  health  of  students 
rather  than  with  the  cure  of  their  diseases. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      19 

When  I  arrived  in  Baltimore  Dr.  Hall  had  married 
and  gone  west  and  had  been  succeeded  by  Dr.  Mary 
Mitchell,  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Froelicher  and  an  old  ac- 
quaintance of  mine.  Dr.  Sherwood  had  known  both 
Dr.  and  Mrs.  Froelicher  before  they  were  married,  when 
she  was  a  student  of  medicine  in  Zurich  and  they  were 
students,  at  the  same  university,  both  candidates  for  the 
doctor  of  philosophy  degree.  It  was  through  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Froelicher  and  Dr.  Mitchell  that  I  learned  what 
was  really  going  on  in  this  youngest  of  the  women's 
colleges,  and  it  is  to  the  Froelichers  and  Dr.  Van  Meter, 
I  believe,  more  than  to  any  other  persons  that  the  col- 
lege owes  the  soundness  of  its  early  scholastic  ideals. 

In  1894,  when  Dr.  Mitchell  resigned  to  marry  and 
return  to  Pennsylvania,  she  suggested  me  as  her  suc- 
cessor. I  was  not  her  first  choice  for  the  position,  but 
the  other  women  she  suggested  were  not  available.  In 
1894,  when  I  became  a  member  of  the  college  faculty, 
the  Girls'  Latin  School  had  been  built  and  equipped  as 
a  preparatory  school  to  be  carried  on,  it  was  stated,  by 
the  Woman's  College,  until  the  girls'  high  schools  of  Bal- 
timore should  be  able  to  fully  prepare  their  students  for 
college  entrance.  Some  members  of  the  college  faculty 
taught  in  both  institutions  and  students  were  accepted 
for  college  work  who  were  still  doing  preparatory  work 
in  the  Latin  School.  Finally,  about  1897,  all  such  re- 
lationship was  discontinued  and  academically  the  col- 
lege was  making  good.  In  1893,  when  the  Johns  Hop- 
kins Medical  School  was  opened  for  the  reception  of  stu- 
dents. President  Gilman  stated  that  the  University  had 
investigated  the  academic  preparation  that  could  be  ob- 


20      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

tained  in  the  Woman's  College  and  that  it  was  accept- 
able for  entrance  into  its  Medical  School. 

At  this  time  and  for  many  years  subsequently  the 
catalogues  of  Johns  Hopkins  University  stated  that 
women  were  admitted  to  the  medical  school,  but  not  to 
any  other  department  of  the  University.  For  a  girl  in 
Baltimore,  then,  at  the  close  of  the  last  century,  the  con- 
ditions were  about  like  this:  she  could  not  completely 
prepare  for  college  in  the  public  schools,  but  if  by  hook 
or  by  crook  she  could  get  preparation  she  could  proceed 
to  the  A.B,  degree  in  the  Woman's  College.  If  she  de- 
sired graduate  work  she  could  not  get  it  in  Baltimore 
unless  she  desired  to  proceed  to  the  study  of  medicine. 

From  time  to  time  it  was  rumored  that  the  ban  on  the 
admission  of  women  to  the  graduate  departments  of  the 
Hopkins  was  to  be  lifted.  Occasionally  women  had  suc- 
ceeded in  getting  some  measure  of  recognition.  One  of 
the  early  fellows  of  the  University  was  a  woman,  Miss 
Christine  Ladd,  afterwards  Mrs.  Fabian  Franklin.  The 
story  as  I  always  heard  it  was  that  among  the  applicants 
for  the  fellowships  oflFered  by  the  University  was  one 
signed  "C.  Ladd."  The  credentials  accompanying  her 
application  indicated  such  a  high  grade  of  ability 
and  attainment  that  the  award  of  a  fellowship  in 
mathematics  was  granted.  When  it  was  discovered  that 
"C.  Ladd"  was  a  woman,  Professor  Sylvester,  the  dis- 
tinguished professor  of  mathematics,  insisted  upon  re- 
ceiving her  as  a  student.  When  I  asked  Mrs.  Franklin 
once  if  this  story  was  true  she  smiled  enigmatically. 

Not  only,  however,  had  this  one  fellowship  been 
awarded  to  a  woman,  but  in  1893  a  woman  was  granted 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  in  the  Department 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      21 

of  Geology.  It  was  said  at  that  time  that  her  work  was 
of  such  distinguished  character  that  the  University  did 
not  desire  to  lose  so  promising  an  investigator,  and  she 
refused  to  proceed  with  her  work  at  the  Johns  Hopkins 
unless  she  could  expect  a  degree  if  she  fulfilled  the  re- 
quirements. At  the  commencement,  however,  she  took 
her  degree  by  proxy  and  did  not  appear  with  the  other 
candidates. 

In  1897  it  was  rumored  that  the  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity was  ready  to  do  something  for  women  if  there 
really  seemed  to  be  a  demand  for  such  action.  A  group 
of  women  well  known  for  their  efforts  to  obtain  such 
recognition,  some  of  whom  had  been  most  active  in  se- 
curing the  funds  which  opened  the  medical  school, 
formed  a  small  organization  and  drew  up  a  petition  to 
the  President  and  Trustees  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Uni- 
versity. This  petition  stated  that  an  organization  had 
been  formed  by  a  number  of  persons  interested  in  se- 
curing university  advantages  for  women  for  carrying 
out  such  measures  as  shall  from  time  to  time  be  con- 
ducive to  this  end — that  the  organization  had  adopted 
the  name  "The  Baltimore  Association  for  the  Promo- 
tion of  the  University  Education  of  Women."  The  peti- 
tion proceeds:  "The  undersigned  representatives  of  this 
Association  beg  to  urge  upon  the  Trustees  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University  the  desirability,  in  view  of  the  con- 
ditions existing  at  the  present  time,  of  opening  its  gradu- 
ate courses  to  those  women  who  are  qualified  to  pursue 
them.  We  submit  that  such  objections  and  difficulties 
as  apply  to  the  question  of  undergraduate  coeducation 
are  either  totally  absent  or  exist  in  an  altogether  insig- 
nificant degree  in  the  case  of  graduate  students,  and  that 


22      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

a  number  of  the  most  important  and  distinguished  uni- 
versities of  this  country  and  Europe  have  in  the  past 
decade  recognized  the  propriety  and  the  need  of  ad- 
mitting women  to  the  privilege  of  their  lecture  rooms 
and  laboratories.  The  increasing  demand  on  the  part 
of  women  for  advantages  which  only  a  university  can 
furnish,  is  one  of  the  most  salient  and  unmistakable 
phenomena  of  our  time,  and  whatever  doubts  upon  the 
subject  may  have  been  justifiable  twenty  or  even  ten 
years  ago,  such  doubts  can  now  be  fairly  said  to  have 
been  dissipated  by  the  action  successively  taken  by  so 
many  leading  universities  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

"Being  fully  convinced  that  this  step  is  not  only  of 
importance  for  the  interests  of  learning  in  general,  but 
also  that  it  will  distinctly  promote  the  welfare  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  we  trust  that  the  request  of 
this  Association  for  the  opening  of  the  graduate  courses 
of  the  University  to  women  will  secure  your  prompt 
and  favorable  consideration."  This  petition  was  signed 
by  thirteen  women.  The  Trustees  in  answering  it  stated 
that  it  seemed  inexpedient  at  that  time  to  open  the  ques- 
tion of  admitting  a  new  class  of  graduate  students. 

A  majority  of  those  who  had  signed  the  formal 
petition  decided  to  preserve  the  organization  for 
the  purpose  of  assisting  Baltimore  women  to  pursue 
graduate  work  at  universities  that  would  receive  them 
and  of  advancing  in  other  ways  the  general  cause  of  the 
university  training  of  women.  In  pursuance  of  this  ob- 
ject the  Association  offered  in  1898  and  every  year  fol- 
lowing until  1922  a  fellowship  of  the  value  of  $500  to 
a  Maryland  woman,  subsequently  to  a  woman  from 
Maryland  or  the  south,  for  graduate  study  in  some  ap- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      23 

proved  university  in  Europe,  subsequently  in  the  United 
States  or  Europe.  The  name  adopted  for  the  organiza- 
tion was  the  Baltimore  Association  for  Promoting  the 
University  Education  of  Women.  I  acted  as  its  Secre- 
tary during  the  entire  period  of  its  existence. 

In  the  same  year  the  woman's  College  of  Baltimore 
instituted  a  fellowship  of  the  same  value  to  be  awarded 
to  one  of  its  graduates  to  proceed  to  graduate  work  at 
some  university  in  Europe;  subsequently,  too,  the  fel- 
low was  permitted  to  choose  where  she  would  study. 
These  fellowships  corresponded  to  a  similar  European 
fellowship  which  had  been  established  by  the  Associa- 
tion of  Collegiate  Alumnae  as  one  of  its  first  activities. 
The  reason  for  founding  these  fellowships  for  study  in 
Europe  is  significant  of  the  fact  stated  in  the  petition 
quoted — the  great  universities  of  Europe  accepted 
women  students  before  our  own  universities  of  similar 
grade  would  receive  them. 

The  graduates  of  the  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore 
were  not  at  that  time  eligible  for  the  fellowships  of  the 
Association  of  Collegiate  Alumnae  so  that  these  two  fel- 
lowships established  in  Baltimore  were  the  only  aids 
Baltimore  young  women  could  look  to  for  proceeding  to 
graduate  work. 

As  I  served  continuously  on  the  Committee  of  Award, 
both  for  the  Baltimore  Association  and  for  the  Woman's 
College,  it  was  possible  to  co-ordinate  the  work  of  the 
two  committees  in  such  manner  that  with  few  exceptions 
every  Baltimore  young  woman  able  to  proceed  to  gradu- 
ate work  and  desirous  of  doing  so  received  aid  from 
one  or  the  other  of  these  funds.  The  generous  provision 
made  by  Bryn  Mawr  College  for  graduate  fellowjs  was 


24      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

another  great  source  of  helpfulness  to  Baltimore  women 
seeking  opportunities  for  graduate  work. 

The  Baltimore  Association  awarded  its  fellowship 
every  year  from  1898  until  1908,  when  the  Johns  Hop- 
kins University  admitted  women  to  its  graduate  courses. 
The  question  of  disbanding  was  then  considered,  but 
the  friends  who  had  for  so  many  years  taken  special  in- 
terest in  the  Association  and  had  secured  the  funds  for 
its  work  decided  to  go  on  accumulating  an  annual  in- 
come and  reserving  it  for  aiding  women's  research  work. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Great  War  the  long  period, 
covering  more  than  a  century,  of  securing  for  women 
all  educational  opportunities  enjoyed  by  their  brothers 
from  the  kindergarten  through  the  university,  was  over 
in  Baltimore  as  elsewhere  in  the  United  States.  For 
women  who  desired  to  do  research,  opportunities  for 
preparation  were  as  freely  available  as  to  men. 
The  same  could  not  be  said  of  opportunities  for  pursu- 
ing research  by  women  trained  for  the  purpose.  For  a 
time,  awards  in  the  shape  of  fellowships,  grants,  prizes, 
etc.,  will  be  necessary.  This  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  of  the  last  annual  awards  made  by  the  Association 
of  Collegiate  Alumnae  by  its  fellowship  committee,  all 
but  four  were  made  to  women  who  have  completed  their 
university  work  and  are  seeking  opportunity  for  carry- 
ing on  some  special  piece  of  research. 

The  Woman's  College  fellowship,  discontinued  in 
1914,  was  revived  by  the  alumnae  of  Goucher  College 
a  few  years  later  and  a  permanent  fund  established. 
This  fellowship  now  known  as  the  Dean  Van  Meter 
Alumnae  Fellowship  is  awarded  by  preference  to  an 
alumna  who  has  a  university  degree  and  who  is  capable 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      25 

of  carrying  on  independent  research.  The  amount  of 
these  fellowships,  too,  has  been  increased  in  recent  years 
so  that  at  least  $1,000  shall  be  available  for  each  award. 
The  last  award  made  by  the  Baltimore  Association  was 
to  Dr.  Helene  Connet,  A.B.,  Goucher,  Ph.D.,  Johns  Hop- 
kins, to  continue  research  in  a  problem  of  physiological 
chemistry  in  the  University  of  London.  The  Associa- 
tion had  decided  to  make  her  a  grant  of  $1,000,  but 
before  the  official  announcement  was  made  she  received 
a  fellowship  of  $1,000  from  the  Association  of  Col- 
giate  Alumnae,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  the  chairman 
of  their  committee  our  Association  made  a  grant  of 
$500  in  addition  to  theirs. 

Mrs.  Fabian  Franklin  was  the  original  chairman  of 
the  committee  that  petitioned  the  Hopkins  for  admission 
of  women  graduate  students,  and  was  chairman  of  the 
first  committee  on  award  of  fellowship  of  the  Baltimore 
Association.  In  the  second  year  when  a  permanent  or- 
ganization was  effected.  Miss  Kate  M.  McLane  was 
elected  President  and  has  continued  in  that  position  ever 
since.  It  is  due  to  her  more  than  to  any  other  person 
that  the  Association  continued  its  existence  for  so  many 
years.  It  is  rather  unique,  I  think,  that  an  organization 
composed  mainly  of  women  of  wealth  and  leisure  should 
be  maintained  for  so  long  a  period  in  the  interest  of  the 
somewhat  abstract  notion  that  to  train  women  for  re- 
search is  a  very  important  contribution  to  social  and 
community  service.  This  is  due,  I  think,  to  the  tradi- 
tions established  by  that  small  but  remarkable  group 
of  Baltimore  women  who  secured  the  foundation  for 
the  Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School  and  established  its 
standards. 


26      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

How  difficult  it  is  to  convince  the  average  laywoman 
of  the  value  of  research  may  be  illustrated  by  the  fol- 
lowing incident: 

On  one  occasion  an  attempt  was  made  to  bring  the 
work  of  this  Association  before  the  Maryland  State  Fed- 
eration of  Women's  Clubs.  I  secured  from  President 
Guth  permission  for  the  State  Federation  to  use  the 
Goucher  College  auditorium  for  one  of  their  annual 
meetings  on  condition  that  an  evening  meeting  should 
be  devoted  to  a  consideration  of  university  education  of 
women,  the  program  to  be  arranged  by  the  Baltimore 
Association.  Miss  McLane  presided  at  the  meeting  and 
Dr.  Florence  Sabin  and  Dr.  Bertha  May  Clark,  both 
former  fellows,  were  the  speakers.  Dr.  Sabin  spoke 
on  the  relation  of  pure  research  to  fundamental  social 
and  civic  problems.  Dr.  Bertha  May  Clark,  an  A.B.  of 
Goucher  College  and  a  native  Baltimorean,  head  of  the 
science  work  in  the  girls'  high  schools  of  Philadelphia, 
spoke  on  the  necessity  of  a  knowledge  of  the  methods 
and  applications  of  research  to  the  high  school  teacher. 
Mrs.  Sanderson,  President  of  the  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs,  was  on  the  platform.  So  little  interest,  however, 
was  manifested  by  the  members  of  the  Federation  that 
the  audience  would  have  been  nil  had  it  not  been  for  our 
own  small  group  of  the  Baltimore  Association  and  the 
faculty  and  students  of  Goucher  College. 

Two  incidents  in  the  history  of  the  Baltimore  Asso- 
ciation for  the  Promotion  of  the  University  Education 
of  Women  may  be  recorded  because  of  their  special  in- 
terest. Some  time  in  the  year  1900  Dr.  Mall,  then 
Professor  of  Anatomy  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
called  on  Dr.  Sherwood  and  me  to  propose  a  scheme 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      27 

whereby  our  Association  could  secure  the  appointment 
of  a  fellow  in  the  University.  Dr.  Florence  Sabin  had 
then  graduated  from  the  medical  school  and  was  serv- 
ing an  interneship  in  medicine  in  the  Johns  Hopkins 
Hospital.  Dr.  Mall  had  discovered  in  her  when  she  was 
his  student  a  special  aptitude  for  research  and  was 
anxious  that  she  should  enter  the  field  of  scientific  re- 
search rather  than  go  into  the  practice  of  medicine.  He 
suggested  that  our  Association  offer  the  Trustees  of  the 
University  funds  for  a  fellowship  for  one  year  to  be 
used  by  the  department  of  anatomy,  the  holder  to  be  a 
woman.  Our  Association  was,  of  course,  delighted  to 
have  an  opportunity  of  such  a  character.  It  was  unani- 
mously decided  to  offer  our  annual  fellowship  to  the 
University.  When  Miss  Garrett,  who  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Association  from  the  first,  heard  of  this  sug- 
gestion, she  entrusted  Dr.  Sherwood,  under  terms  of 
strict  secrecy  as  to  the  donor,  which  need  not  now  be 
observed,  to  offer  to  the  Association  an  additional  sum 
of  three  hundred  dollars  to  be  applied  to  this  fellow- 
ship so  that  the  amount  offered  would  be  eight  hundred 
dollars.  The  University  accepted  our  offer  and  Pro- 
fessor Mall  appointed  Dr.  Sabin  to  the  fellowship. 
In  the  light  of  subsequent  history  the  Baltimore  Asso- 
ciation feels  its  existence  justified  if  it  had  made  no 
other  contribution  to  the  higher  education  of  women 
than  to  be  one  of  the  factors  that  decided  Dr.  Sabin 
to  enter  the  field  of  research.  She  is  not  only  our 
most  distinguished  fellow,  not  only  an  eminent  re- 
searcher, but  she  is  also  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
scientists  of  our  country.  In  the  year  Dr.  Sabin  occu- 
pied this  fellowship  she  made  a  brilliant  study  of  the 


28      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

origin  of  the  lymphatic  system,  which  brought  prompt 
recognition  of  her  ability  in  scientific  circles  as  well  as 
a  substantial  reward  in  the  shape  of  the  first  prize  of 
one  thousand  dollars  offered  by  the  American  Associa- 
tion to  Promote  Scientific  Research  by  Women,  then  the 
Naples  Table  Association. 

The  second  instance  has  to  do  with  opening  of  the 
other  departments  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  to 
graduate  students.  In  1908  our  Committee  of  Award 
was  assembled  for  its  final  meeting.  The  candidates  to 
be  considered  had  been  reduced  to  two,  one  a  Balti- 
morean,  a  Goucher  graduate  in  her  third  year  of  uni- 
versity work  at  Bryn  Mawr  College;  the  other  a  south- 
ern woman,  an  instructor  in  the  University  of  Texas, 
who  applied  for  the  fellowship  to  continue  graduate 
work  at  Radcliffe.  I  was  empowered  to  say  that  the 
Goucher  College  fellowship  would  undoubtedly  go  to 
the  Goucher  graduate  so  that  the  Association  fellowship 
could  be  awarded  to  the  Texas  candidate.  Mrs.  Morris 
Carey,  a  member  of  the  committee,  came  to  the  meet- 
ing a  little  late.  She  said  she  had  just  been  talking  to 
Professor  Elliot,  then  head  of  the  department  of  Ro- 
mance Languages  at  the  Hopkins,  who  had  told  her  that 
it  had  been  decided  to  open  to  graduate  women  students 
those  departments  of  the  Hopkins  willing  to  receive 
them.  We  at  once  agreed  that  our  candidate  for  that 
year  should  enter  the  Hopkins  and  that  it  would  be  a 
fitting  occasion  to  have  this  woman  fellow  a  Baltimore 
product,  one  who  had  had  her  preparatory  and  collegiate 
education  in  Baltimore.  We  had  such  a  candidate  be- 
fore us.  Moreover,  her  strongest  endorsement  for  the 
fellowship  was  the  letter  in  her  credentials  from  the 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      29 

professor  in  Bryn  Mawr  College  with  whom  she  was 
doing  her  graduate  work.  He  had  recently  been  ap- 
pointed to  the  head  of  a  department  in  the  Johns  Hop- 
kins University  whose  duties  he  was  to  assume  at  the 
beginning  of  the  next  academic  year.  Dr.  Eleanor  Lord 
of  the  Goucher  faculty,  a  doctor  of  philosophy  of  Bryn 
Mawr,  undertook  to  interview  the  Bryn  Mawr  professor 
as  to  his  willingness  to  receive  a  woman  in  his  Johns 
Hopkins  department.  Much  to  our  surprise  he  was  very 
averse  to  the  proposition.  The  committee  then  inter- 
viewed Professor  Morley,  head  of  the  department  of 
mathematics,  as  to  his  willingness  to  receive  the  Texas 
candidate,  Miss  Florence  Lewis.  He  was  perfectly  will- 
ing, especially  as  she  had  a  brilliant  record  as  a  student. 
We  telegraphed  her  asking  whether  she  would  accept 
the  appointment  with  the  specification  that  the  fellow- 
ship be  used  at  the  Johns  Hopkins.  She  accepted,  sub- 
sequently took  her  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  under 
Professor  Morley  and  was  promptly  incorporated  into 
the  Goucher  faculty,  where  for  many  years  she  has  been 
one  of  its  best  and  ablest  teachers.  A  few  years  subse- 
quently all  departments  for  graduate  work  at  the  Johns 
Hopkins  were  freely  open  to  women  and  the  long  strug- 
gle for  equal  educational  opportunities  for  women  in 
Baltimore  was  over. 

As  I  write  this  chapter  a  letter  comes  to  me  from  Mrs. 
William  Cabell  Bruce,  for  many  years  Treasurer  of  the 
Baltimore  Association  and  one  of  its  most  helpful  mem- 
bers, that  the  Association  has  voted  to  give  its  accumu- 
lated funds,  amounting  to  two  thousand  dollars,  to 
Goucher  College  for  the  founding  of  a  lectureship  "in 
memory  of  the  modest  effort  of  the  Association  in  pio- 


30      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

neer  days  to  express  its  interest  in  the  higher  education 
of  women." 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  Maryland  Agricultural 
College  has  become  an  integral  part  of  the  University  of 
Maryland  and  that  it  makes  provision  not  only  for  spe- 
cial courses,  but  for  academic  courses  leading  to  the, 
bachelor  of  arts  degree,  it  may  be  of  interest  to  record 
here  a  note  on  its  charter  provisions:  "That  women  shall 
be  admitted  to  all  its  courses  on  the  same  terms  as 
men." 

In  1914  I  was  asked  by  Mrs.  William  H.  Ellicott  to 
serve  as  the  women's  representative  on  a  committee  of 
the  City  Wide  Congress  interested  in  the  reorganization 
of  the  Maryland  Agricultural  College.  This  committee, 
under  the  able  and  energetic  chairmanship  of  the  Rev. 
D.  H.  Steffins  and  the  guidance  of  Mr.  Hecht,  Secretary 
of  the  City  Wide  Congress,  undoubtedly  was  influential 
in  securing  the  thorough-going  reorganization  of  the 
Maryland  Agricultural  College  and  the  adoption  of  its 
new  charter  by  the  Maryland  Legislature  in  1914.  I 
asked  that  this  committee  recommend  two  provisions  in 
the  new  charter,  one,  that  one  member  of  the  State  Board 
should  be  a  woman,  and  second,  that  the  charter  should 
state  that  women  would  be  received  in  all  departments 
on  the  same  terms  as  men.  The  sub-committee,  of  which 
I  was  a  member,  incorporated  these  two  recommenda- 
tions in  their  final  report  on  a  charter  to  be  approved 
by  the  City  Wide  Congress.  Determined  opposition, 
however,  developed  to  both  propositions.  I  remember 
at  a  joint  meeting  of  several  committees  all  at  work  on 
this  new  charter  I  was  asked  if  I  did  not  think  the  ques- 
tion of  appointing  a  woman  could  be  left  to  the  discre- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      31 

tion  of  the  Governor  of  the  State  without  making  it  a 
charter  provision.  I  replied  that  women  had  not  found 
it  so  in  their  history  for  securing  educational  privileges 
and  we  preferred  to  have  it  "nominated  in  the  bond." 
Eventually  I  saw  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  get  into 
the  charter  the  first  of  these  provisions,  but  we  did 
succeed  in  incorporating  the  clause  making  women 
eligible  to  entrance  on  the  same  terms  as  men.  At  first 
it  stood:  "Women  to  be  admitted  on  such  terms  as  shall 
be  prescribed  by  the  Board  of  Trustees,"  which  mani- 
festly was  not  acceptable  to  women  contending  for  equal 
privileges. 

If,  as  is  now  proposed,  the  Johns  Hopkins  University 
becomes  strictly  a  graduate  institution,  it  will  be  inter- 
esting to  watch  how  quickly  the  city  and  the  state  will 
take  action  to  provide  adequate  collegiate  opportunities 
for  its  boys.  Fortunately  women  may  view  the  situation 
in  regard  to  women's  educational  opportunities  in  Bal- 
timore and  Maryland  with  equanimity. 


Chapter  III 

Baltimore's  Great  Contribution  to  Medical  Education 

With  Special  Reference  to  the  Medical 

Education  of  Women 

The  present  anatomical  building  of  the  Johns  Hop- 
kins Medical  School  was  the  first  of  the  group  built  for 
the  purposes  of  the  Medical  School  apart  from  the  hos- 
pital proper.  Across  its  facade  in  iron  letters  is  the 
legend:  "The  Woman's  Fund  Memorial  Building,  1894." 


32      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

This  simple  legend  records  an  epoch  not  only  in  the 
history  of  the  education  of  women  in  our  country,  but 
in  the  history  of  medical  education  in  general. 

A  small  group  of  Baltimore  women  had  seen  Johns 
Hopkins  University  founded  and  had  watched  its  growth 
and  development  with  eager  hopes  that  it  could  be  per- 
suaded to  permit  women  to  share  in  its  opportunities  of 
graduate  work.  Having  failed  in  fifteen  years  to  secure 
entrance  to  the  University  proper,  they  turned  their  at- 
tention to  the  proposed  medical  school  of  which  the 
Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  opened  in  1889,  was  to  be  an 
integral  part.  By  their  efforts  they  attained  two  objects, 
the  elevation  of  medicine  as  a  study  to  university  rank 
and  the  admission  of  women  to  at  least  this  department 
of  graduate  work  in  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

In  1890,  when  I  returned  from  medical  study  at  the 
University  of  Zurich,  I  was  appointed  to  a  position  as 
assistant  resident  physician  in  the  State  Hospital  for  the 
Insane  at  Norristown,  Pa.  This  was  the  first  hospital 
for  the  insane  where  women  patients  were  entirely  un- 
der the  medical  care  of  women.  Dr.  Alice  Bennett  was 
the  Medical  Superintendent,  and  among  the  interesting 
things  she  told  me  when  I  began  my  service  under  her 
was  that  she  was  a  member  of  a  committee  in  Philadel- 
phia seeking  funds  to  offer  the  Johns  Hopkins  Univer- 
sity provided,  when  it  opened  its  medical  school,  it 
would  admit  women  on  the  same  terms  as  men.  Similar 
committees  had  been  organized  from  Baltimore  as  a 
center  in  Boston,  New  York  and  other  cities.  In  1890 
the  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  had  been  com- 
pleted by  these  committees  by  a  final  gift  of  forty-four 
thousand  dollars  by  Miss  Mary  Garrett,  and  was  offered 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      33 

to  the  University  Trustees  on  condition  that  women 
should  be  received  on  the  same  terms  as  men.  The  Trus- 
tees accepted  the  offer  with  its  conditions,  but  announced 
that  the  Medical  School  would  not  be  opened  until  an  en- 
dowment fund  of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  had  been 
obtained.  In  1892  Miss  Garrett  completed  the  fund  by  a 
gift  which,  when  added  to  the  Women's  Fund  of  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  amounted  to  the  sum  fixed  by 
the  Trustees  for  opening  the  Medical  School.  Miss  Gar- 
rett's gift  was  made  under  certain  conditions,  among 
them:  (1)  That  entrance  to  the  Medical  School  should 
require  candidates  to  have  an  A.B.  degree,  which  should 
represent  certain  definite  preparation  in  biology,  physics 
and  chemistry,  or  to  pass  an  equivalent  examination. 
(2)  That  all  positions,  prizes,  etc.,  established  by  the 
school  should  be  open  to  women  on  the  same  terms  as 
men.  The  first  condition  was  so  far  in  advance  of  the 
requirements  for  the  study  of  medicine  exacted  by  any 
medical  school  in  the  United  States  at  that  period  that 
it  is  said  neither  the  group  of  medical  men  charged  with 
the  duty  of  organizing  the  school  nor  the  Trustees  be- 
lieved that  a  medical  school  could  be  successfully  estab- 
lished with  the  conditions  of  entrance  demanded  by  Miss 
Garrett.  The  conditions  were,  however,  accepted  and 
subsequent  events  proved  the  wisdom  of  this  decision. 
The  twenty  years  succeeding  the  founding  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  Medical  School  saw  the  thorough  reorganization 
of  medical  education  in  the  United  States,  and  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Johns  Hopkins  experiment  was  one  of  the 
most  potent  contributory  factors  in  this  development. 
The  statement  then  is  possibly  not  too  extravagant  that 
the  rapid  advance  in  the  standards  of  medical  education 


34      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

in  our  country  owes  much  to  the  wisdom,  the  foresight 
and  the  persistence  of  one  Baltimore  woman. 

When  the  Women's  Fund  of  $100,000  had  been  ac- 
cepted by  the  Board  of  Trustees  "in  order  to  further 
the  endowment  of  the  Medical  School,  the  Trustees  of 
the  Hospital  invited  the  members  of  the  various  com- 
mittees to  visit  Baltimore,  to  partake  of  a  luncheon,  and 
to  inspect  the  hospital."  I  remember  well  assisting  Dr. 
Bennett  in  her  preparations  for  going  to  Baltimore  and 
on  her  return  hearing  with  profound  interest  her  account 
of  what  had  happened.  It  was,  of  course,  a  great  oc- 
casion for  women  physicians  who  were  entirely  unac- 
customed to  be  the  objects  of  much  attention  in  any 
public  meetings,  especially  where  medical  subjects  were 
discussed.  Dr.  Bennett  dwelt  on  the  prominent  lay- 
women  from  Washington,  Philadelphia,  New  York  and 
Boston  who  were  present,  among  them  the  wife  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  Mrs.  Benjamin  Harrison. 
She  described  the  brilliant  reception  given  by  Miss  Gar- 
rett at  her  residence  on  Monument  Street,  now  the  Mu- 
seum of  Art,  at  which  Cardinal  Gibbons  was  present. 
But  what  gave  me  the  greatest  pleasure  then,  and  always 
since,  in  thinking  of  this  really  great  occasion  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  education  of  women  was  the  presence  of 
women  physicians  who  had  blazed  their  way  into  the 
profession  as  pioneers.  Dr.  Elizabeth  Blackwell,  the 
first  woman  in  modern  times  to  get  a  medical  degree, 
had  at  that  time  taken  up  her  permanent  residence  in 
England,  but  her  sister.  Dr.  Emily  Blackwell,  the  sec- 
ond woman  in  medicine,  was  there,  and  Dr.  Elizabeth 
Cushier  and  Dr.  Frances  Emily  White  of  Philadelphia 
and  Dr.  Mary  Putnam  Jacobi,  the  most  brilliant  woman 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      35 

in  medicine  our  country  had  produced  until  the  Johns 
Hopkins  itself  gave  us  Dr.  Florence  Sabin. 

At  the  luncheon  Dr.  Jacobi  responded  in  behalf  of 
the  invited  guests  to  the  address  of  welcome  by  Mr. 
Francis  T.  King,  President  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Hos- 
pital, and  I  think  it  is  worth  while  to  transcribe  here 
her  words  as  reported  in  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital 
Bulletin.  She  said:  "I  do  not  think  I  shall  be  accused 
of  exaggeration  by  any  of  the  ladies  in  whose  behalf  I 
speak,  when  I  say  that  this  is  really  a  great  occasion. 
As  the  term  greatness  is  relative  I  can  explain  what  I 
mean  best  by  comparing  it  with  something  else.  When 
Goethe  was  asked  to  interest  himself  in  the  French  revo- 
lution he  said  that  the  French  revolution  did  not  interest 
him  at  all;  that  he  considered  the  speculations  which 
were  then  being  carried  on  in  France  by  Lamarck  on 
the  origin  of  the  species  as  far  more  important.  For 
these  were  concerned  with  an  idea,  and  an  idea  far  out- 
lasted in  permanent  influence  any  political  turmoil. 
Something  in  the  same  way  we  may  say — that  we  are 
here  today  under  the  inspiration  of  two  ideas,  either  of 
which  tends  to  dwarf  the  significance  of  even  such  politi- 
cal turmoil  as  that  which  has  just  prevailed  among  us. 
There  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  idea  that  medical  educa- 
tion properly  belongs  to  a  university;  that  it  is  an  in- 
tellectual matter,  and  not  a  mere  trade,  to  be  practiced 
for  pecuniary  profit,  and  then  there  is  the  further  idea, 
and  which  more  especially  concerns  us,  that  women 
are  to  participate  to  the  full  in  this  intellectual  aspect 
of  medicine,  and  to  follow  it  to  the  highest  plane  of  in- 
tellectual development  to  which  it  can  be  carried.  This, 
I  repeat,  is  another  great  idea.    It  is  the  first  time  it  has 


36      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

been  distinctly  enunciated,  at  this  plane  of  thought  on 
the  American  continent.  Throughout  the  West  it  is  true 
the  most  generous  intention  has  been  developed  for 
women  to  enter  all  departments  of  the  principal  univer- 
sities, but  in  none  of  them  has  medical  education  reached 
the  plane  intended  here.  It  is  interesting  to  contrast 
what  has  been  done  here  with  what  has  been  done  in 
Europe.  The  majority  of  European  universities  have 
opened  the  doors  of  their  medical,  as  of  their  other 
schools  to  women.  This  has  been  a  gift  from  above 
with  very  little  popular  demand  and  without  the  aid  of 
either  popular  effort  or  private  munificence.  But  here 
it  is  the  women  themselves  who  have  been  aroused  to 
feel  the  necessity  of  these  higher  intellectual  opportuni- 
ties for  women  and  to  exert  themselves  personally  and 
energetically  to  secure  them.  For  the  munificence  of 
the  noble  woman  who  has  so  generously  sustained  this 
enterprise,  for  the  generous  energy  of  all  those  who 
have  taken  part  in  it,  we  medical  women  do  feel  espe- 
cially and  profoundly  grateful.  It  is  a  great  occasion, 
and  once  more,  Mr,  President,  on  behalf  of  all  the  guests 
whom  you  have  gathered  together,  I  thank  you." 

Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  are  frequently  asked  whether  we 
are  graduates  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School,  but 
as  we  both  went  to  Baltimore  as  doctors  of  medicine  be- 
fore 1893,  that  is,  before  the  Johns  Hopkins  Medical 
School  existed,  we  can  not  claim  that  honor.  What  in 
general  the  status  of  women  physicians  was  in  Balti- 
more at  this  date  may  be  indicated  by  a  few  of  our  ex- 
periences. I  can  recall  the  names  of  six  medical  schools 
in  Baltimore  in  1892.  One  of  these  was  a  small  school 
on  McCulloh  Street  for  women.    One  or  two  of  the  other 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      37 

schools  had  at  some  period  in  their  history  admitted 
women  and  given  them  degrees,  but  in  1892  the  Wom- 
en's Medical  College  of  Baltimore  was  the  only  medi- 
cal school  in  Maryland  admitting  women.  How  well 
this  small  school,  in  spite  of  its  lack  of  money  and  its 
poor  equipment,  did  its  work  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  in  1890  two  of  its  graduates  were  appointed 
as  internes  in  the  Philadelphia  Hospital  (Blockley) 
after  a  competitive  examination  which  would  have  been 
glad  to  disqualify  them,  if  possible,  on  two  counts,  first 
because  they  were  women,  and  second  because  they  were 
neither  residents  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  nor  had 
they  received  their  medical  training  in  Philadelphia. 
These  two.  Dr.  Claribel  Cone  and  Dr.  Flora  Pollack, 
are  worthy  representatives  of  the  character  of  the  work 
of  this  school,  which  very  properly  went  out  of  existence 
with  the  changed  conditions  of  modern  medical  educa- 
tion. Dr.  Amanda  Taylor  Norris  still,  I  believe,  in  ac- 
tive practice,  a  graduate  of  the  Woman's  Medical  Col- 
lege of  Pennsylvania,  was,  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  the 
first  woman  to  practice  medicine  in  the  city  of  Balti- 
more. 

I  have  already  said  it  was  by  chance  that  Dr.  Sher- 
wood went  to  Baltimore,  but  after  a  year's  residence  it 
was  by  deliberate  choice  that  she  stayed  there  and  per- 
suaded me  to  resign  my  position  in  the  Norristown 
(Pa.)  State  Hospital  for  the  Insane  and  join  her.  As  I 
look  back  on  those  early  years  in  Baltimore  I  wonder 
how  we  lived  them  through.  The  proverbial  wolf 
howled  loudly  at  our  door,  patients  were  few  and  far 
between,  and  our  office  hours  were  periods  of  solitary 
confinement.     In  1893,  when  our  fortunes  were  at  their 


38      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

lowest  ebb,  Dr.  Sherwood  was  offered  an  attractive  posi- 
tion in  one  of  the  best  northern  colleges  for  women  at  a 
salary  large  for  that  period  with  opportunities  for  prac- 
tice unusual  for  a  woman.  About  the  same  time  I  had 
a  chance  to  resume  work  in  a  woman's  department  of 
another  Pennsylvania  State  hospital  at  a  good  salary  and 
an  assured  future.  Three  things  were,  I  think,  the  de- 
cisive factors  in  keeping  us  in  Baltimore:  first,  Dr. 
Sherwood's  unbounded  optimism  and  a  kind  of  charac- 
teristic obstinacy — a  fixity  of  purpose — which  will  not 
permit  her  to  yield  a  course  on  which  she  has  started 
until  she  has  proved  to  herself  the  impossibility  of  car- 
rying it  through;  second,  our  proximity  to  the  Johns 
Hopkins  Hospital  with  its  laboratories  and  workers  fur- 
nishing an  indescribably  stimulating  atmosphere  to 
young  men  and  women  with  medical  training  and  medi- 
cal outlook;  third,  the  Evening  Dispensary  for  working 
women  and  girls  with  which  we  had  become  closely 
identified. 

When  Dr.  Sherwood  went  to  Baltimore  to  reside  she 
took  an  office  on  Cathedral  Street  around  the  corner  from 
the  Johns  Hopkins  University  buildings  and  its  under- 
graduate school.  Her  sign  on  the  outside  under  her  one 
window  was  promptly  stolen  and  doubtless  adorned  the 
walls  of  the  room  of  one  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  boys. 
After  that  she  always  kept  her  sign  on  the  inside  of  the 
window.  I  think  to  this  day  she  never  passes  that  win- 
dow without  a  feeling  of  desolation  coming  up  from  the 
subconscious  implantations  of  the  lonely  hours  spent 
there.  She,  however,  made  early  connections  with  the 
Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  and  its  laboratories.  When 
she  had  determined  to  turn  from  teaching  chemistry  to 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      39 

the  Study  of  medicine,  after  investigating  opportunities 
for  study  in  the  United  States  and  finding  that  the  two 
best  schools  open  to  her  were  exclusively  women's 
schools,  in  order  to  be  sure  that  her  opportunities  were 
equal  to  any  man's,  she  decided  to  pursue  her  medical 
studies  at  the  University  of  Ziirich  where  women  had 
been  received  from  1865.  After  one  year  at  Ziirich, 
desiring  to  continue  her  studies  in  her  own  country,  if 
possible,  she  applied  for  admission  to  the  College  of 
Physicians  and  Surgeons  in  New  York  City,  New  York 
being  her  native  state.  Her  application  was  answered 
about  as  follows:  "This  Medical  College  has  never  re- 
ceived a  woman  as  a  student."  It  may  be  added  it  never 
did  receive  a  woman  as  a  student  until  1920,  about 
thirty  years  later. 

Even  without  credentials  Dr.  Sherwood  would  have 
been  received  as  a  worker  in  the  laboratories  and  the 
wards  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  as  all  they  asked 
was  a  medical  degree  and  a  desire  to  work,  but  armed 
with  letters  from  Professor  Klebs  and  Professor  Eich- 
horst  of  Ziirich,  the  one  a  distinguished  pathologist,  the 
other  a  distinguished  teacher  of  internal  medicine,  she 
easily  found  a  place  in  Dr.  Welch's  laboratory  and  a 
hearty  welcome  to  Dr.  Osier's  wards,  and  to  those  of  Dr. 
Kelly.  When  one  considers  the  profound  influence  made 
upon  the  lives  and  work  of  the  men  who  had  the  privil- 
ege of  those  early  associations  of  the  Hopkins  Hospital 
in  its  pre-medical-school  days,  one  can  easily  under- 
stand how  a  woman  with  education,  understanding  and 
ideals  was  willing  to  make  any  personal  sacrifice  to  en- 
joy the  opportunities  to  be  found  at  that  time  in  no  other 
medical  atmosphere  in  the  world. 


40      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

In  the  interval  which  elapsed  between  the  acceptance 
of  the  "Women's  Fund"  and  the  completion  of  the  re- 
quired endowment  fund  by  Miss  Garrett,  the  women  of 
the  Baltimore  Committee  did  not  remit  their  efforts  in 
behalf  of  the  recognition  of  women  in  medicine  by  the 
hospital  authorities.  The  positions  of  residents  and  in- 
ternes in  the  various  departments  of  the  hospital  were 
eagerly  sought  by  young  medical  men  from  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  So  these  active  Baltimore  lay- 
women,  having  found  two  candidates  who  they  thought 
would  make  good.  Dr.  Alice  Hall  and  Dr.  Sherwood, 
proceeded  to  bring  all  possible  influence  to  secure  their 
appointment  as  residents. 

A  few  months  ago  among  some  old  letters  I  found 
one  from  Dr.  Sherwood  jubilantly  announcing  that  Dr. 
Osier  had  asked  her  to  go  into  the  hospital  on  his  staff. 
I  remember  very  well  that  she  was  not  satisfied  to  write 
me  such  a  thrilling  piece  of  news,  but  followed  it  with 
a  personal  visit  to  Norristown  to  tell  me  all  about  it. 
Dr.  Kelly  at  the  same  time  had  asked  Dr.  Alice  Hall, 
who  had  come  to  Baltimore,  as  I  have  already  told,  to 
organize  a  department  of  hygiene  at  the  Woman's  Col- 
lege, to  become  a  resident  of  the  hospital  on  his  staff. 
Their  appointments  were  to  begin  in  the  fall  of  1891  and 
that  summer  Dr.  Sherwood  joined  her  family  in  New 
York  for  a  vacation  with  a  light  heart  and  great  expec- 
tations. On  her  return  to  Baltimore  she  was  doomed  to 
a  bitter  disappointment  caused  by  what  Herr  Dr.  Froe- 
licher  would  designate  "Das  ewig  weibliche."  Again  I 
find  preserved  one  of  her  letters  in  which  she  says:  "Yes- 
terday I  went  to  a  meeting  of  the  Woman's  Literary 
Club  and  the  President  announced  the  marriage  during 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      41 

the  summer  of  Dr.  Alice  Hall.  Nobody  seems  to  know 
anything  about  it,  as  I  asked  her  friend,  Dr.  Kate  Camp- 
bell Hurd,  after  the  meeting,  and  she  was  as  surprised 
as  I  was.  This  morning  I  have  the  enclosed  letter  from 
Miss  King,  followed  later  by  a  visit  from  her  when  she 
was  so  sorry  for  my  disappointment  that  she  quite  took 
back  what  she  had  said  in  her  letter." 

Miss  Elizabeth  King  (afterwards  Mrs.  William  Elli- 
cott),  daughter  of  Mr.  Francis  T.  King,  President  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital,  was 
one  of  the  most  ardent  workers  for  the  Women's  Fund 
and  for  the  appointment  of  women  physicians  as  in- 
ternes. She  knew  that  the  authorities  of  the  hospital 
would  not  admit  a  married  woman  as  an  interne,  nor 
would  they  sanction  the  appointment  of  one  woman.  In 
her  letter  referred  to  by  Dr.  Sherwood  she  expresses 
her  surprise  that  Dr.  Hall  had  not  seen  fit  to  acquaint 
those  interested  of  her  intentions  and  her  resentment  at 
the  failure  of  the  scheme,  and  practically  says  for  the 
future  she  washes  her  hands  of  women  doctors.  This 
was,  of  course,  simply  an  acute  reaction  of  disappoint- 
ment. She  not  only  did  not  give  up  her  interest  in  the 
progress  of  women  in  medicine,  but  she  gave  her  friend- 
ship and  support  to  Dr.  Sherwood  not  only  in  those  early 
trying  years,  but  throughout  the  remainder  of  her  life. 

It  was,  of  course,  a  bitter  disappointment  to  Dr.  Sher- 
wood not  to  have  that  much  coveted  service  under  Dr. 
Osier,  but  she  had  gained  the  privilege  of  his  friendship 
and  good  will,  in  a  measure  of  which  I  was  subsequently 
included,  one  of  the  rarest  privileges  life  has  brought 
to  either  of  us.  The  year  1891  was  one  of  the  early 
years  of  Dr.  Kelly's  brilliant  surgical  career.     In  addi- 


42      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

tion  to  his  work  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  he  had 
a  large  and  growing  surgical  and  obstetrical  private 
practice  in  Baltimore.  When  the  scheme  for  the  interne- 
ship  of  women  in  the  hospital  failed  he  asked  Dr.  Sher- 
wood to  assist  him  in  his  private  work  at  a  yearly  modest 
salary. 

In  those  early  days  of  gynaecological  surgery  women 
physicians,  as  a  rule,  were  very  ambitious  to  enter  that 
field.  Naturally  the  early  cases  that  come  to  every 
woman  in  her  practice  are  gynaecological  and  obstetri- 
cal. Elizabeth  Blackwell  is  said  to  have  turned  her  at- 
tention to  medicine  as  a  profession  for  women  because 
one  of  her  friends,  a  great  sufferer,  frequently  told  her 
it  would  be  a  great  comfort  if  she  could  have  the  attend- 
ance of  a  woman  trained  in  medicine.  Gynaecology  had 
been  in  1891  a  rather  recent  entrant  into  the  field  of 
medical  specialties  and  it  was  then  becoming  clear  that 
its  future  lay  more  and  more  in  surgical  procedure. 
Personally  I  had  made  up  my  mind  while  I  was  study- 
ing medicine  that  neither  surgery  in  any  of  its  branches 
nor  obstetrics  made  the  same  appeal  to  me  as  the  study 
of  internal  medicine.  Dr.  Sherwood  did  not  feel  exactly 
that  way,  but  no  matter  how  she  felt  she  was  offered  an 
opportunity  that  no  woman  physician  at  that  time  would 
have  declined.  I  was  glad  enough  when  I  arrived  in 
Baltimore  to  have  the  slightest  share  in  Dr.  Sherwood's 
work  with  Dr.  Kelly.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  Dr.  Sher- 
wood accepted  Dr.  Kelly's  offer  promptly  with  enthu- 
siasm. 

Dr.  Kelly  was  a  stimulating  and  inspiring  chief. 
Something  of  his  unbounded  energy  he  managed  to  in- 
fuse into  those  who  worked  with  him.     He  always  had 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN   BALTIMORE      43 

some  problem  on  hand  upon  which  he  would  set  his 
assistants  working.  He  had  the  mind  and  courage  of 
an  explorer.  A  field  once  worked  over  lost  interest  for 
him,  and  he  was  constantly  seeking  new  worlds  to  con- 
quer. The  charm  of  his  personality,  his  generosity,  his 
broad  human  interests  claimed  our  admiration  and  re- 
spect. Our  association  with  him  laid  the  foundations 
for  us  of  an  enduring  friendship  that  is  one  of  our  preci- 
ous possessions.  He  not  only  made  Dr.  Sherwood  his 
assistant  in  his  private  work,  but  for  the  summer  of 
1892  gave  her  a  place  on  his  staff  in  the  hospital  with- 
out residence. 

Optimistic  as  to  the  future,  Dr.  Sherwood  now  felt 
surely  there  was  room  in  Baltimore  for  more  women 
physicians,  and  urged  me  to  join  her.  She  is  accus- 
tomed to  say  that  it  took  one-third  of  a  year  to  persuade 
me.  However  that  may  be,  I  did  join  her  there  on  Feb- 
ruary 22,  1892.  She  had  just  taken  possession  of  the 
office  suite  in  the  Arundel  Apartments  at  Charles  and 
Mount  Royal  Avenue,  the  first  apartment  house  to  be 
erected  in  Baltimore.  Wyatt  and  Nolting  were  the  archi- 
tects and  Mr.  Wyatt  was  the  manager.  Dr.  Sherwood's 
brother  had  suggested  that  she  take  this,  the  only  office 
suite  the  building  was  to  contain,  and  went  with  her  to 
interview  Mr  Wyatt  while  the  building  was  under  con- 
struction. After  a  little  hesitation  a  lease  was  given  her. 
The  hesitation  about  leasing  to  a  woman  physician  may 
have  been  due  to  the  feeling  put  into  words  by  two  small 
boys  whom  I  overheard  one  night  in  the  early  days  of 
our  occupancy.  The  building  was  advertised  to  contain 
bachelors'  suites  and  housekeeping  apartments.  Sitting 
in  the  front  office  one  evening,  our  signs  safely  on  the 


44      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN   BALTIMORK 

inside  of  the  windows,  I  heard  two  small  boys  reading 
them:  "Dr.  Mary  Sherwood,  Dr.  Lilian  Welsh;"  then 
with  loud  laughter:  "Bachelors'  apartments  and  old 
maids  livin'  in  them!" 

In  those  days  it  was  occasionally  borne  in  upon  us 
that  we  belonged  to  a  class  apart.  Dr.  Osier  jocularly 
said:  "Human  kind  might  be  divided  into  three  groups 
— men,  women  and  women  physicians."  We  never  had 
any  reason  to  complain  of  the  treatment  we  received 
from  our  male  colleagues.  Those  whom  we  knew  were 
uniformly  courteous  and  friendly  and  helpful  in  a  pro- 
fessional way,  but  women  doctors  were  in  1892  in  Bal- 
timore somewhat  of  a  curiosity.  We  early  learned  not 
to  presume  that  an  acquaintance  made  in  a  professional 
capacity  in  assisting  Dr.  Kelly  or  in  our  own  offices  en- 
titled us  to  any  recognition  in  a  social  way,  even  as  one 
passed  in  the  streets.  Dr.  Sherwood's  sister-in-law  at 
a  large  afternoon  tea  was  asked  by  her  hostess  whether 
she  was  related  to  Dr.  Mary  Sherwood.  She  answered 
with  some  pride  that  Dr.  Sherwood  was  not  only  her 
sister-in-law,  but  her  cousin  as  well.  Her  hostess  rather 
frigidly  replied  that  she  knew  Dr.  Sherwood  profes- 
sionally, but,  of  course,  it  would  not  be  possible  to  know 
her  in  a  social  way. 

I  remember  once  hearing  someone  ask  Dr.  Kelly's 
little  daughter,  then  about  three:  "Well,  Olga,  when  you 
grow  up  will  you  be  a  doctor  like  papa?"  "No,"  replied 
Olga  promptly,  "I  shall  be  a  lady."  In  the  Norristown 
Hospital  for  the  Insane,  while  I  was  resident,  it  was  cus- 
tomary for  the  entire  staff  of  three  women  physicians  to 
go  through  all  the  wards  together  Sunday  morning.  Dr. 
Sherwood  on  one  of  her  visits  accompanied  us  on  this 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      45 

weekly  visit.  We  reached  the  last  ward  where  the  most 
excitable  patients  were  confined  and  the  one  who  at  the 
time  was  giving  us  most  trouble  planted  herself  firmly 
in  our  way  and,  looking  at  Dr.  Sherwood,  said:  "Say, 
are  you  a  doctor  or  a  lady?"  To  the  laugh  with  which 
we  greeted  this  she  continued:  "Well,  you  look  so  young 
and  pleasant  I  thought  you  might  be  a  lady."  Out  of 
the  mouths  of  babes  and  defectives  come  often  current 
social  opinions. 

In  1895  the  American  Medical  Association  met  in 
Baltimore.  Most  of  the  women  physicians  in  Baltimore 
were  members  and,  of  course,  had  paid  their  dues  into 
the  local  society  which  was  making  arrangements  for 
entertaining  the  visiting  doctors.  An  auxiliary  commit- 
tee of  laywomen  had  been  appointed,  as  usual,  to  look 
after  the  entertainment  of  the  ladies  who  would  accom- 
pany their  male  relatives.  Among  the  entertainments 
arranged  by  this  committee  was  an  afternoon  reception 
to  be  held  at  the  rooms  of  the  newly  formed  Arundell 
Club,  then  occupying  a  house  on  West  Madison  Street. 
We  were  afterwards  informed  that  the  "Ladies'  Com- 
mittee" had  spent  several  hours  in  discussing  whether 
they  would  invite  the  women  doctors,  local  and  visiting, 
to  this  reception  and  finally  decided  with  great  reluct- 
ance to  include  them.  Dr.  Sherwood  was  much  mysti- 
fied the  afternoon  of  this  reception  to  be  followed  per- 
sistently by  one  or  two  of  her  friends  of  the  Arundell 
Club,  of  whose  board  of  trustees  she  was  a  member,  who 
insisted  upon  introducing  her  to  many  Baltimore  ladies, 
in  order  as  they  told  her  afterwards  to  prove  that  be- 
ing a  lady  and  being  a  physician  were  not  incompatible. 


46      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

What  the  general  public  thought  of  us  did  not  trouble 
us.  We  were  too  much  occupied  with  our  own  work, 
our  own  outlook  and  our  own  hopes.  Indeed  it  did  not 
occur  to  us  that  anyone  thought  of  us  at  all,  but  of  the 
occasional  gossip  that  reached  us  that  which  amused  us 
most  was  the  assumption  that  any  woman  who  took  up 
the  profession  of  medicine  must  have  done  so  from 
some  profound  emotional  disturbance,  some  secret  grief, 
presumably  a  disappointment  in  love.  I  was  frequently 
approached  with  a  demand  to  know  why  Dr.  Sher- 
wood had  not  married  and  what  "her  story"  was. 
An  acquaintance  of  mine,  a  trained  nurse  who  had 
known  me  from  early  girlhood,  told  me  she  had  had  a 
special  visit  from  a  woman  who  desired  to  know  "what 
concealment  like  a  worm  in  the  bud  was  gnawing  on  my 
damask  cheek."  The  truth  is  neither  of  us  had  any  story 
behind  us.  We  were  two  ordinary  women  who  had 
looked  forward  from  early  girlhood  to  the  possibility 
of  self-support,  who  had  gone  into  teaching  because  it 
was  the  only  profession  with  any  intellectual  outlook 
which  promised  self-support  and  who  had,  following  our 
intellectual  bent,  gone  into  medicine  because  we  were 
interested  in  science  and  in  human  nature. 

Possibly  nothing  so  well  illustrates  the  change  thirty 
years  has  wrought  in  the  world's  attitude  towards  women 
than  just  such  incidents  as  I  have  related.  The  word 
lady  has  largely  disappeared  from  our  vocabulary  as  a 
designation  for  young  women,  and  no  one  assumes  today 
that  there  must  be  some  peculiar  underlying  reason  for 
a  young  woman  choosing  a  professional  or  business 
career  as  an  outlet  for  her  energies. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      47 

I  once  heard  a  medical  instructor  of  mine,  a  man, 
say  that  the  first  five  years  after  he  had  opened  an  office 
he  did  not  have  one  office  case,  but  that  these  years  v^ere 
the  most  important  and  fruitful  of  his  professional  life. 
While  in  the  years  between  1892  and  1894  Dr.  Sher- 
wood and  I  did  have  a  few  office  patients,  not  by  any 
means  nearly  enough  to  pay  the  office  rent,  we  can  say 
that  those  two  years  were  for  us  the  most  important  in 
our  professional  lives.  We  formed  close  and  lasting 
friendships;  we  had  access  to  the  wards,  the  clinics,  the 
laboratories,  the  lectures,  the  courses,  the  libraries  and 
societies  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital;  we  learned  to 
understand  the  social  traditions  of  Baltimore  and  to  bear 
with  tolerance  those  we  could  not  always  observe;  we 
acquired  a  taste  for  the  Baltimore  Morning  Sun  that 
always  yet  leaves  us  unsatisfied  with  any  other  daily 
newspaper.  In  1892  Dr.  Sherwood's  brother,  Prof. 
Sidney  Sherwood,  was  called  from  the  Wharton  School 
of  Finance  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  to  the  As- 
sociate Professorship  of  Economics  at  the  Hopkins,  and 
he  was  our  ever  present  help  in  time  of  trouble. 

During  those  two  years  we  came  to  see  clearly  that 
so  far  as  practical  medicine  was  concerned  our  inter- 
ests lay  definitely  in  the  field  of  preventive  medicine. 
This  we  owe  in  such  large  measure  to  our  work  in  an 
Evening  Dispensary  for  Working  Women  and  Girls  that 
I  shall  take  a  separate  chapter  for  my  experience  here. 
Early  Goucher  students  will  remember  how  largely  I 
drew  my  illustrations  for  my  lectures  on  hygiene  from 
my  experiences  in  this  dispensary. 


48      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 


Chapter  IV 

Medical  Experiences  in  Baltimore,  1892-1924.    Even- 
ing Dispensary  for  Working  Women  and  Girls 

When  women  sought  to  study  medicine  in  modern 
times  it  became  necessary  to  establish  separate  schools 
in  order  to  secure  opportunities  for  them.  The  first  of 
these,  the  Woman's  Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania, 
grew  out  of  Elizabeth  Blackwell's  visit  to  Philadelphia 
in  1848  when  she  was  seeking  a  medical  school  that 
would  admit  her.  It  was  the  only  woman's  medical 
school  in  the  United  States  that  ever  secured  money  for 
a  permanent  endowment.  This  amounted  to  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  1893  when  the 
Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School  was  opened  with  an  en- 
dowment of  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  This  school 
is  still  in  existence,  the  only  woman's  school  surviving 
in  our  country,  and  has  just  celebrated  the  seventy-fifth 
anniversary  of  its  founding. 

After  the  school  was  established  its  friends  organized 
a  hospital  that  would  furnish  clinical  opportunities  for 
women  students.  In  New  York  later  Dr.  Elizabeth  Black- 
well  and  her  sister,  Dr.  Emily  Blackwell,  organized  a 
hospital  first  and  subsequently  a  medical  school — the 
Medical  School  of  the  New  York  Infirmary.  When 
Cornell  Medical  College  was  reorganized  about  1898 
and  admitted  women,  this  medical  school  was  closed,  but 
its  hospital  was  continued.  In  Boston  the  women  organ- 
ized a  hospital  for  the  use  of  women  physicians,  the  New 
England  Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,  but  no  sue- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      49 

cessful  medical  school  for  women.  These  women's  hos- 
pitals among  their  other  activities — two  of  them  claim 
the  honor  of  having  organized  the  first  training  school 
for  nurses  in  the  United  States — organized  special  eve- 
ning clinics  for  working  women  and  girls — the  first  eve- 
ning clinics,  I  think,  in  the  field  of  dispensary  practice. 
This  movement  began  about  1890.  Dr.  Alice  Hall  and 
Dr.  Kate  Campbell  Hurd,  whom  I  have  already  referred 
to  as  coming  to  Baltimore  about  1889,  one  as  medical 
director  of  the  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore,  the  other 
as  medical  director  of  the  Bryn  Mawr  School,  both 
graduates  of  the  Woman's  Medical  College  of  Pennsyl- 
vania and  both  having  served  interneships  in  the  New 
England  Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,  had  prob- 
ably worked  in  evening  clinics.  These  two  women  evi- 
dently made  early  contacts  with  Baltimore  laywomen 
most  interested  in  the  success  of  the  Women's  Fund 
for  the  Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School.  They  are  the 
only  women  physicians  whose  names  are  included  in 
the  Baltimore  group  of  women  invited  to  the  luncheon 
when  the  Women's  Fund  was  formally  received  by  the 
hospital  trustees.  At  all  events,  they  succeeded  in  in- 
teresting some  prominent  citizens  of  Baltimore  in  or- 
ganizing an  evening  clinic  for  working  women  and  girls 
to  be  in  charge  of  women  physicians. 

The  Evening  Dispensary  for  Working  Women  and 
Girls  of  Baltimore  City  was  incorporated  March  21, 
1891,  by  a  group  of  prominent  men — Francis  T.  King, 
Louis  McLane,  John  Glenn,  James  Hodges,  Ferdinand 
C.  Latrobe,  Daniel  Miller,  John  Curlett,  Lawrason  Riggs. 
The  Dispensary  was  opened  at  621  South  Charles  Street 
March  1,  1891,  under  a  board  of  managers  consisting  of 


50      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

Alice  T.  Hall,  M.D.,  Kate  Campbell  Kurd,  M.D.,  Eliza- 
beth T.  King,  Julia  R.  Rogers,  Bertha  M.  Smith  (Mrs. 
R.  Manson  Smith),  Kate  M.  McLane,  Anne  Galbraith 
Carey  (Mrs.  Francis  K.  Carey).  When  this  dispensary 
was  finally  closed  on  March  1,  1910,  with  the  exception 
of  Miss  King,  the  lay  members  of  the  board  were  the 
same  as  at  the  beginning  with  the  addition  of  Mrs.  Caleb 
N.  Athey,  so  it  is  seen  that  for  eighteen  years  this  small 
group  of  women,  together  with  a  small  group  of  annual 
subscribers,  gave  continued  and  loyal  support  to  a  cause 
which  made  no  great  appeal  to  the  general  Baltimore 
public — that  is,  they  gave  opportunities  to  women  who 
might  desire  in  sickness  the  services  of  their  own  sex, 
and  they  gave  opportunities  for  experience  in  the  prac- 
tice of  medicine  to  young  women  physicians  at  a  period 
when  such  opportunities  were  difficult  to  find. 

I  recall  appearing  once  with  the  Dispensary  Board 
before  a  committee  of  the  Board  of  Charities  and  Cor- 
rections which  controlled  appropriations  to  the  various 
hospitals  and  dispensaries  of  the  city.  This  Board  had 
decided  to  withdraw  all  appropriations  to  special  hos- 
pitals and  dispensaries  and  on  the  ground  that  women 
physicians  for  women  patients  represented  a  specialty 
they  had  decided  to  withdraw  the  city  appropriation 
which  the  Evening  Dispensary  had  received  from  its 
start.  In  the  hearing  the  Committee  granted  us  to  pro- 
test against  their  ruling  I  made  the  point  that  they  had 
granted  an  appropriation  to  the  homeopathic  dispensary 
and  asked  whether  that  was  not  more  of  a  specialty  than 
our  own.  The  chief  spokesman  for  the  Committee,  a 
fair  and  socially-minded  man,  replied  that  city  patients 
might  desire  to  be  treated  homeopathically,  but  in  his 


-1  H 

-I- 

4lrlH 

"5f'' 

^Hj^^^m^^^^^^h B^V^>  lul 

^I3l  i  ,  \  ' 

"^  -''^'^"'^^^^^hK      ^^^^^^BViBIBS^^^                     '  ^_                                "T/lUMirF' 

/■ 

-^'"'^^^^"iM 

'^JBB^^W  :^^^^m||^-^  IJ^^ijjHHHBfii^^^^^B 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

MARY  SHERWOOD  AND  LILIAN  WELSH 
IN  THE  LABORATORY.  UNIVERSITY  OF  ZURICH.  1890 

{First   Course   in   Bacteriolouy   ever   giveyi  at   Ziirieh) 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      51 

judgment  there  was  no  demand  by  women  for  treatment 
by  women  physicians  and  instanced  his  wife  as  an  ex- 
ample of  all  women,  saying  she  had  never  felt  the  neces- 
sity for  the  services  of  a  medical  woman.  One  of  our 
members,  Mrs.  Carey,  responded  promptly  that  that  was 
possibly  true  as  to  the  women  of  the  class  to  which  she, 
herself,  and  the  wife  of  the  gentleman  belonged,  but 
that  she  had  become  convinced  that  large  numbers  of 
women  served  by  the  free  dispensaries  of  the  city  did 
desire  the  services  of  women  physicians.  We  did  not, 
however,  win  our  point  and  the  city  appropriation  was 
withdrawn. 

How  well  the  Dispensary  fulfilled  its  two  purposes 
may  be  indicated  by  the  statement  in  its  final  report  that 
in  the  eighteen  years  of  its  existence  twenty-two  thou- 
sand women  and  children  had  received  medical  care  in 
its  clinics  and  out-practice  and  that  fifty-two  women 
physicians  then  practicing  in  various  parts  of  the  world 
had  gained  valued  experience  in  the  opportunities  they 
had  found  for  medical  work  in  this  Baltimore  Dispen- 
sary. 

At  first  the  Dispensary  had  a  resident  nurse,  but  after 
several  years  a  woman  physician  was  in  residence 
who  was  on  duty  at  all  clinics  and  on  call  day  and  night. 
The  conditions  for  living  offered  the  resident  were  sim- 
ple— a  furnished  room  and  salary  sufficient  to  pay  for 
moderate  board.  The  inducements  were  opportunity 
for  work  at  the  Hopkins  and  an  increasingly  good  serv- 
ice in  medicine,  gynaecology  and  obstetrics  in  the  clinics 
and  out-practice.  That  the  position  of  resident  was  al- 
ways filled  after  it  was  established  under  these  trying 
and   exacting   conditions   is  evidence   of  the   difficulty 


52      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

women  physicians  had  at  that  time  in  finding  opportuni- 
ties for  hospital  and  clinical  service. 

Two  of  the  women  who  came  to  Baltimore  as  resident 
physicians  of  the  Evening  Dispensary  took  up  perma- 
nent residence  in  Baltimore.  They  were  both  Canadians. 
One,  Dr.  Frances  Carpenter,  settled  first  in  South  Balti- 
more, where  she  established  a  large,  lucrative  and 
successful  practice.  She  is  still  in  active  practice  in  Bal- 
timore. Dr.  Carpenter,  although  a  Canadian,  had  stud- 
ied medicine  at  the  Woman's  Medical  College  of  Phila- 
delphia. The  second  Canadian,  Dr.  Elizabeth  Hurdon, 
came  to  us  from  Toronto,  where  she  had  taken  her  medi- 
cal degree  at  the  first  Canadian  University  to  admit 
women  to  its  medical  school.  The  chief  attraction  Bal- 
timore had  for  Dr.  Hurdon  was  the  opportunity  for 
work  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School.  Dr.  Thomas 
K.  Cullen,  now  professor  of  Gynaecology  at  the  Hop- 
kins, a  Canadian  too,  was  there  as  a  member  of  Dr. 
Kelly's  Gynaecological  staff  and  had  charge  of  the 
pathological  work  of  this  service.  Dr.  Hurdon  promptly 
associated  herself  with  him  and  it  was  largely  through 
his  assistance  that  she  was  able  subsequently  to  develop 
her  surgical  technique. 

The  medical  and  surgical  services  of  the  dispensary 
so  far  as  its  residents  and  staff  were  concerned  were 
hampered  by  the  fact  that  women  physicians  had  no 
access  to  hospital  beds  where  they  could  care  for 
patients.  So  far  as  our  patients  were  concerned,  they 
were  well  taken  care  of  as  beds  for  them  could  usually 
be  found — except  the  obstetrical  cases — in  some  of  the 
various  city  hospitals.  They  then,  however,  passed  out 
of  the   hands   of  women   physicians.      Through   Miss 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      53 

McLane's  influence  a  free  bed  was  granted  the  dispen- 
sary for  surgical  patients  by  the  Church  Home  and  In- 
firmary, and  there  Dr.  Hurdon  got  her  chance  for  prac- 
tical surgery.  So  well  did  she  succeed  that  the  follow- 
ing year  Dr.  Gavin,  the  superintendent,  granted  the  Dis- 
pensary the  use  of  a  second  bed  for  Dr.  Hurdon's 
patients.  When  the  Church  Home  and  Infirmary  was 
reorganized  under  a  woman  superintendent  this  privilege 
was  withdrawn.  Fortunately  about  this  time  the  Wom- 
an's Hospital  of  Maryland  was  rebuilt  and  reorganized, 
and  Dr.  Hurdon  was  appointed  to  its  staff^  and  thus  was 
able  to  continue  her  work  as  a  surgeon. 

When  the  American  College  of  Surgeons  was  organ- 
ized Dr.  Hurdon  was  admitted  to  membership  among  the 
original  fellows  of  that  Association.  For  many  years 
before  she  left  Baltimore  she  was  an  Associate  in 
Gynaecology  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School  and 
taught  to  its  students  the  pathology  included  in  the 
course  on  gynaecology.  When  the  Great  War  began  Dr. 
Hurdon  grew  restive  to  join  her  family  who  were  then 
living  in  England  and  to  get,  if  possible,  into  some  active 
service.  So  she  wound  up  her  affairs  in  Baltimore,  we 
hoped  for  a  temporary  absence.  One  evening  in  June, 
1915,  Dr.  Sherwood,  Dr.  Sabin  and  I  saw  her  off  from 
Union  Station  on  a  midnight  train  for  New  York  from 
where  she  was  to  sail  the  following  morning  for  Eng- 
land. She  thought  she  might  be  able  to  get  service  in  a 
laboratory  to  take  the  place  of  a  man  gone  to  the  front, 
but  even  then  England  was  finding  a  shortage  in  physi- 
cians and  surgeons,  and  in  a  few  weeks  a  letter  from 
Dr.  Hurdon  said:  "I  am  on  board  a  steamer  with  a  con- 
tingent of  doctors  bound  for  Malta."     She  had  a  com- 


54      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

mission  and  was  in  active  service  as  a  surgeon  with  the 
British  Army  until  the  armistice  was  declared. 

Had  the  dispensary  served  but  the  two  purposes  of 
giving  working  women  an  opportunity  of  being  cared  for 
by  women  physicians  in  the  evening,  at  a  time  they  were 
free  to  consult  a  doctor,  and  of  giving  women  physicians 
an  opportunity  for  practical  experience  in  the  treatment 
of  the  sick,  it  would  have  performed  a  useful  function 
in  community  service.  It  did,  however,  much  more 
than  this.  From  the  outset  its  work  took  on  a  distinctly 
social  character  which  was  then  unique  in  a  dispensary 
service. 

When  Dr.  Hall  and  Dr.  Hurd  married  and  left  Bal- 
timore Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  took  their  places  on  the  Dis- 
pensary Board  and  were  thereafter  responsible  for  the 
medical  work  and  medical  policies.  At  first  we  took 
charge  of  all  the  clinics,  having  occasional  help  from 
some  of  the  other  women  physicians  living  in  Baltimore, 
and  a  resident  trained  nurse,  subsequently  of  a  resident 
physician.  From  1892,  when  we  began  our  connection 
with  the  Dispensary,  until  1910  when  it  was  given  up. 
Miss  Kate  M.  McLane  was  chairman  of  our  Board,  and 
to  her  was  due  the  social  service  features  that  character- 
ized our  work.  Those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  his- 
tory of  the  evolution  of  the  social  service  movement  in 
Baltimore  need  not  be  told  that  any  organization  that 
could  receive  from  Miss  McLane  not  only  financial  sup- 
port, but  her  time,  her  thought,  and  her  active  interest 
must  of  necessity  do  work  having  distinctively  social 
value.  It  was  to  our  association  with  Miss  McLane  on 
this  Dispensary  Board  that  Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  owe 
much  of  our  early  interest  and  our  early  opportunities 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      55 

in  the  field  of  medical  sociology.  Her  friendship,  ad- 
vice and  sympathy  have  been  ours  for  thirty  years  and 
have  been  to  us  an  unfailing  incentive  and  source  of 
courage  and  help. 

The  foundation  for  many  of  the  subsequent  activities 
of  Dr.  Sherwood  and  myself  in  public  health,  whether 
in  the  field  of  education  or  in  practical  service  on  com- 
missions and  boards,  or  in  administrative  positions,  was 
laid  in  the  experience  and  knowledge  gained  in  this  dis- 
pensary service  and  in  the  associations  to  which  it  led. 
This  is  evident  from  an  enumeration  of  public  health 
activities  in  which  the  final  dispensary  report  shows  it 
was  engaged.    The  report  says: 

"In  addition  to  caring  for  the  sick  and  giving  medical 
opportunities  to  qualified  women  physicians  the  Dispen- 
sary managers  have  always  clearly  recognized  the  im- 
portant function  a  medical  dispensary  may  perform  in 
preventing  disease  and  promoting  health.  Its  work  has 
been  isolated  and  its  sphere  of  influence  limited,  but  it 
may  justly  claim  to  have  done  pioneer  work  in  using  a 
medical  dispensary  as  a  means  of  investigating  causes  of 
distress,  and  of  applying  remedial  measures  in  the  do- 
main of  preventive  medicine.  In  this  final  report  it  may 
be  permitted  to  enumerate  briefly  some  of  its  activities 
in  this  field. 

"(1)  Public  Health  Instruction.  The  medical  staff 
and  resident  physicians  have  from  the  beginning  freely 
offered  their  services  to  organizations  of  women  and 
girls  for  health  talks,  and  have  responded  to  hundreds 
of  invitations  for  talks  on  hygiene. 

"(2)  Instructive  Work  in  the  Home.  In  1893  a 
resident  nurse  was  employed  to  follow  up  patients  in 


56      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

their  homes  and  instruct  them  in  the  care  of  the  sick  and 
the  hygiene  of  the  household.  This  was  the  first  instruc- 
tive visiting  nurse  employed  in  Baltimore. 

"(3)  Clean  Milk  Distribution.  As  part  of  its  origi- 
nal equipment  the  dispensary  had  several  milk  sterili- 
zers for  the  use  of  mothers  of  infants.  For  several  years 
during  the  summer  a  supply  of  clean  milk  from  a  pri- 
vate dairy  was  distributed  to  sick  babies,  the  first  dis- 
tribution of  this  kind  in  Baltimore. 

*'(4)  Public  Bath.  The  Dispensary  opened  with  one 
public  indoor  bath  installed  in  its  house,  the  first  in  Bal- 
more.  It  was  well  patronized  by  the  women  of  the 
neighborhood. 

"(5)  Midwives.  In  1893  the  obstetrical  service  of 
the  Mothers'  Relief  Society  was  undertaken  by  the  Dis- 
pensary staff.  In  connection  with  the  Mothers'  Relief 
Society  it  investigated  the  conditions  of  the  practice  of 
midwives  in  Baltimore  City.  The  published  results  of 
this  investigation  proved  an  efficient  aid  in  securing  the 
new  midwifery  law  enacted  by  the  last  session  of  the 
Maryland  Legislature. 

"(6)  Birth  Registration,  During  the  past  year  the 
Dispensary  has  undertaken  a  study  of  some  of  the  con- 
ditions of  birth  registration  in  Baltimore,  the  results  of 
which  will  be  published  in  the  near  future. 

"(7)  Tuberculosis.  In  the  early  days  of  the  tuber- 
culosis agitation  the  Dispensary  undertook  for  the 
Health  Department  a  statistical  study  of  the  deaths  from 
tuberculosis  in  Baltimore  for  ten  years — 1890  to  1900 
— with  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  infected  houses  and 
infected  localities.  The  result  of  this  study  was  graphi- 
cally presented  in  a  map  exhibited  by  the  Health  De- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      57 

partment  at  the  Maryland  Tuberculosis  Exhibition  and 
reproduced  in  its  annual  report  of  1904. 

"(8)  Sodal  Service  Department.  The  Evening  Dis- 
pensary was  the  second  dispensary  in  Baltimore  to  or- 
ganize a  social  service  department  under  a  trained  social 
worker.  This  has  become  in  the  opinion  of  the  Mana- 
gers an  indispensable  adjunct  to  the  efficiency  of  the 
Dispensary." 

I  could  cite  many  illustrations  of  the  lessons  we 
learned  in  our  work  with  individual  cases.  Early  and 
insistently  it  was  borne  in  upon  us  that  the  remedies 
needed  by  our  patients  were  often  economic  and  social 
rather  than  medical;  that  many  times  the  best  we  could 
do  for  them  was  to  cheer  them  up,  to  give  them  help  and 
encouragement  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  their  daily  lives 
and  this  required  far  more  time  and  patience  than  to 
give  them  a  bottle  of  medicine.  I  remember  Dr.  Sher- 
wood coming  home  once  about  1  o'clock  in  the  morning 
— our  evening  clinics  often  found  us  still  working  at 
midnight — and  the  way  home  by  the  horse  drawn  street 
cars  with  a  change  and  usually  a  long  wait  at  Baltimore 
and  Hanover  Streets  took  much  time.  As  she  divested 
herself  of  her  outer  garments,  which  always  needed  to 
be  carefully  investigated  after  an  evening's  work,  she 
said  emphatically:  "I  am  now  through  giving  young 
women  tonic  drugs  to  stimulate  their  appetites  when 
they  have  no  food  to  satisfy  them."  She  related  a  case 
of  the  evening,  a  young  woman  whom  she  had  watched 
struggling  to  support  herself  and  her  sister  on  inade- 
quate wages,  too  proud  to  seek  or  receive  alms,  whose 
story  she  had  drawn  out  with  the  greatest  difficulty.  I 
could  heartily  agree  with  her,  as  I  was  haunted  by  the 


58      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

white  face  of  a  young  girl  whom  I  was  giving  iron  for 
anemia  when  she  and  her  mother  were  trying  to  live  on 
their  combined  wages  of  three  dollars  per  week. 

It  was  our  obstetrical  service,  however,  and  the  con- 
ditions under  which  we  found  women  bearing  their  chil- 
dren that  stirred  most  deeply  a  feeling  of  medical  re- 
sponsibility. We  early  determined  to  use  all  our  oppor- 
tunities to  instruct  women  in  the  hygiene  of  maternity 
and  infancy,  and  to  lead  women  to  demand  more  en- 
lightened care  for  themselves  in  childbirth  and  for  their 
children;  to  seek  opportunities  to  aid  every  movement 
in  our  city  and  state  that  showed  promise  of  furthering 
the  health  and  welfare  of  women  and  children.  With 
the  Mothers'  Relief  Society,  the  dispensary  undertook 
in  a  small  way  pioneer  work  in  that  we  instituted  ante- 
natal care  of  mothers,  scientific  care  of  women  in  child- 
birth and  post-natal  supervision  of  mother  and  child — 
now  recognized  as  basic  principles  in  the  child  welfare 
movement. 

In  the  first  year  of  the  obstetrical  service  Dr.  Sher- 
wood and  I  took  all  the  cases;  later  we  were  assisted  by 
Dr.  Pollack.  We  became  well  acquainted  with  the  small 
streets  and  alleys  of  South  Baltimore  and  more  than  once 
walked  from  our  own  office  at  night  or  early  morning  the 
twenty  squares  or  more  necessary  to  reach  our  cases.  We 
were  never  molested  nor  were  any  of  our  doctors  who 
subsequently  did  the  same  work,  although  we  often 
found  ourselves  in  uncomfortable  and  unsavory  districts. 
I  remember  only  once,  and  that  in  my  student  days,  hav- 
ing a  man,  a  stranger,  speak  to  me  at  night.  Another 
medical  student  and  I  on  our  way  home  from  an  obstet- 
rical case  were  waiting  on  a  corner  in  Philadelphia  in 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      59 

one  of  the  poorer  sections  of  the  city  for  a  street  car. 
A  half  tipsy  man  in  gentlemen's  clothes  said:  "Good 
evening,  ladies."  We  turned  our  backs  and  he  tottered 
around  in  front  of  us  and  repeated  his  salutation.  Again 
we  turned  our  backs  and  again  he  staggered  around  and 
addressed  us.  When  this  had  occurred  three  times,  I 
said:  "Sir,  we  are  two  medical  students  who  are  out  in 
the  line  of  our  duty.  We  have  just  come  from  seeing  a 
sick  woman  and  we  shall  be  obliged  to  you  if  you  will 
let  us  alone."  He  straightened  up  instantly,  took  off  his 
hat,  apologized  and  passed  on. 

This  obstetrical  service  was  not  only  a  source  of  edu- 
cation to  us,  a  source  of  despondency  at  times,  but  also 
a  source  of  pleasure.  We  were  admitted  to  share  the 
joys  as  well  as  the  distress  and  sorrows  of  our  patients. 
One  of  our  friends  came  into  our  office  one  morning  to 
tell  us  that  she  had  gone  into  her  church  for  some  pur- 
pose and  found  two  women  in  the  vestibule  waiting  to 
have  a  baby  baptized.  She  asked  whether  the  baby  was 
a  boy  or  girl  and  what  its  name  was  to  be.  The  mother 
proudly  responded  it  was  a  girl  and  was  to  be  baptized 
"Dr.  Mary  Sherwood."  That  she  was  to  be  so  honored 
was  quite  unknown  to  Dr.  Sherwood.  I  have  myself 
several  name-sakes  dating  from  that  dispensary  service, 
whether  they  politely  prefix  "doctor"  to  their  names  or 
not,  I  do  not  know. 

The  Dispensary  service  was  large  and  varied  and  gave 
us  valuable  experience.  We  had  no  help  in  the  early 
days  from  the  City  Health  Department.  There  was  no 
place  to  send  scarlet  fever,  diphtheria  and  other  infecti- 
ous diseases  needing  isolation,  nor  had  we  the  laboratory 
aid  to  diagnosis  and  treatment  which  are  now  so  freely 


60      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

given  by  City  and  State  Health  Departments.  I  remem- 
ber Dr.  Hurdon,  while  she  was  resident,  coming  to  our 
office  late  one  evening  saying  she  was  much  concerned 
about  a  small  boy  she  had  been  called  to  see  who  she 
feared  had  laryngeal  diphtheria  and  was  in  bad  shape. 
We  had  never  seen  a  dose  of  diphtheria  antitoxin,  but  we 
decided  to  go  to  Hynson  and  Westcott  and  see  if  they 
had  by  chance  the  German  product  of  von  Behring.  For- 
tunately they  had  it.  We  paid  for  it  ourselves,  went 
down  and  injected  all  we  did  not  lose  with  a  hypodermic 
syringe.  It  acted  like  magic — the  boy  was  better  the 
next  morning  and  made  an  uneventful  recovery.  To- 
day in  all  cases  of  infectious  disease  the  City  Health 
Department  is  the  physician's  best  friend.  It  is  only 
when  one  can  look  back  over  a  long  period  of  years  that 
one  can  realize  the  rapid  strides  made  by  so-called  State 
Medicine. 

Very  early  our  experience  in  the  dispensary  was  lead- 
ing us  to  the  belief  that  the  solution  of  many  of  the  medi- 
cal problems  for  the  care  of  the  rich  as  well  as  of  the 
poor  lay  in  the  application  of  the  generalizations  of 
medical  science  through  public  health  measures.  While 
our  practical  experience  with  the  sick  was  enforcing  this 
lesson  a  more  powerful  influence  was  emphasizing  the 
same  point  of  view.  Modern  preventive  medicine  and 
public  hygiene  had  its  origin  in  the  rise  and  develop- 
ment of  bacteriology.  Yet  in  1889,  when  I  took  my 
medical  degree,  so  recent  had  been  the  entrance  of  this 
new  science  into  the  group  of  the  medical  sciences  that 
it  was  not,  I  think,  taught  to  medical  students  as  part 
of  their  course  in  any  of  the  medical  schools  of  the 
United  States.     Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  in  1889  took  the 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      61 

first  course  in  Bacteriology  offered  in  the  University  of 
Zurich,  sacrificing  a  spring  vacation  for  the  purpose.  It 
was  given  as  an  optional  special  course  in  the  depart- 
ment of  hygiene  by  a  young  physician  who  had  been  a 
student  in  Koch's  laboratory.  Whether  it  was  in  the 
Hopkins  Hospital  laboratories  organized  by  Dr.  William 
Welch  that  the  first  opportunities  for  studying  bacteri- 
ology were  given  in  the  United  States  I  am  not  sure,  but 
it  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  it  was  the  work  done 
in  his  laboratories  and  the  influence  that  went  out  from 
them  that  laid  the  foundations  and  gave  the  impetus  and 
direction  to  the  public  health  movement  in  our  country. 
During  my  first  year  in  Baltimore,  the  year  before  the 
medical  school  was  opened.  Dr.  Welch,  I  remember, 
gave  a  weekly  lecture  at  5  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  on 
bacteriology  to  which  the  physicians  of  Baltimore  were 
invited.  Dr.  Welch  is  a  great  teacher  and  could  pos- 
sibly have  made  any  subject  fascinatingly  interesting, 
but  this  new  field  itself  was  one  of  absorbing  interest  to 
students  of  medical  etiology.  Each  lecture  was  some- 
thing to  look  forward  to  for  an  entire  week.  Dr.  Sher- 
wood and  I  felt  that  it  was  "only  death  or  sudden  ill- 
ness" that  could  keep  us  from  attending. 

Our  proximity  to  the  Hopkins,  then,  with  its  stimu- 
lating atmosphere  of  research  as  the  foundation  for 
medical  practice  was  continually  increasing  our  inter- 
est in  the  domain  of  public  health  and  preventive  medi- 
cine. 

It  is  possibly  more  than  a  simple  coincidence  that  be- 
tween 1890  and  1900,  the  years  that  marked  the  rise 
and  progress  of  public  health  as  an  outgrowth  of  the 
scientific  study  of  disease,  another  great  movement  was 


62      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

taking  place  which  has  furnished  the  leaders  who  ad- 
vanced the  cause  of  public  health  probably  their  most 
efficient  aid  for  propaganda,  for  public  education  and 
for  securing  that  legislation  and  administrative  control 
necessary  for  progress.  I  refer  to  the  growth  of  the  wom- 
en's club  movement  in  the  United  States  and  the  con- 
centration of  much  of  their  interest  on  problems  relating 
to  civic  and  social  betterment. 

The  progress  of  this  movement  as  I  saw  it  in  Balti- 
more and  Maryland  has  been  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing experiences  of  my  life.  It  would  take  a  whole  book 
to  record  its  history. 


Chapter  V 

The  Women  s  Club  Movement  in  Baltimore.   The  Arun- 

dell  Club,  The  Arundell  Good  Government  Club, 

The  College  Club,  The  Maryland  State 

Federation  of  Women  s  Clubs 

When  I  returned  from  Ziirich  in  1890,  each  of  two 
of  my  best  friends,  one  living  in  eastern  Pennsylvania 
and  one  in  the  western  part  of  that  state,  unacquainted 
with  each  other,  told  me  that  the  most  interesting  and  im- 
portant thing  that  had  happened  to  her  in  the  year  I  had 
been  absent  had  been  attending,  as  a  delegate,  a  meet- 
ing in  Chicago  to  form  a  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs. 
One  represented  a  Shakespeare  club  and  one  a  history 
club.  I  suspect  that  at  that  original  meeting  in  Chicago 
most  of  the  delegates  represented  similar  clubs  having 
for  their  object  the  promotion  of  individual  self-culture. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      63 

"The  diffusion  of  sweetness  and  light"  was  a  favorite 
term  used  by  the  press  to  designate  their  activities.  At 
that  date  I  was  free  from  membership  in  any 
woman's  organization  which  is  proof  to  me  that  such  or- 
ganizations were  not  very  numerous  in  any  place  where 
I  had  lived.  When  I  went  to  Baltimore  in  1892  the  only 
woman's  club  I  heard  of  was  the  Woman's  Literary 
Club.  This  club  has  had  a  long  and  interesting  history 
as  a  purely  literary  club.  Miss  Lizette  Woodworth  Reese 
ought  to  record  this  history  as  she  has  been  for  many 
years  one  of  its  most  distinguished  members. 

Dr.  Sherwood  was  a  member  of  the  Woman's  Literary 
Club  until  the  Arundell  Club  was  organized  in  1894. 
We  were  both  charter  members  of  this  club  and  Dr. 
Sherwood  was  one  of  its  original  Board  of  Managers. 
It  was  organized  to  meet  a  demand  for  a  club  for  women 
whose  scope  of  activities  should  not  be  limited  except 
by  a  careful  consideration  of  those  subjects  in  which 
ladies  might  properly  show  an  interest  in  public.  Sec- 
tions on  art,  literature  and  music  were  formed,  and 
others  heralded  as  sections  for  serious  study  were  an- 
nounced from  time  to  time,  but  were  short-lived  as  seri- 
ous study  is  not  a  function  that  can  well  be  carried  on 
through  the  medium  of  a  woman's  club.  One  section, 
however,  of  great  practical  value  did  persist  owing  to 
its  capable  leadership  and  to  the  subjects  considered, 
the  section  on  Home  Economics — a  relatively  new  term 
at  that  time  destined  to  elevate  and  dignify  a  very  an- 
cient profession  of  women. 

The  Arundell  Club  met  with  instant  success.  Miss 
Elizabeth  King  was  elected  president  and  it  was  un- 
doubtedly due  to  her  dominating  personality  and  her 


64      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

capacity  for  leadership  that  the  club  was  finally 
launched  and  steered  successfully  through  the  difficulties 
of  its  early  years.  At  first  a  few  rooms,  then  a  house 
on  West  Madison  Street  were  rented  for  club  purposes 
and  later  a  handsome  dwelling  house  on  North  Charles 
Street,  in  what  was  then  a  fashionable  section  of  Balti- 
more, was  acquired  by  purchase.  Finally  the  club  built 
a  hall  adjoining  its  house.  It  has  maintained  its  house 
and  assembly  hall  for  many  years  as  headquarters  for 
manifold  activities  of  club  women.  It  was  under  the 
fostering  care  of  the  Arundell  Club  that  the  Maryland 
State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs  was  organized  and 
in  its  buildings  have  been  held  many  historic  meetings 
concerning  the  advancement  of  women's  interest.  Its 
greatest  service,  however,  in  my  opinion,  has  been  to 
furnish  in  its  attractive  rooms  a  meeting  place  not  only 
for  its  own  members,  but  for  all  groups  of  women  in- 
terested in  problems  of  public  welfare. 

After  Miss  King,  Mrs.  Sioussat  stands  out  most  dis- 
tinctly in  my  recollection  as  a  dominating  figure  in  the 
early  history  of  the  Arundell  Club.  She  has  served  its 
interests  continuously  for  many  years,  and  if  she  would 
consent  to  write  a  history  of  this  club  she  could  give  a 
record  of  the  early  feminist  movement  in  Baltimore  that 
would  certainly  be  of  great  interest,  although  I  know 
quite  well  that  the  term  feminist  is  anathema  to  her. 

Although  my  own  engagements  did  not  permit  me  to 
take  any  active  part  in  the  work  of  the  sections  of  the 
Arundell  Club  proper  I  followed  with  great  interest  the 
work  of  its  section  on  Home  Economics.  Fortunately 
the  year  the  Arundell  Club  was  organized  the  opening 
of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Medical  School  brought  to  Balti- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      65 

more  Professor  and  Mrs.  John  J.  Abel.  Mrs.  Abel  at 
that  time  was  known  as  a  scientific  writer  on  dietetics. 
She  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Mrs.  Ellen  S.  Richards 
and  a  co-worker  with  her  in  founding  and  advancing  the 
Home  Economics  movement  in  the  United  States.  Mrs. 
Abel  was  at  once  drafted  into  the  work  of  the  new  club 
and  from  that  time  to  the  present  she  has  been  the  most 
powerful  single  influence  in  educating  club  women  of 
Maryland  in  the  science  and  art  of  home-making 
and  in  directing  their  energies  to  securing  aid  from  all 
sources  educational,  social  and  legislative  for  advancing 
the  interests  of  women  in  the  home. 

One  of  the  first  subjects  she  took  up  in  her  section 
was  a  consideration  of  a  family  budget.  She  took  up 
a  study  of  the  proper  distribution  of  a  two  thousand 
dollar  and  of  a  five  thousand  dollar  family  income 
under  conditions  of  living  in  Baltimore.  This,  now  a 
commonplace  for  high  school  girls,  was  a  novel  and 
revolutionary  idea,  causing  considerable  hilarity  among 
the  husbands.  At  the  time  this  study  was  in  progress 
I  was  taking  my  meals  at  a  boarding  house  where  sev- 
eral members  of  Mrs.  Abel's  section  with  their  husbands 
took  their  meals.  The  days  of  the  Arundell  sectional 
meetings  furnished  lively  discussions  at  the  dinner 
table,  and  I  well  remember  with  what  shouts  of  laughter 
and  derision  the  men  greeted  the  final  report  which  stated 
the  amount  each  income,  if  properly  apportioned,  would 
give  to  the  husband  for  his  own  pleasures.  I  sometimes 
wonder  whether  the  thorough  teaching  of  women  in  their 
schools  and  clubs  for  the  past  twenty  years  as  to  the 
necessity  and  method  of  budget  making  for  the  wise 
expenditure  of  family  income  has  not  indirectly  greatly 


66      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

influenced  the  policies  of  our  State  and  national  govern- 
ments to  at  last  adopt  a  budget  system  for  handling  their 
finances. 

At  the  period  the  Arundell  Club  was  founded  the  idea 
that  women  could  have  any  direct  interest  in  govern- 
ment, municipal,  state  or  national,  found  scant  consid- 
eration in  Baltimore.  I  have  already  referred  to  the 
attitude  of  public  opinion  toward  the  educational  dis- 
abilities of  women  so  that  it  will  be  easily  understood 
that  the  question  of  their  political  disabilities  was  a 
topic  not  to  be  touched  upon  in  polite  society.  Balti- 
more was  a  boss-ridden  city,  and  city  and  state  politics 
were  looked  upon  as  a  nasty  business  from  which  right- 
thinking  men  would  protect  their  women  folk.  And 
yet  so  keen  an  interest  did  Miss  King  and  some  of  her 
associates  have  in  civic  problems  that  soon  after  the 
Arundell  Club  was  successfully  inaugurated  a  subsidi- 
ary club  was  formed  known  as  the  Arundell  Good  Gov- 
ernment Club.  It  was  the  first  women's  association  or- 
ganized in  Baltimore  to  consider  civic  problems.  I  have 
heard  Miss  King  say  that  to  no  question  with  which  she 
dealt  in  the  organization  of  the  Arundell  Club  did  she 
give  the  same  consideration  as  to  the  wisdom  of  attach- 
ing to  it  this  good  government  club  for  women.  She  said 
she  had  sought  advice  from  intelligent  and  public-spir- 
ited men  of  her  acquaintance,  that  she  had  made  it  a 
subject  of  prayer,  and  that  it  was  with  considerable  ap- 
prehension that  it  was  finally  launched.  The  constitu- 
tion affirmed  its  purpose  to  be  "to  bring  together  persons 
interested  in  the  good  government  of  Baltimore  City,  and 
by  their  co-operation  to  promote  the  honest,  efficient  and 
economical  administration  of  said  city  and  the  choice 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      67 

of  fit  persons  for  public  office;  to  protect  the  public 
health  and  morals  and  secure  capable  and  faithful  sub- 
ordinates in  public  employ  from  removal  or  other  preju- 
dice for  partisan  or  personal  reasons."  In  order  to 
guard  the  name  of  the  Arundell  Club  from  any  sem- 
blance of  radicalism  the  constitution  of  the  Good  Gov- 
ernment Club  provided  that  the  president  of  the  Arun- 
dell Club  should  be  ex-officio  a  member  of  the  Executive 
Board  of  the  Good  Government  Club  and  that  no  pub- 
lic action  could  be  taken  by  the  club  unless  approved 
by  the  Board  of  the  Arundell  Club.  The  Arundell  Club 
Board  was  always  a  very  conservative  body  and  in  1905 
the  Good  Government  Club  feeling  hampered  by  this 
restriction  attempted  to  drop  this  clause  from  its  con- 
stitution. The  Arundell  Club  Board  then  passed  a  reso- 
lution to  the  effect  that  so  long  as  the  Arundell  Good 
Government  Club  retained  its  name  and  held  its  meet- 
ings in  the  Arundell  Club  building  any  public  action 
proposed  must  be  subject  to  the  veto  of  the  President  of 
the  Arundell  Club. 

So  long  as  Mrs.  Ellicott  remained  president  of  the 
Arundell  Club  and  was  a  controlling  influence  in  its 
policy  there  was  no  fear  that  any  public  action  decided 
upon  by  the  Good  Government  Club  would  be  vetoed, 
as  she  was  as  keen  as  any  of  us  in  pushing  the  causes 
we  were  interested  in.  These  causes  were  represented 
by  committees  on  municipal  hygiene,  on  medical  inspec- 
tion of  schools,  on  court  for  Juvenile  offenders  and  on 
public  schools.  The  Good  Government  Club  was,  how- 
ever, nine  years  old;  it  had  served  an  important  func- 
tion in  the  education  of  its  members  and  had  at  least 
one  constructive  piece  of  work  to  its  credit  as  it  had  se- 


68      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

cured  a  compulsory  school  law  for  Baltimore  City.  It 
was  agreed  that  an  active  civic  club  could  no  longer  be 
kept  in  leading  strings  by  another  organization,  and  its 
members  voted  to  disband. 

I  had  been  a  member  of  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  Arundell  Good  Government  Club  from  its  organiza- 
tion and  in  1905  was  its  president.  Associated  with  me 
on  the  Executive  Board  were  Miss  Edith  Hamilton  of 
the  Bryn  Mawr  School  and  Mrs.  B.  A.  Corkran  as  vice- 
presidents;  Mrs.  M.  N.  Perry,  treasurer;  Miss  Frances 
Seth,  secretary,  and  other  members:  Mrs.  William  M. 
Ellicott,  president  of  the  Arundell  Club;  Mrs.  William 
Cabell  Bruce,  Mrs.  John  T.  King,  Dr.  Eleanor  Lord  of 
Goucher  College,  Mrs.  William  H.  Morriss,  Miss  Julia 
Rogers,  Mrs.  James  H.  Van  Sickle.  No  subsequent  at- 
tempt was  made  in  Baltimore  to  organize  a  distinctly 
woman's  civic  club  until  the  year  1915,  which  saw  the 
birth  of  the  Civic  League. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  first  subjects  to  claim 
women's  interests  when  they  organized  for  civic  work 
should  be  the  public  schools  and  the  public  health.  It 
is  certainly  interesting  that  their  two  achievements  so 
far  in  Baltimore  in  initiating  and  securing  legislation 
are  the  School  Attendance  Law  secured  by  the  Arundell 
Good  Government  Club  and  the  City  Milk  Ordinance, 
one  of  the  best  in  the  country,  secured  by  the  Women's 
Civic  League. 

Soon  after  the  organization  of  the  Good  Government 
Club  Miss  Mary  Richmond,  now  of  the  Sage  Founda- 
tion, then  general  secretary  of  the  Baltimore  Charity 
Organization  Society,  suggested  the  formation  of  a  com- 
mittee to  study  the  conditions  of  school  attendance  in 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      69 

Baltimore  with  a  view  to  securing  legislation  if  an  in- 
vestigation should  warrant  it.     Such  a  committee  was 
organized  in  1899  with  Miss  Richmond  as  chairman.   A 
fund  was  secured  by  private  subscription  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  investigation  and  Miss  Florence  Pierce  was 
appointed  to  conduct  it.    The  plan  was  Miss  Richmond's. 
She  selected  a  number  of  representative  neighborhoods 
which  might  show  the  effect  of  certain  social  and  indus- 
trial conditions  on  school  attendance,  for  instance,  one 
where  the  school  population  was  almost  entirely  foreign 
born,  or  of  foreign  born  parentage;  a  colored  district; 
one  where  mothers  were  engaged  in  the  packing  indus- 
try; and  one  in  Woodberry  in  the  vicinity  of  the  cotton 
duck  mills.    The  results  proved  very  interesting  and  in- 
structive.   While  the  investigation  was  in  progress  Miss 
Richmond  was  called  to  a  position  in  Philadelphia  and 
the  report  was  completed  by  Miss  Jane  Brownell,  then 
assistant  head  mistress  of  the  Bryn  Mawr  School,  and 
by  Miss  Pierce.    When  the  report  was  ready  it  was  sub 
mitted  to  a  group  of  public-spirited  men  for  their  con 
sideration  and  advice  in  February,  1901.     Finally  a 
committee  from  the   Good  Government  Club  was   ap 
pointed  to  draw  up  a  bill  and  to  see  it  throu2:h  the  As 
semblv.     This  committee  consisted  of  Miss  Brownell 
Miss  Mary  Willcox  Brown  (nov/  Mrs.  John  M.  Glenn) 
Miss  Mary  Garrett,  Dr.  Sherwood,  Miss  Florence  Pierce 
I  was  chairman,  making  the  seventh  member.     At  last 
came  the  fateful  day  for  the  presentation  to  the  Assem 
bly  of  Maryland  of  the  bill  and  for  a  formal  hearing 
We  were  somewhat  excited,  as  it  was,  I  think,  the  first 
time  any  of  us  had  appeared  at  a  public  hearing  in  An 
napolis.  Mr.  William  Cabell  Bruce  (Senator  Bruce)  was 


70      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

to  be  our  spokesman.  On  the  morning  of  the  day  set  for 
the  hearing  word  came  that  Mr.  Bruce  could  not  be  pres- 
ent. Consternation  reigned,  but  Miss  Garrett  undertook 
to  go  to  his  office  and  get  him  to  Annapolis  if  possible. 
She  was  successful  and  so  was  Mr.  Bruce. 

The  bill,  of  course,  met  with  opposition.  There  was 
one  gentleman  in  the  counties  who  attacked  it  bitterly 
in  the  newspapers  and  finally  got  out  a  printed  sheet 
for  distribution,  saying,  among  other  things,  that  it  was 
a  bill  sponsored  by  seven  old  maids  who  couldn't  possi- 
bly know  anything  about  the  needs  of  children.  Dr. 
Sherwood  and  I  met  Miss  Brownell  at  the  Women's 
University  Club  in  Paris  in  November,  1924,  where  we 
were  all  staying,  and  in  reviewing  our  common  experi- 
ences in  Baltimore  Miss  Brownell  said  she  still  has  a 
copy  of  this  manifesto  among  her  treasures.  The  bill 
became  a  law  and  has  not,  I  think,  been  much  modified 
since  that  time. 

The  Good  Government  Club  was  early  in  the  field 
advocating  medical  inspection  of  schools.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  recall  in  the  light  of  rather  recent  history  that 
we  discussed  as  an  academic  question  whether  medical 
school  inspection  should  be  administered  by  the  Munici- 
pal Health  Board  or  by  the  School  Board.  Both  plans 
were  being  tried  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  Dur- 
ing Dr.  Bosley's  term  as  Health  Commissioner,  he  told 
Mrs.  John  T.  King  that  he  had  a  contingent  fund  at  his 
disposal  which  he  could  devote  to  a  beginning  of  medi- 
cal school  inspection,  and  suggested  that  a  formal  re- 
quest be  made  to  him  by  the  Good  Government  Club.  A 
committee  was  appointed  with  Mrs.  King  as  chairman 
to  proceed  in  this  matter.     I  do  not  remember  how  the 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      71 

consent  of  the  School  Board  was  obtained,  but  the  Health 
Board  did  at  that  time  begin  the  work  of  medical  inspec- 
tion which  now  has  grown  to  large  proportions. 

When  it  was  made  public  that  some  special  school 
inspectors  would  be  appointed  a  prominent  member  of 
the  Medical  and  Chirurgical  Faculty  suggested  to  Dr. 
Sherwood  and  me  that  one  or  two  women  doctors  ought 
to  be  included  in  these  appointments.  The  Good  Gov- 
ernment Club  immediately  found  two  women  able  and 
willing  to  serve  in  such  a  capacity,  but  they  were  not 
considered.  It  was  not  until  women  had  the  suffrage 
that  women  physicians  were  appointed  to  work  in  the 
schools  by  the  Health  Board.  In  1923,  when  the  ap- 
propriation for  medical  school  inspection  was  decreased, 
the  women  were  the  first  to  be  dropped  from  the  rolls — 
fortunately,  however,  four  have  now  been  re-employed 
for  duty  in  the  Eastern  and  Western  High  Schools. 

The  first  appointment  of  women  to  public  boards  in 
Baltimore  was  the  voluntary  act  of  Mayor  Hooper  in 
1897.  Mayor  Malster,  who  succeeded  Mr.  Hooper,  re- 
appointed two  women  on  the  Board  of  Charities,  but 
substituted  Miss  Eckles,  the  men  of  whose  family  were 
Republicans,  for  Miss  McLane  whom  Mayor  Hooper 
had  selected  as  the  most  suitable  woman  for  the  board 
regardless  of  the  politics  of  her  family.  Dr.  Sherwood, 
having  no  male  political  complications,  was  appointed 
by  Mayor  Hooper  and  retained  by  his  Republican  suc- 
cessor. This  may  be  one  reason  that  Dr.  Sherwood  has 
had  a  continuous  service  on  public  boards  ever  since 
women  have  been  appointed  to  such  boards,  first  on  the 
Board  of  Charities  and  second  on  the  Bath  Commission. 
She  served  through  two  administrations  on  the  Board  of 


72      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

Charities  and  Corrections  and  was  slated  with  Miss 
McLane  for  reappointment  to  the  same  board  under  a 
third  administration,  but  here  for  the  first  time,  I  think, 
women's  organizations  interested  themselves  in  these 
municipal  appointments  of  women  and  possibly  made  a 
mess  of  it. 

Exactly  what  happened  I  do  not  know,  but  Mayor 
Hayes,  after  stating  in  the  daily  press  that  he  expected 
to  appoint  two  women  to  the  School  Board,  Miss  Mary 
Garrett  and  Mrs.  Judge  Schmucker,  and  two  to  the 
Board  of  Charities,  whom  he  did  not  name  in  public, 
finally  let  it  be  known  to  the  women  interested  that  so 
far  as  the  appointments  of  women  he  had  so  far  con- 
sidered were  concerned  he  had  wiped  his  slate  clean 
with  the  exception  of  Mrs.  Schmucker  for  the  School 
Board.  I  presume  he  was  pestered  by  various  groups 
urging  various  candidates.  His  green  bag  went  to  the 
Council  containing  the  appointment  of  Mrs.  Judge 
Schmucker  to  the  School  Board,  Mrs.  J.  J.  Abel  to  the 
Board  of  Charities  and  Mrs.  A.  E.  Robinson  to  the  Jail 
Board.  Mrs.  Schmucker  resigned  after  a  short  time  and 
there  were  no  further  appointments  to  the  Board  until 
Mayor  Broening  appointed  Mrs.  Putts.  I  doubt  whether 
women's  organizations,  strong  as  they  have  become,  have 
had  much  influence  in  naming  the  women  who  have  in 
recent  years  been  appointed  on  municipal  boards,  except 
possibly  in  the  last  appointments  to  the  School  Board. 

The  Woman's  Civic  League  was  the  successor  of  the 
Arundell  Good  Government  Club  inasmuch  as  it  was 
formed  by  women  for  the  study  of  civic  problems  and 
for  making  their  influence  felt  in  the  solution  of  such 
problems,  but  it  was  in  no  sense  an  outgrowth  of  that 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      73 

club,  or  of  any  existing  woman's  club.  While  Mrs. 
Corkran,  Mrs.  Abel,  Mrs.  Van  Sickle,  Mrs.  Miller  and 
other  former  workers  in  the  Good  Government  Club  were 
active  as  charter  members  of  the  Civic  League  the  initia- 
tive in  its  organization  was  taken,  I  think,  by  a  group 
of  women  who  had  not  been  hitherto  identified  with 
women's  club  activities.  I  remember  accepting  an  in- 
vitation to  the  Belvedere  in  1912  to  consider  the  forma- 
tion of  a  civic  league  and  being  much  interested  in  the 
group  of  women  present  and  in  the  discussion.  The  fif- 
teen years  which  had  passed  since  the  organization  of 
the  Arundell  Club  had  wrought  a  great  change  in  the 
attitude  of  Baltimore  women,  and  the  formation  of  a 
league  of  women  determined  to  actively  interest  them- 
selves in  smoke  abatement,  proper  disposal  of  garbage 
and  refuse,  clean  milk  and  other  questions  of  municipal 
housekeeping  seemed  quite  natural  to  them  and  very 
properly  not  only  the  business  of  women  but  their  duty. 

The  Civic  League  was  a  success  from  the  beginning. 
It  effected  an  organization  which  included  the  entire 
city.  It  developed  or  brought  to  light  leaders  of  great 
ability.  When  the  great  war  came  it  formed  the  nucleus 
for  co-ordinating  the  activities  of  the  women  of  the  city 
of  Baltimore  and  the  State  of  Maryland. 

The  second  Woman's  Club  of  Baltimore  of  which  I 
have  any  intimate  knowledge  is  the  College  Club.  It 
was  chartered  in  1894  and  incorporated  in  1909.  When 
it  was  organized  by  Mrs.  Fabian  Franklin  and  Miss 
Elizabeth  Carroll  it  was  difficult  to  find  any  college 
women  in  Baltimore.  The  first  year  its  membership 
included  Mrs.  Franklin,  Miss  Carroll,  Mrs.  Morris 
Carey,  Miss  Julia  Rogers,  Miss  Searle,  Mrs.   H.   M. 


74      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN   BALTIMORE 

Thomas,  Dr.  Sherwood  and  myself.  Only  four  women 
in  this  group  had  college  degrees,  but  all  of  them  had 
had  one  or  more  years  of  college  or  university  training 
I  was  admitted  to  membership  because  I  had  been  a 
matriculate  student  at  the  University  of  Ziirich.  When 
I  took  my  medical  degree  the  man  or  woman  taking  a 
medical  degree  who  had  a  college  degree,  or  any  college 
training,  was  an  exception  rather  than  the  rule. 

The  College  Club  was  organized  for  purely  social  pur- 
poses. Young  college  women  were  coming  to  Baltimore 
as  teachers  in  the  Bryn  Mawr  School  and  in  the  Wom- 
an's College,  and  those  of  us  already  on  the  ground 
wanted  to  show  them  a  friendly  spirit.  The  Association 
of  Collegiate  Alumnae,  now  the  Association  of  Univer- 
sity Women,  was  a  few  years  old,  but  college  clubs  for 
women  with  their  own  houses  and  centers  had  not 
emerged  from  chaos.  The  sole  activities  of  the  Balti- 
more College  Club  from  1894  to  1909  were  tea  and 
conversation.  Members  entertained  the  club  during  the 
winter  months  at  their  own  homes.  If  any  distinguished 
college  woman  visited  Baltimore  a  special  tea  was  given 
in  her  honor.  It  was  all  very  pleasant,  but  the  number 
of  college  women  was  increasing  because  more  Balti- 
more girls  were  going  to  college  and  more  college  women 
from  outside  were  finding  employment  in  Baltimore. 
The  number  of  members  presently  was  limited,  first  to 
forty  and  then  to  sixty.  In  1905,  when  the  National 
College  Equal  Suffrage  League  was  formed,  then  the 
youngest  group  to  organize  for  suffrage,  and  it  was  pro- 
posed to  find  out  whether  it  was  feasible  to  form  a 
branch  in  Baltimore,  Miss  Thomas  and  Miss  Garrett 
arranged  for  an  afternoon  meeting  at  the  Roland  Park 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      75 

Country  Club  and  the  College  Club  secretary  was  asked 
to  make  a  list  of  all  women  college  graduates  so  that  an 
invitation  might  be  extended  to  them.  To  the  surprise 
of  most  of  our  members  the  number  of  college  women 
in  Baltimore  was  found  to  be  between  three  and  four 
hundred.  After  that  it  seemed  to  me  and  to  others 
absurd  to  have  a  college  club  with  a  membership  limited 
to  sixty.  Truth  compels  me  to  say  there  had  been  no 
great  demand  for  membership.  Other  cities,  however, 
were  beginning  to  have  active  college  clubs  taking 
leadership  in  women's  civic  and  social  activities.  The 
Women's  College  of  Baltimore  was  increasing  yearly 
the  number  of  its  graduates  resident  in  Baltimore  and 
it  seemed  there  should  be  a  college  club  on  some  per- 
manent basis. 

In  1908  Miss  Julia  Rogers  had  closed  her  house  at 
821  N.  Charles  Street  and  gone  to  Europe  for  a  pro- 
longed stay.  Miss  Rogers  had  been  one  of  the  small 
group  of  Baltimore  women  who  had  attempted  to  work 
at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  in  its  early  years.  She 
had  subsequently  been  in  residence  at  Newnham  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  She  was  one  of  the  Baltimore  Com- 
mittee of  the  Women's  Fund  for  the  Johns  Hopkins 
Medical  School.  She  had  taken  an  active  interest  in 
establishing  the  Evening  Dispensary  for  Working 
Women  and  Girls,  had  been  its  secretary  and  treasurer 
for  many  years.  The  Baltimore  Association  for  the 
University  Education  of  Women  had  been  organized  in 
her  reception  room.  I  once  heard  Miss  Thomas,  speak- 
ing to  the  College  Club  after  it  occupied  Miss  Rogers' 
house,  say  that  the  first  college  woman  graduate  she  had 
ever  seen  was  a  cousin  of  Miss  Rogers,  a  Vassar  A.B., 


76      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

whom  she  had  met  in  the  very  room  in  which  she  was 
then  speaking. 

When  I  passed  Miss  Rogers'  empty  house  that  year 
she  was  in  Europe  I  often  thought  how  the  College  Club 
missed  her  entertainments.  No  one  was  absent  the  after- 
noons Miss  Rogers  entertained.  When  Miss  McLane 
was  going  to  join  her  in  the  early  summer  I  said  to  her: 
"Tell  Miss  Rogers  to  come  back,  the  College  Club  misses 
her,  and  if  she  isn't  coming  back  tell  her  to  give  us  her 
house  for  the  College  Club."  I  said  this  jokingly.  As 
I  recall  it  now  I  thought  if  the  message  were  delivered 
Miss  Rogers  would  be  indignant  at  my  temerity  and  I 
was  glad  I  should  not  be  there  to  see  it.  I  heard  noth- 
ing from  this  suggestion  until  Miss  Rogers  returned  in 
the  fall  and  established  herself  at  the  Belvedere.  She 
sent  for  me  one  day  and  told  me  she  had  decided  to 
open  her  house  and  let  the  College  Club  use  it  indefi- 
nitely. I  never  was  more  taken  aback  in  my  life.  Her 
offer  of  a  furnished  house  free  of  rent  and  taxes  was  so 
unexpected  and  so  generous  that  when  I,  at  her  request, 
presented  the  matter  to  the  Club  the  members  wouldn't 
believe  it.  It  was  something  that  had  never  happened 
to  a  woman's  College  Club  before  and  has  never  hap- 
pened since.  The  house  was  opened  in  1910  with  a  bril- 
liant reception,  Mrs.  Fabian  Franklin  at  the  head  of  the 
receiving  line.  On  that  occasion  the  Club  got  more 
newspaper  notice  than  it  ever  received  before  or  since. 
It  was  immediately  incorporated,  adopted  a  formal  con- 
stitution and  offered  membership  with  small  dues  to  all 
college  women  resident  in  Baltimore  and  its  vicinity. 
After  the  reorganization  of  the  Club  I  acted  as  its  presi- 
dent for  a  number  of  years. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      77 

For  the  seventeen  years  it  has  occupied  Miss  Rogers' 
house  it  has  steadily  increased  its  membership  and  in- 
fluence. It  is  now  the  Baltimore  branch  of  the  Ameri- 
can Association  of  University  Women,  and  one  of  the 
strong  woman's  college  clubs  in  our  country.  Like  the 
Arundell  Club  it  has  been,  in  its  way,  conservative,  and 
while  the  College  Equal  Suffrage  League  used  the  club- 
house as  its  headquarters  the  College  Club  kept  itself 
free  from  any  entangling  alliance  with  the  suffrage 
cause.  How  college  women  in  Baltimore  became  inter- 
ested in  suffrage  is  interesting  enough  to  have  a  chapter 
to  itself. 

As  I  write  these  pages  and  recall  the  growth  of  the 
Women's  Club  movement  in  Baltimore  and  in  Maryland, 
what  interests  me  most  is  the  avidity  with  which  women, 
when  once  organization  had  been  effected,  took  to  the 
consideration  of  educational  and  social  subjects.  When 
the  Maryland  Clubs  federated,  there  was  not  a  single 
club  whose  interests  were  other  than  art  and  music  and 
literature.  As  I  have  previously  said,  the  period  in 
which  these  various  State  Federations  were  being  formed 
and  bound  together  by  the  General  Federation  was  the 
period  of  the  rise  of  the  public  health  campaign.  The 
Maryland  Federation  had  no  Department  of  Public 
Health  for  a  number  of  years.  I  asked  Mrs.  B.  W. 
Corkran,  the  first  year  she  was  president  of  the  Mary- 
land State  Federation,  to  appoint  me  chairman  of  a  pub- 
lic health  section.  I  believed  that  health  problems  were 
bound  to  assume  importance  for  the  clubs  and  that  there 
should  be  some  one  officially  charged  to  bring  matters 
pertaining  to  health  before  the  club  women  and  to  ad- 
vise action  on  health  measures  brought  before  them.  She 


78      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

secured  the  assent  of  her  board  to  such  a  section  and 
from  that  time  until  1924  I  appeared  before  the  State 
Federation  at  its  annual  meetings  to  represent  health 
measures. 

My  work  at  Goucher  College  and  my  other  profes- 
sional engagements  made  it  impossible  for  me  to  do  any- 
thing except  act  in  an  advisory  capacity.  I  have  great 
sympathy  with  the  chairmen  of  sections  in  the  General 
Federation  who  advise  State  Federations  against  the  ap- 
pointment of  professional  women  as  chairmen  of  their 
various  sections.  It  is  much  better  to  have  in  such  posi- 
tions a  woman  of  leisure  who  can  make  the  work  of  the 
section  her  principal  interest,  and  who  is  able  to  initiate 
measures  and  carry  them  through. 

In  Maryland,  however,  it  has  rarely  been  necessary 
for  the  women  to  take  the  initiative  in  public  health. 
The  State  Health  Board  and  the  City  Health  Department 
have  done  that  for  many  years,  and  the  important  serv- 
ice that  the  clubs  could  render  was  to  stand  behind  and 
endorse  the  measures  advocated  by  the  State  and  by  the 
City. 

In  all  legislation  affecting  public  health  for  many 
years  the  State  and  City  Boards  have  had  the  backing 
of  the  Federated  Clubs,  and  if  one  reads  the  resolutions 
passed  at  their  annual  meetings  one  will  be  impressed 
by  the  advanced  and  yet  conservative  attitude  taken  on 
public  health.  Occasionally  the  women  have  been  rest- 
ive because  the  City  and  State  Boards  did  not  move  fast 
enough  in  the  direction  they  had  started,  and  they  have 
at  times  brought  pressure  to  bear  to  hasten  action  where 
health  interests  were  involved,  but  they  have  always  re- 
sponded to  intelligent  guidance.     Dr.  Sherwood  and  I 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      79 

have  had  no  greater  stimulation  for  our  own  progress 
along  the  road  of  public  health  than  has  come  to  us  from 
our  contact  with  the  women  in  the  Federated  Clubs  of 
Maryland.  We  have  had  the  privilege  of  representing 
them  at  many  public  hearings  in  city  and  state,  and  we 
owe  the  club  women  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  the  inspira- 
tion they  have  given  us  and  for  the  confidence  they  have 
placed  in  us.  Why  we  and  other  women  physicians  of 
Baltimore  were  entitled  to  speak  to  them  with  some  au- 
thority on  public  health  questions  was  due  to  the  knowl- 
edge and  experience  gained  in  the  various  public  health 
campaigns  which  have  characterized  the  last  twenty  or 
twenty-five  years. 


Chapter  VI. 

Women  s  Activities  in  Public  Health — The  Tuberculosis 

Commission — The   Vice  Commission — Child 

Welfare — Food  Conservation — Clean  Milk 

Any  one  with  medical  training  who  has  followed 
closely  the  progress  of  the  great  experiment  in  public 
health  made  by  the  United  States  in  Panama,  of  the 
campaign  against  tuberculosis,  of  the  movement  for 
sanitary  and  moral  prophylaxis,  and  of  that  for  the  pro- 
tection of  maternity  and  infancy  may  claim  some  fun- 
damental acquaintance  with  the  public  health  problems 
of  the  present  century  and  the  methods  evolving  for 
their  solution.  It  is  not  my  province  in  these  remi- 
niscences to  try  to  trace  the  history  of  the  public  health 
movement,  possibly  the  most  important  movement  in 


80      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

modern  civilization.  It  has,  however,  been  a  privilege  to 
have  watched  it  from  infancy  to  maturity  and  to  have 
lived  to  see  it  firmly  established  on  a  scientific  founda- 
tion. Great  schools  of  hygiene  with  other  endowed 
foundations  for  research  on  the  causes  of  ill  health,  the 
co-operation  of  many  agencies  in  practically  testing  out 
methods  of  health  control,  and  determining  their  value, 
the  enlightened  policies  of  public  health  administration 
in  National,  State  and  Municipal  Boards,  with  the  wide- 
spread educational  propaganda  designed  to  reach  all 
classes  and  conditions  of  our  citizens  give  promise  of 
results  that  will  incredibly  reduce  human  misery  and 
enhance  the  value  of  human  life. 

The  first  modern  public  crusade  for  health  in  our 
country  was  the  campaign  against  tuberculosis  which 
began  in  the  last  decade  of  the  last  century.  In  Mary- 
land the  movement  was  initiated  by  the  appointment  of 
a  commission  to  study  the  entire  subject  of  tuberculosis 
as  found  in  the  State.  The  Maryland  State  Board  of 
Health  sponsored  this  movement.  My  earliest  recollec- 
tion of  the  State  Board  of  Health  is  the  fact  that  Dr. 
John  S.  Fulton  was  its  secretary  and  that  Dr.  William 
Welch  was  a  member  of  the  Board.  Dr.  Sherwood  and 
I  early  learned  to  look  to  Dr.  Fulton  for  leadership  in 
public  health  and  to  greatly  value  his  advice  and  friend- 
ship. In  1902  Governor  Smith  appointed  a  Tubercu- 
losis Commission  to  study  the  problem  of  tuberculosis 
in  the  State  of  Maryland.  I  think  I  owe  my  appoint- 
ment to  this  commission  to  Dr.  Fulton,  at  any  rate  the 
first  I  knew  of  the  appointment  was  a  letter  from  Dr. 
Fulton  received  in  Maine  when  I  was  on  my  summer 
vacation,  saying  the  Governor  had  received  from  me  no 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      81 

acceptance  of  appointment,  and  he,  Dr.  Fulton,  was  anxi- 
ous to  have  a  woman  included  on  the  Commission.  The 
original  notice  I  never  received.  Of  course,  I  promptly 
accepted  the  appointment,  considering  it  not  only  an 
honor,  but  a  great  opportunity  for  advancing  my  educa- 
tion in  public  health.     It  certainly  did  that. 

The  Commission,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Dr. 
Thayer  and  the  co-operation  of  the  State  Board  of 
Health,  made  a  thorough  study  of  all  phases  of  the  sub- 
ject as  existing  in  the  State  of  Maryland.  The  Commis- 
sion was  continued  with  some  slight  changes  in  person- 
nel by  Governor  Warfield.  It  made  its  final  report  to 
the  Governor  of  Maryland  in  1906  with  recommenda- 
tions for  legislation  which  subsequently  came  to  be 
known  as  the  "Maryland  Plan" — widely  adopted  in 
other  states. 

This  final  report  of  the  Maryland  Commission  fur- 
nishes an  important  source  book  for  students  of  tuber- 
culosis as  a  public  health  problem.  I  have  used  it  con- 
stantly in  my  college  classes  in  hygiene  as  a  required 
reference  book. 

A  fundamental  requirement  of  the  "Maryland  Plan" 
now  accepted  as  a  commonplace  of  any  plan  for  the  con- 
trol of  communicable  diseases,  the  reporting  of  cases, 
met  with  much  determined  opposition  both  from  the 
medical  profession  and  from  laymen  on  the  usual 
ground  of  interference  with  personal  liberty.  The 
Maryland  law  provides  that  the  report  of  cases  shall 
be  by  name,  but  that  the  files  of  reported  cases  should 
not,  in  any  way,  be  made  public.  I  remember  one  of 
the  early  efforts  of  the  Arundell  Good  Government  Club 
was  to  request  the  City  Health  Department  to  placard 


82      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

houses  containing  patients  with  measles,  scarlet  fever 
and  other  communicable  diseases  and  the  hesitancy  and 
delay  with  which  such  placarding  was  finally  under- 
taken. 

During  the  progress  of  the  study  of  tuberculosis  in 
the  State  of  Maryland  by  the  Commission,  the  State 
Health  Board  took  the  initiative  in  organizing  a  tuber- 
culosis exhibition,  the  first  public  exhibition  of  this  kind 
held  in  the  United  States  and  one  of  the  first  hygiene 
exhibitions  held  in  the  world.  The  use  of  McCoy  Hall 
was  granted  by  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  for  the 
purpose  and  arrangements  were  made  to  conduct 
throughout  a  week  a  symposium  on  all  phases  of  the 
subject  of  tuberculosis  by  a  series  of  evening  lectures  in 
McCoy  Hall  to  be  given  by  various  speakers,  experts  in 
their  special  fields,  drawn  from  the  country  at  large. 
Various  committees  were  appointed  and  made  respon- 
sible for  the  various  exhibits.  Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  had 
charge  of  the  one  designated  Home  Care  of  the  Tuber- 
cular. In  addition  to  this  we  undertook  through  the 
Evening  Dispensary,  which  collected  a  fund  for  the 
purpose,  to  go  over  the  records  of  death  from  tuber- 
culosis in  the  City  Health  Department  for  ten  years 
from  1890  to  1900,  securing  the  data  which  Dr.  C. 
Hampson  Jones,  then  Assistant  Health  Commissioner, 
desired  in  order  to  represent  graphically  the  sec- 
tional incidence  of  the  disease  in  Baltimore.  He 
had  no  funds  at  his  disposal  for  such  a  study.  With 
the  data  we  secured  Dr.  Jones  had  a  map  made  which, 
on  the  opening  night  of  the  exhibition,  seemed  to  inter- 
est the  newspaper  reporters  as  much  as  anything  in  the 
display.     Every  organization  in  the  city  dealing  with 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      83 

social  and  civic  problems  was  impressed  into  the  service 
under  the  general  direction  of  Dr.  Fulton  and  every  one 
worked  hard. 

The  success  of  the  evening  lectures  and  the  exhibition 
exceeded  anything  we  had  thought  possible.  McCoy 
Hall  couldn't  give  standing  room  to  all  who  tried  to  at- 
tend the  evening  lectures.  The  crowds  at  the  exhibition 
were  phenomenal  and  came  from  all  classes  of  society 
in  Baltimore.  The  exhibits  were  carefully  and  con- 
stantly demonstrated.  It  was  not  only  Baltimore  and 
the  State  of  Maryland  that  supplied  the  visitors,  they 
came  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  It  is  possibly  not 
an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  "Maryland  Tuberculosis 
Exposition,"  with  its  accompanying  lectures,  was  one 
of  the  greatest  events  that  ever  occurred  in  the  public 
health  movement  of  the  United  States. 

During  that  week  a  meeting  in  the  Donovan  room  of 
McCoy  Hall  gave  birth  to  the  National  Tuberculosis  As- 
sociation, which  this  year  holds  its  twentieth  annual 
session. 

Dr.  Raymond  Pearl  of  Johns  Hopkins  University 
says:  "It  may  be  fairly  said  that  so  strenuous  a  warfare, 
or  one  engaging  in  its  ranks  so  many  earnest  and  active 
workers,  has  probably  never  in  the  history  of  the  world 
been  waged  against  any  disease  as  that  which  has  been 
fought  in  the  United  States  against  tuberculosis  during 
the  past  twenty-five  years."  Yet  he  maintains  that  this 
warfare  against  tuberculosis  has  had  comparatively  lit- 
tle effect  on  the  diminution  of  the  death  rate  which  was 
steadily  declining  before  this  movement  took  place. 
That  is  an  academic  question  not  to  be  discussed  here, 
but  there  is  no  gainsaying  the  fact  that  the  anti-tubercu- 


84      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

losis  campaign  developed  the  methods  for  all  subse- 
quent health  campaigns  and  has  to  its  credit  much  of  the 
modification  of  the  environment  brought  about  by  mod- 
ern sanitation  and  hygiene. 

One  of  the  very  early  results  of  the  anti-tuberculosis 
movement  was  the  emergence  of  the  public  health  nurse. 
In  Baltimore  the  Instructive  Visiting  Nurse  Association 
organized  in  1896  under  a  board  whose  president  was 
Miss  Elizabeth  King  (Mrs.  Ellicott)  soon  after  the  tuber- 
culosis exposition  offered  to  place  one  of  its  nurses  at 
the  disposal  of  the  City  Health  Department  for  exclusive 
use  with  tubercular  patients.  At  that  time  the  Depart- 
ment employed  no  nurses.  Out  of  this  pioneer  work 
has  come  the  employment  of  the  health  nurse,  now  a 
sine  qua  non  for  City  and  State  Health  Departments,  not 
only  in  the  departments  of  communicable  diseases,  but 
in  their  school  work  and  child  welfare  departments  as 
well. 

The  success  of  the  opening  campaign  against  tubercu- 
losis encouraged  groups  of  workers  in  other  phases  of 
health  control  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the  public 
their  special  problems.  One  of  these  which  seemed  to 
the  initiated  most  pressing,  possibly  of  greater  impor- 
tance than  tuberculosis,  was  the  problem  of  the  venereal 
diseases.  By  the  year  1900  modern  medical  science 
had  accumulated  a  body  of  facts  with  reference  to  these 
diseases — as  to  their  causes,  the  manner  of  their  des- 
semination  and  their  etiological  relationships  which 
would  ensure  diminution  in  their  incidence  if  they  were 
brought  under  public  health  control.  On  the  other  hand 
the  social  sciences  had  accumulated  appalling  evidence 
of  the  economic  and  social  misery  growing  out  of  the 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      85 

prevalence  of  these  diseases.  But  the  difficulties  of 
launching  a  campaign  against  the  venereal  diseases  and 
the  social  evil  were  manifestly  greater  and  more  com- 
plicated than  an  anti-tuberculosis  campaign.  I  remem- 
ber at  the  end  of  the  first  public  meeting  ever  held  in 
Baltimore  for  the  discussion  of  this  subject  Dr.  Howard 
Kelly  came  from  the  audience  to  the  platform,  after  the 
formal  addresses,  and  began  his  speech  with  the  words; 
"Thank  God  it  is  now  in  the  open."  This  exactly  ex- 
pressed the  feeling  of  many  of  those  present  interested 
in  public  health.  After  this  meeting  Dr.  Fulton  wrote 
to  Dr.  Sherwood  and  myself,  saying  of  all  the  meetings 
he  had  ever  attended  for  the  dissemination  of  health  in- 
formation this  was  the  greatest. 

The  events  leading  up  to  this  meeting  are  interesting 
enough  to  record  here.  There  had  existed  in  Maryland 
for  a  number  of  years  a  small  association  for  the  sup- 
pression of  vice  with  national  affiliations.  Dr.  Edward 
Janney,  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  was  one  of 
its  most  active  members  both  in  the  local  and  in  the 
national  associations.  Dr.  Janney  and  I  had  been  fel- 
low students  at  the  Millersville  State  Normal  School  and 
I  had  renewed  my  acquaintance  with  him  after  coming 
to  Baltimore.  One  evening  in  the  fall  of  1907  Dr.  Sher- 
wood and  I  were  invited  to  a  meeting  arranged  by  Dr. 
Janney,  held  in  the  home  of  Mrs.  E.  A.  Robinson  to 
hear  an  English  clergyman  speak  on  certain  phases  of 
the  "White  Slave  Traffic."  He  had  come  to  the  United 
States  to  try  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  our  Govern- 
ment with  the  Governments  of  certain  European  coun- 
tries in  suppressing  or  controlling  a  growing  traffic  in 
girls.     It  was  a  profoundly  impressive  meeting.     At  its 


86      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

end  I  said  to  Dr.  Janney:  "Where  are  the  Hookers,  did 
you  invite  them  to  this  meeting?"  He  said  he  did  not 
know  them  and  knew  nothing  about  the  work  they  were 
at  that  time  instituting.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Donald  Hooker 
had  that  year  returned  from  Europe  and  taken  up  per- 
manent residence  in  Baltimore,  as  Dr.  Hooker  had  been 
appointed  associate  Professor  of  Physiology  at  the  Johns 
Hopkins  from  which  institution  he  had  received  his 
medical  degree  two  years  previously. 

During  their  student  days  in  the  medical  school  and 
during  their  sojourn  in  Germany  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Hooker 
had  become  so  thoroughly  impressed  with  the  necessity 
of  some  movement  for  the  control  of  sex  relations  and 
the  evils  physical  and  social  growing  out  of  these  that 
they  were  giving  time  and  study  to  various  phases  of  the 
question.  On  their  return  to  Baltimore  they  had  opened 
and  maintained  a  home  for  unmarried  mothers.  If  fol- 
lowing these  cases  into  the  courts  and  learning  the  gross 
injustice  these  women  received  did  not  drive  Mrs. 
Hooker  actively  into  the  suffrage  movement,  it  did  have 
that  effect  on  some  of  her  most  intelligent  co-workers, 
and  certainly  accentuated  her  own  opinion  about  woman 
suffrage. 

Soon  after  the  meeting  at  Mrs.  Robinson's  Dr.  Sher- 
wood and  I  brought  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Janney  and  Dr.  and 
Mrs,  Hooker  together  one  afternoon  at  our  home  and,  as 
a  result  of  that  afternoon's  exchange  of  experiences,  we 
decided  that  the  time  had  arrived  when  the  subject  of 
the  venereal  diseases  and  the  social  evil  might  be  made 
the  subject  for  educational  propaganda  in  Baltimore. 
By  the  joint  efforts  of  Dr.  Janney  and  Dr.  Hooker  a 
public  meeting  was  arranged  sponsored  by  the  Medical 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      87 

and  Chirurgical  Faculty  (The  Maryland  State  Medical 
Society),  the  Maryland  Conference  of  Charities  and 
Corrections  and  the  Maryland  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs. 

This  meeting  was  held  in  McCoy  Hall  in  November 
1907.  It  was  advertised  as  a  meeting  to  consider  sanitary 
and  moral  prophylaxis,  a  phrase  which  had  been  used 
first,  I  think,  by  Dr.  Prince  Morrow  of  New  York  who, 
as  the  pioneer  in  our  country  of  this  movement,  had  or- 
ganized a  society  in  New  York  under  this  name.  Dr. 
Morrow  was  the  principal  speaker  of  the  afternoon.  The 
president  of  the  Medical  and  Chirurgical  Faculty,  Dr. 
Hiram  Woods,  presided.  In  addition  to  Dr.  Morrow, 
Dr.  Charles  P.  Emerson,  a  member  of  the  medical  staff 
of  the  Johns  Hopkins  and  a  prominent  social  worker, 
spoke  on  certain  social  aspects  of  the  question.  I  pre- 
sented the  subject  of  social  diseases  and  the  home.  After 
the  formal  addresses  several  persons  from  the  audience 
came  to  the  platform  and  addressed  the  meeting,  among 
them  Dr.  Howard  Kelly  and  Dr.  Flora  Pollock.  Dr. 
Morrow  made  a  profound  impression  upon  the  audience. 
This  can  be  illustrated  by  a  story  told  me  by  two  friends, 
women  physicians,  who  had  come  down  to  Baltimore 
from  Philadelphia  to  attend  the  meetings  of  the  State 
Medical  Society  and  had  remained  for  this  meeting. 
They  said  a  lady  sitting  by  them  before  the  meeting  be- 
gan said:  "I  do  not  know  what  this  meeting  is  about, 
but  I  belong  to  the  State  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs 
and  so  have  come  to  learn."  After  Dr.  Morrow  had 
begun  his  address  and  it  dawned  upon  her  what  was 
meant  by  "sanitary  and  moral  prophylaxis,"  she  said: 
"I  think  this  is  no  place  for  me,  I  must  try  to  get  out." 


88      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

The  hall  was  crowded  and  getting  out  was  no  easy  mat- 
ter. After  another  interval  she  said:  "No,  I  shall  stay, 
this  is  something  women  should  know  about."  This 
exactly  expressed  what  has  been  my  firm  conviction 
ever  since  my  medical  student  days.  Women  who  have 
been  taught  the  truth  about  matters  pertaining  to  sex 
will  be  the  most  potent  factor  in  creating  "a  new  con- 
science in  regard  to  an  ancient  evil."  Fortunately  today 
such  education  is  becoming  general. 

As  a  result  of  this  meeting  and  a  study  of  the  inci- 
dence of  the  veneral  diseases  in  Baltimore  presented  at 
a  meeting  of  the  Baltimore  City  Medical  Society  by  Dr. 
Hooker,  the  Maryland  Society  of  Social  Hygiene  was 
organized  under  the  fostering  care  of  the  State  Medical 
Society,  the  constitution  providing  that  the  majority  of 
the  members  of  the  Executive  Committee  should  be  phy- 
sicians appointed  by  the  Medical  Society.  I  served  on 
the  Executive  Committee  for  many  years,  at  first  as  the 
only  woman  member.  It  was  for  me  an  illuminating 
and  educative  service. 

During  the  early  days  of  the  campaign  against  the 
social  diseases — the  terminology  finally  generally  adopt- 
ed— vice  commissions  were  appointed  in  various  parts 
of  the  country  to  study  local  conditions  and  to  suggest 
remedial  measures  of  control.  In  1913  Governor  Golds- 
borough  appointed  a  State  Commission  for  Maryland, 
the  only  state  commission  I  think  ever  appointed.  The 
committee  numbered  fifteen,  two  being  women,  Miss 
Anna  Herkner,  then  a  resident  of  Baltimore,  a  promi- 
nent social  worker,  and  at  that  time  a  member  of  the 
staff  of  the  State  Board  of  Labor  and  Statistics,  and 
mvself.     Dr.  George  Walker  was  appointed  chairman 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      89 

and  it  was  to  his  indefatigable  labor  that  the  Commis- 
sion made  a  more  thorough  study  of  all  phases  of  the 
subject  than  had  been  made  by  any  other  vice  commis- 
sion. The  Commission  served  three  years.  Its  formal 
report  to  the  Governor  was  never  published  in  full,  as 
there  were  no  funds  for  the  purpose.  It  would  furnish 
an  important  source  book  for  students  of  the  subject. 

When  the  great  war  came,  such  progress  had  been 
made  in  the  educational  propaganda  against  the  social 
diseases,  and  such  able  leadership  developed  by  the  na- 
tional society,  the  various  state  societies,  and  the  na- 
tional and  state  departments  of  public  health  that  it  was 
possible  to  formulate  a  program  for  the  study,  the  pre- 
vention and  control  of  venereal  diseases  in  the  United 
States  Army  on  a  scale  never  before  attempted  and  to 
carry  it  out  under  government  supervision.  The  war 
program  has  been  carried  over  as  a  peace  program. 

In  point  of  time  as  indicated  by  the  formation  of  a 
national  association  the  third  great  public  health  move- 
ment in  our  country  was  that  now  designated  as  the  Child 
Welfare  movement.  The  original  national  association 
was  organized  under  the  name  "The  Association  for  the 
Study  and  Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality."  In  certain 
respects  this  has  claimed  a  greater  share  of  my  interest 
than  any  of  the  other  movements,  first,  because  it  is  fun- 
damental and  inclusive  of  all  the  others,  and  second, 
because  this  movement  has  been  initiated,  fostered  and 
sponsored  by  women  as  a  direct  result  of  their  higher 
education.  The  argument  most  commonly  made  both 
against  extending  women's  educational  opportunities  and 
against  removing  their  political  disabilities  was  that 
either  of  these  would  disrupt  the  home.     Yet  the  earli- 


90      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

est  problems  that  claimed  the  studious  attention  of  the 
first  generation  of  college  women  were  those  directly 
bearing  upon  the  home,  and  the  first  legislation  secured 
by  women  after  they  had  the  franchise  was  a  congres- 
sional bill  for  the  protection  of  maternity  and  infancy. 
In  1911  the  International  Tuberculosis  Association 
held  its  third  session  in  Washington.  Dr.  Fulton  had 
resigned  as  secretary  of  the  Maryland  State  Board  of 
Health  a  year  previously  to  assume  the  duties  of  Di- 
rector General  of  this  meeting  and  the  Hygienic  Ex- 
hibition which  was  held  in  connection  with  it.  Among 
his  various  assistants  he  secured  the  appointment  of 
Miss  Gertrude  Knipp,  a  graduate  of  Goucher  College, 
to  have  charge  of  the  press  service,  a  very  important 
position  in  an  international  meeting  of  this  kind.  Miss 
Knipp  had  then  chosen  journalism  as  a  profession  and 
was  on  the  staff  of  the  Baltimore  Sun  when  she  accepted 
the  appointment  referred  to.  Dr.  Fulton  told  me  dur- 
ing the  progress  of  the  Washington  meeting  that  when 
he  had  suggested  this  appointment  it  had  been  objected 
to  by  his  Board  on  the  ground  that  she  was  a  woman, 
and  necessarily  incompetent  for  such  a  job.  But  when 
the  work  assigned  to  her  was  accomplished  with  extraor- 
dinary success  the  same  critics  calmly  said  she  couldn't 
have  done  it  because  she  was  a  woman.  However,  dur- 
ing that  week  in  Washington,  Dr.  Helen  C.  Putnam  of 
Providence,  R.  I.,  a  woman  physician  well  known  for 
her  work  in  public  health,  especially  as  a  lecturer  on 
school  hygiene  and  the  social  diseases,  persuaded  Miss 
Knipp  to  join  her  in  arranging  for  a  conference 
on  the  subject  of  Infant  Mortality.  Dr.  Putnam  had 
been  a  classmate  of  mine  in  the  Philadelphia  Medical 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      91 

School  and  a  student  at  Vassar  with  Dr.  Sherwood.  In- 
deed, I  recall,  now,  the  first  time  I  ever  heard  of  Dr. 
Sherwood  was  in  a  letter  from  Dr.  Putnam  written  to 
me  in  Ziirich,  telling  me  to  look  up  Miss  Mary  Sher- 
wood who  was  a  student  of  medicine  in  Ziirich  and  who 
could  undoubtedly  be  helpful  to  me. 

Dr.  Putnam's  conference  was  called  in  New  Haven 
November,  1912,  with  Miss  Knipp  acting  as  executive 
secretary.  Dr.  J.  H.  Mason  Knox,  Dr.  Sherwood  and  I, 
in  addition  to  Miss  Knipp,  were  the  Baltimoreans  pres- 
ent. At  this  conference  the  National  Association  for  the 
study  and  prevention  of  Infant  Mortality  was  formed 
with  Baltimore  chosen  as  its  headquarters,  and  Miss 
Knipp  appointed  executive  secretary.  From  small  be- 
ginnings this  Association,  now  known  as  the  American 
Child  Health  Association,  has  become  one  of  the  most 
powerful  public  health  organizations  in  our  country. 

Shortly  after  this  New  Haven  Conference  the 
Children's  Bureau  of  the  United  States  Department  of 
Labor  was  organized  with  Miss  Julia  Lathrop  as  its 
chief.  Miss  Lathrop  had  also  been  a  student  at  Vassar 
with  Dr.  Putnam  and  Dr.  Sherwod  and,  as  is  well  known, 
had  been  a  resident  of  Hull  House  for  many  years  asso- 
ciated with  Miss  Jane  Addams  and  Dr.  Alice  Hamilton 
and  other  distinguished  leaders  in  the  social  service 
movement.  Of  the  various  papers  read  at  the  New  Haven 
Conference  the  one  I  remember  best  was  presented  by 
Dr.  Alice  Hamilton  on  the  relation  of  a  high  death  rate 
to  a  high  birth  rate,  a  study  made  from  Hull  House  on 
a  Chicago  group,  the  first  study  of  this  kind,  I  think, 
made  in  the  L^ited  States.  Dr.  Hamilton's  sisters.  Miss 
Edith  and  Miss  Margaret  Hamilton,  are  well  known  in 


92      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

Baltimore  because  of  their  long  connection  with  Bryn 
Mawr  School.  Dr.  Hamilton  was  one  of  the  group  that 
found  opportunities  for  study  and  stimulation  in  the 
pathological  laboratory  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital 
in  pre-medical  school  days.  She  has  devoted  herself  to 
pathological  research  and  stands  out  as  an  example  of 
the  possibilities  of  combining  pure  research  with  its  ap- 
plication to  some  practical  problems  of  social  science. 
When  Harvard  established  its  school  of  Industrial 
Hygiene  Dr.  Hamilton  as  one  of  America's  chief  au- 
thorities on  industrial  medicine  was  called  to  an  asso- 
ciate professorship  in  this  school,  the  only  woman  who 
has  ever  held  a  position  on  the  Harvard  faculty. 

The  work  of  Miss  Lathrop  in  the  Children's  Bureau 
is  too  well  known  to  need  reference  here.  The  studies 
carried  out  in  this  Bureau  covering  all  phases  of  social 
conditions  bearing  upon  the  life  and  health  of  mothers, 
infants  and  children  formed  educational  propaganda  of 
inestimable  value  in  advancing  the  Child  Welfare  move- 
ment. It  was  on  the  basis  of  these  studies  that  the  bill 
for  the  protection  of  maternity  and  infancy  was  formu- 
lated which  women  asked  Congress  to  pass  as  their  first 
contribution  to  the  laws  of  the  country  following  their 
enfranchisement. 

In  addition  to  the  activities  of  the  National  Associa- 
tion and  those  of  the  Children's  Bureau  and  antedating 
both,  Child  Welfare  as  a  public  health  problem  had 
been  vigorously  undertaken  by  the  Health  Department 
of  New  York  City  in  a  special  bureau  organized  and  di- 
rected by  Dr.  Josephine  Baker,  a  department  which  has 
served  as  a  model  for  all  subsequent  health  bureaus  of 
Child  Welfare. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      93 

I  have  already  said  that  our  experience  gained  in  the 
Evening  Dispensary  had  emphasized  for  Dr.  Sherwood 
and  me  the  rebellious  feeling  aroused  in  our  medical 
school  days  against  the  conditions  surrounding  child 
birth  and  the  care  of  infants.  Obstetrics  we  saw  as  the 
one  department  of  medicine  which  tolerated  two  stand- 
ards of  practice,  that  of  the  doctor  of  medicine,  often 
inadequately  taught,  and  that  of  the  midwife,  in  our 
country  the  untrained  as  well  as  the  so-called  trained. 
We  watched  the  advance  of  medical  science  destined  to 
affect  the  teaching  and  practice  of  obstetrics  as  pro- 
foundly as  it  was  affecting  every  other  branch  of  medi- 
cal practice  and  Dr.  Sherwood,  at  least,  began  to  feel 
stirring  within  her  the  spirit  of  a  crusader.  She  had 
determined  in  Dispensary  days  that  whenever  and  how- 
ever she  found  the  opportunity  she  would  press  the  cause 
of  better  obstetrics.  As  the  first  chairman  of  the  Sec- 
tion on  Obstetrics  in  the  National  Association  for  the 
Prevention  of  Infant  Mortality  she  conducted  at  several 
annual  meetings  symposiums  on  this  subject  securing  the 
co-operation  of  well-known  men  and  women  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada,  among  them  notably  Prof. 
J.  Whitridge  Williams  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University. 
The  report  of  the  papers  in  this  section  published  in  the 
annual  transactions  forms  an  important  source  of  in- 
formation for  students  of  this  subject. 

Dr.  Sherwood's  service  in  the  Evening  Dispensary  and 
her  service  as  chairman  of  the  midwifery  committee  of 
the  Medical  and  Chirurgical  Faculty  (Maryland  State 
Medical  Society),  her  membership  on  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Baltimore  Babies'  Milk  Fund  Asso- 
ciation from  its  organization  and  her  membership  for 


94      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

many  years  on  the  Thomas  Wilson  Sanitarium  Board, 
in  addition  to  her  work  as  medical  director  of  Bryn 
Mawr  School,  gave  her  such  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
conditions  surrounding  child-birth  and  the  care  and 
health  of  children  that  among  the  women  of  Baltimore 
and  Maryland  she  came  to  be  looked  to  for  leadership 
in  these  matters. 

It  was,  therefore,  eminently  fitting  that  she  should  be 
chosen  to  organize  and  develop  the  Bureau  of  Child 
Welfare  in  the  City  Health  Department  when  it  was  es- 
tablished. The  inception  of  this  department  is  due  to 
Dr.  William  T.  Howard,  Assistant  Health  Commis- 
sioner. Dr.  Howard  persuaded  Mayor  Preston  that 
the  time  had  come  for  Baltimore  to  develop  a  separate 
Bureau  of  Child  Welfare,  and  it  was  Dr.  Howard  who 
invited  and  urged  Dr.  Sherwood  to  accept  the  head  of 
such  a  department. 

The  great  war  brought  with  it  a  most  interesting  pub- 
lic health  campaign  in  regard  to  food.  Fortunately 
women  were  prepared  for  this  as  the  Home  Economics 
movement  and  other  agencies  had  carried  the  teaching 
of  the  new  science  in  regard  to  food  into  girls'  schools 
and  colleges. 

One  of  the  most  impressive  women's  meetings  I  ever 
attended  in  Baltimore  was  the  one  held  in  the  Lyric  after 
the  United  States  had  entered  the  war.  Mr.  Hoover  was 
to  address  the  women.  Everyone  can  recall  how,  under 
the  slogan:  "Food  will  win  the  war,"  the  women  in  our 
country  were  organized  for  an  intensive  campaign  of 
education  in  food  values,  effecting  such  co-operation  of 
effort  as  they  had  never  known  before.  The  body  of  the 
Lyric  was  filled  with  women  representing  every  section 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      95 

of  the  city.  As  I  looked  over  that  vast  concourse  of 
women  every  face  seemed  set  in  a  fixed  expression 
of  determination  which  seemed  to  say  "we  can  and  we 
will."  My  memory  travelled  back  across  the  years 
when,  during  the  war  between  the  States,  I  had  seen 
in  my  home  my  mother  in  company  with  other  women 
ravelling  lint  as  their  great  service  in  war  time. 
I  thought  what  a  marvelous  change  in  the  status  of 
women  fifty  years  had  wrought.  It  was  not  the  work 
of  willing  hands  alone  that  was  demanded  of  them  in 
the  great  World  War,  but  knowledge  and  its  applica- 
tions were  essential  to  guide  those  hands.  Moreover,  I 
knew  that  if  it  became  necessary  all  the  teaching  in  re- 
gard to  food,  scientific  and  practical,  even  the  essential 
research,  could  be  taken  over  by  women.  It  brought 
home  the  triumph  of  the  higher  education  of  women  and 
justified  all  the  effort  and  struggle  by  which  it  had  been 
achieved. 

Among  the  various  experiences  Dr.  Sherwood  and  I 
have  had  in  following  these  great  movements  in  public 
health  some  have  been  discouraging,  some  have  been 
depressing  and  some  have  been  amusing.  For  the  causes 
we  were  interested  in  we  have  listened  to  and  taken  part 
in  hearings  before  mayors,  before  special  committees 
of  the  City  Council,  before  various  city  boards  and  be- 
fore committees  of  the  State  Legislature  and  of  the 
United  States  Congress.  We  have  testified  as  witnesses 
in  courtrooms  and  before  justices. 

Naturally,  one  of  the  earliest  subjects  that  interested 
us  was  the  milk  supply.  The  ordinances  of  the  city  in 
regard  to  milk  were  few  and  primitive  in  our  early  days 
in  Baltimore.     Dr.  Sherwood,  in  a  paper  presented  to 


96      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

the  Maryland  Public  Health  Association  about  1896,  a 
rather  short-lived  organization,  had  discussed  the  sub- 
ject of  food  and  milk  and  referred  to  the  cow  stables 
in  the  city.  One  of  the  health  wardens  asked  her  to  visit 
with  him  a  few  of  the  worst  where  cows  never  saw  the 
light  of  day.  Subsequently  he  asked  her  to  testify  be- 
fore a  justice  in  a  suit  brought  against  the  owner  of 
some  of  the  cows  she  had  seen.  After  she  had  given 
her  testimony  a  man  in  the  room  arose  and,  shaking  a 
fist  in  the  air,  asked  who  had  paid  this  woman  for  com- 
ing here  and  giving  testimony.  She  was  then  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Bay  View  Board.  As  she  came  out  of  the 
room  she  encountered  this  man  at  the  entrance,  very 
suave  and  oily  in  manner,  with  profuse  apologies.  He 
was  a  dealer  in  cows  and  sold  to  the  Bay  View  Board 
and  some  one  had  told  him  who  "this  woman"  was. 

The  fight  for  a  clean  and  safe  milk  supply  for  Balti- 
more advanced  slowly.  The  interests  of  the  small  as 
well  as  the  large  dealer  had  political  protection.  I  re- 
call one  occasion  when,  at  the  request  of  Dr.  Jones,  vari- 
ous organizations  were  asked  to  send  representatives  to 
the  City  Council  to  hear  a  discussion  on  an  ordinance 
the  Health  Department  was  trying  to  have  passed,  and  to 
speak  to  the  question  if  the  occasion  arose.  Many  rep- 
resentative citizens,  men  and  women,  were  present.  Miss 
Mary  Garrett  I  remember,  sitting  on  the  steps  of  the 
speaker's  platform.  The  Council  postponed  the  con- 
sideration of  the  question,  but  its  members  were  evi- 
dently much  incensed  at  the  presence  of  its  visitors,  espe- 
cially the  women,  and  we  overheard  many  uncompli- 
mentary remarks  as  we  went  through  the  corridors  of 
the  City   Hall,  mostly  to  the  effect  that  these  things 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      97 

(councilmanic  action)  were  none  of  women's  affairs  and 
they  would  better  be  at  home  attending  to  their  own 
business.  In  the  light  of  such  opinions  it  is  interesting 
that  the  final  fight  for  securing  a  satisfactory  ordinance 
controlling  the  sale  of  milk  in  Baltimore  City  was  car- 
ried to  a  successful  conclusion  by  the  milk  committee 
of  the  Woman's  Civic  League  and  won  largely  through 
the  efforts  of  its  chairman,  Mrs.  Francis  King  Carey. 

I  remember  once  at  a  hearing  on  an  ordinance  re- 
garding pool  rooms,  with  a  clause  designed  to  keep  chil- 
dren out  of  them  after  a  certain  hour  at  night,  that  one 
of  the  women  present  overheard  two  men  discussing  the 
situation.  One  said:  "The  women  are  out  in  force  to- 
day." "It  makes  no  difference,"  said  his  companion, 
"they  have  no  votes."  More  and  more  it  was  borne  in 
upon  the  consciousness  of  women  using  their  influence 
to  promote  the  betterment  of  environmental  conditions 
of  living  that  they  lacked  one  essential  tool,  and  before 
1910  Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  had  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  women  must  bend  their  energies  to  securing  the 
suffrage  before  they  could  hope  to  make  much  further 
progress  in  making  their  influence  felt  on  the  causes  in 
which  they  were  interested. 

I  recall  walking  from  my  office  to  Goucher  College 
one  morning  after  one  of  the  hearings  on  a  milk 
ordinance,  through  streets  of  doubtful  cleanliness, 
seeing  unsanitary  milk  being  distributed  by  unsanitary 
methods,  and  thinking  about  our  unfiltered  water  sup- 
ply, our  lack  of  a  sewerage  system  and  of  any  sanitary 
and  adequate  method  of  disposing  of  refuse  and  gar- 
bage. The  first  person  I  met  inside  the  College  doors 
was  a  man  holding  an  important  official  position  in  the 


98      REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

business  administration,  whose  opinions  and  mine  did 
not  agree  on  suffrage  for  women.  I  told  him  about  the 
conditions  I  had  been  reviewing  in  my  mind,  about  the 
meeting  of  the  Council  the  previous  afternoon  and  then 
said:  "I  feel  so  good  this  morning  because  I  have  no 
responsibility  for  these  matters.  I  was  told  so  last  even- 
ing in  the  City  Hall."  "But  you  have,"  said  he,  and  the 
following  conversation  took  place.  "What  can  I  do," 
I  asked.  "You  can  talk  about  it,  you  can  write  to  the 
public  press  about  it,  you  can  make  public  speeches 
about  it,  there  are  many  ways  in  which  you  can  exercise 
an  influence  about  it."  "Yes,"  I  replied,  "I  have  tried 
all  those  ways,  lo,  these  many  years,  now  why  aren't 
you  willing  to  let  me  express  my  opinion  by  quietly  de- 
positing a  vote  in  the  ballot  box."  He  had  no  answer 
but  the  usual  one  that  woman's  place  was  in  the  home. 
Thinking  women  had  grown  grey  and  tired  hearing  that 
answer,  having  learned  that  there  wasn't  a  single  ac- 
tivity concerned  in  successful  home-making  which  was 
not  dependent  upon  a  community  life  regulated  by  legis- 
lation in  which  they  had  no  direct  voice.  The  demand 
for  suffrage  was  a  corollary  bound  to  follow  the  educa- 
tion of  women. 


Chapter  VH 

Personal  Experiences   in  the  Suffrage  Campaign 

As  far  back  as  I  can  remember  I  believed  in  Woman 
Suffrage.  As  a  girl  in  high  school  I  had  committed  to 
memory  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  and  had 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE      99 

rolled  the  sonorous  sentences  of  its  preamble  under  my 
tongue  with  unction.  It  was  a  rude  awakening  when  I 
found  that  "we,  the  people,"  did  not  include  women. 
All  the  schools  I  had  ever  attended  before  entering  upon 
the  study  of  medicine  and  all  the  schools  in  which  I  had 
taught  were  coeducational.  In  the  normal  school  in 
which  I  had  my  preparatory  training  as  a  teacher, 
two  active  debating  societies  in  which  women  had 
an  equal  share  with  men,  were  used  by  the 
men  as  training  schools  for  their  future  political  activi- 
ties. Few  of  the  men  proposed  to  spend  their  lives  in 
the  teaching  profession.  To  them  teaching  was  to  be  a 
stepping  stone  to  some  more  lucrative  and  dignified 
activity.  The  extension  of  the  suffrage  to  women  was 
thoroughly  debated  in  these  societies.  I  never  saw  much 
reason  in  the  arguments  advanced  against  it.  However, 
at  that  period  I  was  not  especially  interested  in  suffrage 
propaganda,  although  I  v/as  an  early  subscriber  to  the 
Woman's  Journal  and  a  constant  reader  of  its  pages. 

I  presume  I  passed  my  opinions  over  to  my  pupils 
because  I  remember  once,  when  principal  of  a  high 
school,  I  assigned  the  subject  to  the  senior  class  for  de- 
bate and  the  cleverest  boy  in  the  class  was  given  the  side 
against  suffrage  for  women.  He  came  to  me  in  great 
distress  and  told  me  he  could  do  nothing  with  the  sub- 
ject because  he  believed  thoroughly  in  suffrage  for 
women  and  did  not  want  to  debate  against  his  convic- 
tions. I  pointed  out  to  him  that  often  the  best  way  to 
test  one's  beliefs  was  to  argue  against  them.  I  had  found 
that  method  useful  in  my  own  experience. 

The  first  suffrage  meeting  I  ever  attended  was  when 
I  was  a  student  of  medicine  in  Philadelphia  in  1888. 


100    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

when  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association  held  one 
of  its  annual  meetings  there.  Strange  to  say,  among  the 
women  medical  students  there  was  little  or  no  sentiment 
on  the  subject  at  that  time.  Few  of  them  were  inter- 
ested enough  to  attend  any  of  the  meetings.  Several 
of  us,  however,  went  to  an  evening  meeting  and  had  no 
difficulty  in  finding  good  seats.  Susan  B.  Anthony,  Julia 
Ward  Howe  and  Lucy  Stone  Blackwell  were  on  the 
platform  and  all  spoke,  Lucy  Stone  making  the  principal 
address.  Had  I  not  been  convinced  before  that  there 
were  no  valid  arguments  against  extending  the  suffrage 
to  women  I  should  have  come  away  from  that  meeting 
a  suffragist.  Some  of  my  companions  who  had  gone  to 
scoff  came  away  convinced. 

However,  at  that  period  and  subsequently  I  was  more 
interested  in  securing  the  extension  of  educational  op- 
portunities to  women  than  in  helping  to  secure  suffrage 
for  them.  I  presume  if  I  thought  about  it  at  all  I  con- 
sidered that  full  freedom  of  educational  privileges  was 
bound  to  be  followed  by  the  removal  of  women's  politi- 
cal disabilities.  Then,  too,  I  had  not  at  that  time  been 
brought  intimately  into  contact  with  any  of  the  workers 
in  the  suffrage  cause. 

Theoretically,  then,  when  I  came  to  Baltimore,  I  was 
a  suffragist,  but  I  had  never  lifted  a  finger  nor  con- 
tributed time  nor  money  to  advance  the  suffrage  cause. 
I  have  already  pointed  out  how  gradually,  in  my  medi- 
cal-social work  in  Baltimore,  it  was  borne  in  upon  my 
consciousness  that  the  ballot  was  a  very  important  tool 
in  securing  social  legislation.  Hitherto  it  had  been  the 
injustice  of  the  laws  affecting  women  which  impressed 
me  most.     In  short  the  argument  was  based  on  women's 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE     101 

rights  to  a  share  in  a  government  "for  the  people,  of  the 
people  and  by  the  people."  Now,  however,  the  appeal 
was  different.  I  saw  the  necessity  of  the  ballot  for 
women  in  obtaining  the  social  legislation  for  which  they 
were  working.  It  was  clear  to  me  after  appearing  be- 
fore committees  of  the  legislature  that  a  request  to  legis- 
lators would  have  much  greater  force  when  we  could 
say  "thousands  of  voters  stand  behind  this  request,"  in- 
stead of  "thousands  of  women  desire  such  legislation." 

My  teaching  of  hygiene  as  a  community  problem  led 
straight  to  the  ballot.  Therefore,  when  the  opportunity 
came  to  engage,  as  far  as  I  could,  in  actively  supporting 
the  cause  of  woman  suffrage,  I  was  quite  ready. 

How  long  there  had  existed  in  Maryland  a  branch 
of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association  I  do  not 
know,  but  I  had  never  heard  of  it  previous  to  the  year 
1905  when  I  was  informed  that  on  the  invitation  of  the 
Maryland  State  Suffrage  Association  the  annual  meet- 
ing of  the  National  Association  would  be  held  in  Balti- 
more in  February,  1906.  It  was  this  meeting  that  led 
me  actively  into  the  suffrage  cause.  It  was  this  Balti- 
more meeting  that  Miss  Anthony  and  Miss  Shaw  char- 
acterized as  the  turning  point  in  the  suffrage  movement 
in  the  United  States.  It  was  at  this  time  that  large 
groups  of  college  women  became  actively  interested  in 
suffrage.  It  was  after  this  meeting  that  active  suffrage 
propaganda  was  carried  on  in  Baltimore  and  in  Mary- 
land. 

In  the  fall  of  1905  Miss  Garrett,  who  was  then  living 
with  Miss  Thomas  at  Bryn  Mawr,  came  to  see  Dr.  Sher- 
wood and  me  to  enlist  our  interest  in  the  coming  annual 
meeting  of  the  National  Women  Suffrage  Association  to 


102    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

be  held  in  Baltimore.  She  assumed  we  were  suffragists. 
In  the  course  of  the  conversation  she  turned  to  Dr.  Sher- 
wood and  said:  "Of  course,  Dr.  Sherwood,  you  believe 
in  suffrage."  It  was  quite  characteristic  of  the  general 
attitude  of  many  educated  women  that  Dr.  Sherwood 
responded:  "Why,  Miss  Garrett,  I  haven't  thought  much 
on  this  subject,  but  I  think  I  shall  believe  in  it."  Miss 
Garrett  had  hardly  left  us  when  Dr.  Sherwood  took  from 
our  library  shelves  John  Stuart  Mill's  "Subjection  of 
Women."  Before  she  was  through  with  the  book  she 
was  an  ardent  suffragist.  Many  college  women  profes- 
sors and  others  at  that  time  retired  to  their  studies  with 
the  literature  on  suffrage  and  emerged  therefrom  con- 
vinced and  active  workers  in  the  cause. 

Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  promptly  put  ourselves  at  the 
service  of  Miss  Thomas  and  Miss  Garrett  to  work  ac- 
tively for  the  success  of  the  convention.  Mrs.  Ida  Hus- 
ted  Harper,  in  the  third  volume  of  her  "Life  and  Work 
of  Susan  B.  Anthony,"  gives  a  graphic  description  of 
the  Baltimore  meeting  in  a  chapter  headed  "Tributes 
of  College  Women — Suffrage  Funds,"  indicating  that 
the  outstanding  features  of  this  convention  were  the  Col- 
lege evening  and  the  promise  of  Miss  Garrett  and  Miss 
Thomas  to  undertake  to  raise  a  fund  of  sixty  thousand 
dollars  payable  in  six  annual  instalments  for  the  work 
of  the  Association.  When  this  was  finally  assured  it 
was  the  first  time  any  large  or  definite  sum  could  be 
counted  upon  by  the  Association  for  budget  purposes. 

Mrs.  Harper  says:  "Because  of  its  unique  character 
and  the  prominence  of  the  speakers  the  evening  devoted 
to  College  Women  was  the  leading  event  of  the  week." 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE     103 

The  audience  assembled  in  the  Lyric  for  this  meeting 
filled  it  to  overflowing.  It  was  probably,  in  point  of 
numbers  and  in  the  character  of  the  listeners,  the  most 
brilliant  audience  that  up  to  that  time  had  ever  attended 
a  suffrage  meeting  in  our  country.  I  remember  Prof. 
Mary  W.  Calkins,  who  represented  Wellesley  College 
on  the  program,  said  to  me  the  following  day;  "I  was 
amazed  at  the  size  and  character  of  the  audience  that  I 
faced  last  evening.  In  Boston  such  an  audience  to  hear 
Woman  Suffrage  discussed  would  be  impossible."  The 
audience,  however,  by  no  means  represented  Baltimore's 
interest  in  the  subject.  Miss  Garrett  had  opened  her 
house  on  West  Monument  Street  for  the  week  of  the 
convention  where  she  entertained  as  house  guests  Miss 
Susan  B.  Anthony,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe  and  other 
distinguished  women,  and  where  she  gave,  during  the 
week,  a  series  of  dinners,  luncheons  and  receptions.  For 
the  College  evening  she  had  sent  out  invitations  for  a 
large  reception  to  follow  the  exercises  at  the  Lyric  and 
most  of  the  guests  who  were  going  to  the  reception  went 
to  the  Lyric  first  and  this  fact  accounted  for  a  large  part 
of  the  audience. 

Those  of  us  who  acted  as  advance  agents  for  Miss 
Thomas  and  Miss  Garrett  in  preparations  for  this  Col- 
lege evening  had  many  amusing  experiences.  Two  are 
worth  relating,  one  connected  with  the  appearance  on 
the  program  of  the  name  of  President  Remsen  of  the 
John  Hopkins  University  as  the  presiding  officer,  and 
the  other  related  to  the  statement  on  the  program  that 
students  of  the  Woman's  College  in  cap  and  gown  would 
act  as  ushers. 


104    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

Among  the  women  whom  Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  had 
tried  to  interest  to  the  extent  of  being  willing  to  endorse 
the  program  was  the  wife  of  a  prominent  professor  of 
the  Johns  Hopkins  University.  She  was  a  northern 
woman  of  independent  views  and  we  had  very  little 
doubt  that  she  would  be  willing  to  place  herself  on  rec- 
ord as  favoring  the  suffrage  movement.  Much  to  our 
surprise  when  we  approached  her  she  was  very  hesitant 
about  having  her  name  used,  but  said  she  would  con- 
sult her  husband.  A  few  days  later  she  called  me  by 
telephone  to  say  that  she  had  talked  it  over  with  her 
husband  and  they  both  felt  that,  as  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University  was  a  very  conservative  institution,  it  would 
not  be  wise  for  her  to  have  any  share  in  our  prepara- 
tions. I  had  hardly  put  down  the  telephone  receiver 
when  Dr.  Sherwood  received  a  telegram  from  Miss  Gar- 
rett saying  President  Remsen  would  preside  on  College 
evening  and  Dr.  William  Welch  had  consented  to  occupy 
the  chair  at  another  meeting. 

I  am  afraid  we  took  a  good  deal  of  malicious  pleas- 
ure the  night  of  Miss  Garrett's  reception  in  greeting 
woman  after  woman  who  had  refused  to  have  her  name 
used  in  any  way  in  connection  with  the  meeting,  but  who 
was  literally  "bowled  over"  by  the  sight  of  Miss  An- 
thony and  Mrs.  Howe.  Mrs.  Harper  well  says  of  this 
occasion:  "No  one  present  ever  will  forget  the  picture 
of  Miss  Anthony  and  Mrs.  Howe  sitting  side  by  side  on 
a  divan  in  the  large  bay  window  of  Miss  Garrett's  house 
with  a  background  of  ferns  and  flowers;  at  their  right 
stood  Miss  Garrett  and  Miss  Thomas,  at  their  left  Miss 
Shaw  and  the  line  of  eminent  college  women  speakers 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    105 

of  the  evening  with  a  beautiful  perspective  of  conserva- 
tory and  art  gallery." 

The  college  women  of  Baltimore,  however,  will  recall 
with  greater  vividness  the  following  Sunday  afternoon 
when  Miss  Garrett  invited  them  to  come  in  for  a  cup  of 
tea  and  a  personal  word  from  Miss  Anthony.  There 
we  literally  sat  at  her  feet  and  knew  we  were  in  the 
presence  of  a  great  soul.  Miss  Anthony  was  then  ap- 
proaching her  eighty-sixth  birthday  which  was  to  be 
celebrated  in  Washington  the  following  week.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  picture  she  presented  in  the  fading  light 
of  the  afternoon  and  the  fitful  play  of  the  flames  of  an 
open  fire.  She  wore  her  famous  garnet-colored  velvet 
dress  and  lace  collar.  We,  a  small  group,  sat  on  the 
floor  and  listened  to  the  few  words  she  had  to  say.  What 
they  were  I  do  not  recall,  but  what  I  carried  away  with 
me  was  an  impression  of  a  woman  characterized  by  great 
simplicity,  strength  and  dignity,  indomitable  spirit  and 
infinite  patience.  I  never  think  of  Miss  Anthony  as  I 
saw  her  that  afternoon,  without  recalling  what  Dr.  Sher- 
wood was  wont  to  say  when  we  had  identified  ourselves 
with  the  suffrage  cause.  She  said  it  wa5  good  to  be  an 
American  woman  in  this  particular  period  of  our  coun- 
try's history  because  we  were  the  one  class  of  human 
beings  that  were  striving  to  obtain  freedom  and  liberty, 
and  that  there  was  nothing  in  human  experience  so  good 
for  the  soul  as  such  a  battle.  What  she  and  I  did  for  a 
few  years  fitfully.  Miss  Anthony  had  done  for  more 
than  half  a  century  continuously  and  it  had  left  a  noble 
imprint  upon  her. 

Miss  Anthony  came  to  Baltimore  an  ill  woman.  Mrs. 
Harper  says  "Dr.  Mary  Sherwood,  a  skilled  physician 


106    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

and  a  friend  of  Miss  Garrett's,  was  at  once  summoned 
and  during  Miss  Anthony's  stay  gave  her  most  devoted 
attention,  declaring  it  to  be  an  honor  and  privilege  to 
render  service  to  one  who  had  done  so  much  for  all 
womanhood.  A  trained  nurse  from  the  Johns  Hopkins 
Hospital  willingly  consented  to  assume  the  garb  of  a 
maid  in  order  that  her  patient  might  not  know  she  was 
so  ill  as  to  need  professional  attendance."  Woman  doc- 
tor and  woman  nurse  vied  with  each  other  to  bring 
bodily  comfort  to  their  patient,  while  both  felt  that  it 
was  one  of  the  great  privileges  of  their  lives  to  min- 
ister to  her.  The  nurse  accompanied  Miss  Anthony  to 
Washington  and  then  to  her  home  in  Rochester,  where 
her  death  occurred  March  13th,  just  about  four  weeks 
after  her  appearance  in  Baltimore. 

In  the  preparations  for  the  College  evening  an  invi- 
tation was  extended  to  students  of  the  Woman's  College 
of  Baltimore  to  send  a  group  of  students  in  cap  and 
gown  to  act  as  ushers.  I  recall  very  distinctly  a  meeting 
of  the  Board  of  Control  of  the  College  held  about  a  week 
before  the  Woman  Suffrage  Convention.  President 
Goucher  was  in  the  chair  after  one  of  his  prolonged  ab- 
sences during  which  Dean  Van  Meter  was  acting  presi- 
dent. After  the  business  of  the  meeting  had  been  trans- 
acted Dr.  Goucher  took  from  the  table  what  I  recog- 
nized as  an  advance  program  of  the  suffrage  convention. 
He  was  not  in  sympathy  with  the  suffrage  movement  and 
his  views  were  shared  by  the  majority  of  the  professors 
who  formed  the  Board  of  which  I  was  the  only  woman 
member.  Very  quietly  but  with  evidence  of  some  feel- 
ing he  said:  "I  have  in  my  hand  a  program  of  the  suf- 
frage convention  to  be  held  in  Baltimore  which  states 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    107 

that  on  Wednesday  evening  students  of  the  College  will 
act  as  ushers  in  cap  and  gown.  I  should  like  to  know 
who  is  responsible  for  this  statement."  For  a  minute 
there  was  a  tense  silence,  then  Dr.  Van  Meter  said:  "I 
am  responsible.  This  will  be  an  important  occasion  for 
college  women.  Bryn  Mawr,  Wellesley,  Smith,  Mount 
Holyoke  will  be  represented  on  the  program  by  promi- 
nent members  of  their  respective  faculties.  The 
Woman's  College  of  Baltimore  should  have  a  place 
on  this  program  and  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  selecting 
a  representative  group  of  our  students  to  act  as  ushers." 
The  deed  was  done  and  the  unwisdom  of  withdrawing 
permission  was  so  obvious  that  no  action  was  taken.  Not 
only  did  the  students  turn  out  in  a  body  on  College  even- 
ing, but  Dr.  Van  Meter  was  on  the  platform  to  deliver 
the  invocation  with  which  the  meeting  was  opened. 

More  than  one  conservative  group  was  swept  into  ac- 
tion contrary  to  the  will  of  the  majority  during  that 
memorable  woman's  week  in  Baltimore.  The  Arundell 
Club,  with  a  membership  mostly  indifferent  or  actually 
hostile  to  the  suffrage  cause,  gave  Miss  Anthony  an  after- 
noon reception.  The  president  of  the  Club,  Miss  King 
(Mrs.  Ellicott),  was  an  outspoken  advocate  of  woman 
suffrage  and  entered  fully  into  active  leadership  in  all 
subsequent  suffrage  work  in  Maryland. 

The  Baltimore  Convention  was  followed  in  City  and 
State  by  active  and  general  suffrage  propaganda.  Al- 
though our  State  did  not  finally  ratify  the  Constitutional 
Amendment,  it  was  not  because  Maryland  suffragists 
failed  to  wage  a  vigorous,  active  and  intelligent  cam- 
paign under  capable  leadership.  I  doubt  whether  any 
State  in  the  Union  developed  better  leaders  in  their 


108    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

communities  than  Mrs.  William  M.  Funck,  Mrs.  Eliza- 
beth King  EUicott  and  Mrs.  Donald  Hooker. 

However  much  they  may  have  differed  in  their  opin- 
ions as  to  the  methods  to  be  used  in  advancing  the  cause 
they  were  honestly  and  loyally  devoted  to  it  and  were 
always  able  to  present  a  united  front  to  the  State  Legis- 
lature and  on  other  occasions  when  unity  was  essential. 

I  have  already  said  that  so  far  as  I  know  the  only 
suffrage  organization  in  Maryland  prior  to  the  Balti- 
more Convention  was  that  led  by  Mrs.  Funck.  Promptly 
after  the  convention  a  group  of  women  who  had  been 
active  in  the  woman's  club  movement  concluded  that  it 
would  be  wise  to  organize  another  association  and  they 
unanimously  decided  upon  Mrs.  Ellicott  as  president. 
Mrs.  Hooker,  I  think,  was  one  of  the  original  executive 
board  of  this  body.  Eventually  with  the  appearance  of 
a  militant  wing  in  the  national  suffrage  association,  and 
its  separation  from  the  parent  body,  a  third  organiza- 
tion representing  this  group  was  formed  in  Maryland 
with  Mrs.  Hooker  as  its  president. 

In  addition  to  these  organizations  the  National  Col- 
lege Equal  Suffrage  League  maintained  a  Baltimore 
branch  with  headquarters  at  the  College  Club.  This 
National  Association  had  been  formed  by  Mrs.  Maud 
Wood  Park  who  represented  it  at  the  College  evening 
of  the  Baltimore  convention.  Its  object  was  to  do  propa- 
ganda work  among  women  college  graduates  and  col- 
lege students.  Early  in  its  history  a  meeting  for  college 
women  with  Mrs.  Park  as  the  speaker  was  arranged  by 
Miss  Thomas  and  Miss  Garrett  at  the  Baltimore  Coun- 
try Club.  About  two  hundred  Baltimore  college  women 
drank  tea  together  that  afternoon,  listened  to  an  able 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    109 

address  by  Mrs.  Park  and  were  enthusiastic  over  her 
address  and  her  charming  personality,  but  very  few  of 
them  were  ready  to  commit  themselves  on  the  subject  of 
suffrage.  I  remember  very  well  that  a  few  of  us  took 
dinner  afterwards  with  Mrs.  Park  in  the  dining  room  of 
the  Club  and  the  surprise  expressed  by  the  men  there 
that  this  young  and  charming  woman  had  been  the  suf- 
frage speaker  of  the  afternoon. 

There  were  all  kinds  of  women  in  the  suffrage  ranks 
just  as  there  are  all  kinds  in  any  cause.  Some  of  them 
undoubtedly  were  there  because  they  were  "queer."  I 
remember  meeting  a  woman  delegate  from  the  State  of 
Washington  at  a  reception  to  the  delegates  to  the  Balti- 
more Convention  given  by  Miss  Garrett  Friday  afternoon 
of  convention  week.  She  obviously  belonged  to  a  class 
familiarly  known  as  "cranks."  She  told  me  after  some 
conversation  that  no  one  had  introduced  her  to  Miss 
Garrett  and  she  desired  to  meet  her.  I  offered  to  pre- 
sent her,  but  asked  what  her  name  was  and  whether  she 
was  "Mrs.  or  Miss."  She  straightened  herself  up,  gave 
me  a  haughty  look  and  replied:  "I  have  been  married 
three  times  and  the  sweetest  word  in  the  English  lan- 
guage to  me  is  'Miss.'  " 

As  the  general  campaign  for  suffrage  waxed  hotter, 
women  college  students,  as  a  rule,  having  been  won  over, 
its  sponsors  felt  that  the  National  College  Equal  Suf- 
frage League  had  served  its  purpose  and  it  was  ami- 
cably disbanded. 

I  was  present  in  Washington  at  the  annual  conven- 
tion of  the  National  Woman  Suffrage  Association  as  a 
delegate  from  the  National  College  Equal  Suffrage 
League  when  this  action  wa§  taken.    There  was  no  oppo- 


110    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

sition  to  such  action  and  the  league  died  peacefully  and 
quietly.  At  the  same  time  a  new  league  was  born.  It 
was  at  this  convention  that  the  split  came  between  the 
conservative  and  the  radical  wings  represented  on  the 
one  side  by  Miss  Shaw  and  the  old  line  suffragists  and 
on  the  other  by  Alice  Paul,  Lucy  Burns  and  a  vigorous 
contingent  of  youth.  It  was  not,  however,  a  division 
between  the  old  and  the  young  as  some  of  the  oldest 
suffragists  I  knew,  women  seventy  and  eighty  years  of 
age,  promptly  joined  the  militant  wing  while  many  of 
the  youngest  I  knew  were  found  in  the  ranks  led  by  Miss 
Shaw. 

Whether  militancy  advanced  the  cause  of  suffrage  in 
the  United  States  and  brought  suffrage  sooner  than  it 
otherwise  would  have  come  is  an  unanswerable  question. 
The  militants  say  it  did  and  by  dint  of  constant  affirma- 
tion they  have  made  many  people  believe  it  is  true.  I 
believe  myself  that  while  it  did  not  retard  the  progress 
of  suffrage,  it  was  useless  and  much  of  it  foolish.  I  had 
occasion  once  at  the  request  of  Dr.  Kelly  to  visit  a  Wash- 
ington jail  to  see  one  of  the  women  who  was  undergoing 
a  hunger  strike.  It  seemed  to  me  that  any  person  who 
took  pleasure  in  a  fancied  martyrdom  ought  to  be  per- 
mitted this  form  of  self-expression  if  she  desired  it. 
Forcible  feeding  was  so  familiar  to  me  from  my  service 
in  an  insane  hospital  that  it  failed  to  arouse  any  par- 
ticular sympathy  for  those  who  chose  to  put  themselves 
in  the  position  in  which  it  might  be  needed.  The  only 
time  during  my  service  at  Norristown  that  a  patient  at- 
tacked me  was  when  I  had  ordered  a  cessation  of  her 
feeding  by  a  tube,  a  method  which  had  been  used  with 
her  for  four  or  five  years  because  she  refused  to  take 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    111 

food  in  the  usual  way.  There  is  nothing  intrinsically 
unpleasant  about  the  process  after  one  is  used  to  it. 

Of  the  many  addresses  made  in  Baltimore  in  the  in- 
terest of  woman  suffrage,  the  one  I  remember  most 
vividly  is  the  first  one  made  by  Mrs.  Pankhurst.  This 
was  on  her  first  visit  to  America  before  she  had  adopted 
window-breaking  as  an  argument  for  suffrage.  The 
meeting  was  held  in  a  theatre  on  a  Sunday  afternoon, 
two  innovations  that,  in  my  opinion,  boded  ill  for  its 
success.  I  was,  however,  mistaken.  The  theatre  was 
crowded  with  a  representative  audience  and  the  speaker 
made  a  profound  impression.  I  look  back  upon  that 
address  as  one  of  the  few  great  speeches  on  any  subject 
I  have  heard  in  my  life  time.  When  Mrs.  Pankhurst 
visited  Baltimore  a  second  time  she  had  lost  her  ability 
to  draw  an  audience  or  to  hold  spellbound  those  who 
listened  to  her. 

In  the  years  between  1906  and  the  end  of  the  cam- 
paign for  suffrage  Baltimore  audiences  had  the  oppor- 
tunity of  hearing  the  subject  thoroughly  discussed  by 
the  ablest  speakers  in  the  country  who  took  the  plat- 
form for  and  against  suffrage  during  that  period.  I  re- 
call that  the  day  after  a  meeting  arranged  by  women 
opposed  to  the  extension  of  suffrage  to  women  at  which 
the  principal  speakers  were  a  Judge  of  the  Federal 
Court  and  an  eminent  New  York  lawyer,  a  young  woman 
came  to  see  me  in  my  office.  She  was  a  beautiful  South- 
ern girl  studying  art  in  our  city.  She  said:  "Dr.  Welsh, 
I  was  at  that  meeting  last  night  and  heard  those  two  old 
gentlemen  talking  against  suffrage.  Now  I  am  on  the 
fence  in  this  matter,  but  if  I  hear  many  more  speeches 
like  those  I  shall  step  down  into  the  suffrage  ranks. 


112    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

They  said  that  if  women  got  suffrage  they  wouldn't 
marry  and  homes  would  be  broken  up.  Now,  you  know 
that  is  foolish.  Nature  will  take  care  of  that."  There 
was,  of  course,  plenty  of  foolish  talk  on  both  sides  as 
happens  with  any  controversial  subject. 

The  greatest  thrills  of  the  campaign  came  with  the 
street  parades.  1  marched  in  one  in  Baltimore  and  in 
the  famous  one  staged  in  Washington  the  day  before  the 
first  inauguration  of  President  Wilson.  I  had  elected 
to  take  my  place  in  the  parade  with  a  group  of  women 
physicians  from  the  Women's  Medical  College  of  Penn- 
sylvania. One  of  our  most  cherished  traditions  when  I 
was  a  student  there  was  the  story  of  Dr.  Ann  Preston, 
the  first  Dean  of  the  College,  leading  a  small  group  of 
women  medical  students  in  a  forced  march  down  the 
middle  of  Chestnut  Street  protected  by  the  police  from 
a  mob  of  male  medical  students  who  had  hooted  them 
out  of  a  clinic  which  the  women  had  been  given  permis- 
sion to  attend.  I  doubt  whether  the  jeers  or  insulting 
remarks  which  that  small  band  listened  to  because  they 
were  seeking  educational  freedom  for  women  were  any 
worse  than  those  we  listened  to  fifty  years  later  because 
we  were  seeking  political  freedom. 

The  Washington  parade  with  the  accompanying  pag- 
eant in  spite  of,  and  because  of,  the  lack  of  protection 
afforded  it  by  the  Washington  police,  made  a  profound 
impression  throughout  this  country.  The  professional 
women  in  cap  and  gown,  lawyers,  doctors,  teachers  and 
students  formed  a  conspicuous  section  of  the  parade. 
The  Trustees  of  Goucher  College  had  refused  to  grant  a 
holiday  to  the  student  body,  but  the  newspaper  photo- 
graphs showed  a  very  large  contingent  of  caps  and 


CONTRAST  OF  POLICE  CONTROL  OF  SUFFRAGE  PARADE,  MARCH  3, 
AND  OF  INAUGURAL  PARADE.  MARCH  4,  WASHINGTON,  1913. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE     113 

gowns  behind  a  conspicuous  banner  bearing  the  single 
word  "Goucher."  I  think  the  majority  of  the  students 
and  a  large  number  of  the  women  members  of  the  fac- 
ulty marched  behind  that  banner. 

In  the  September  following  the  Washington  parade 
Dr.  Guth  entered  upon  his  duties  as  President  of  Gou- 
cher College.  His  formal  inauguration  took  place  in 
the  Lyric  in  November  of  that  year.  The  audience  filled 
the  Lyric  to  its  capacity,  while  on  the  platform  was 
grouped  a  colorful  assemblage  in  academic  costume 
representing  many  of  the  leading  universities  and  col- 
leges of  the  United  States.  In  his  inaugural  address  he 
declared  in  very  positive  terms  his  conviction  that  suf- 
frage should  be  extended  to  women.  At  that  time  of 
six  prominent  women's  colleges  along  the  Atlantic  sea- 
board three  of  the  presidencies,  Vassar,  Smith  and 
Goucher,  were  occupied  by  men,  and  Goucher's  new 
president  was  the  first  of  these  to  publicly  declare  him- 
self in  favor  of  woman  suffrage.  The  three  women 
presidents,  representing  Bryn  Mawr,  Wellesley  and 
Mount  Holyoke — all  of  whom  were  on  the  stage  that 
afternoon — had  been  for  many  years  workers  in  the 
suffrage  cause. 

With  suffrage  for  women  an  accomplished  fact  I  am 
often  asked  whether  I  consider  that  it  has  been  a  suc- 
cess. That  question  has  no  interest  for  me.  Obviously 
it  admits  of  no  answer.  In  a  democracy,  government  is 
the  business  of  the  entire  adult  population.  The  bal- 
lot is  the  means  by  which  an  individual  expresses  an 
opinion  on  questions  of  government,  and  it  is  not  only 
the  right  of  the  individual  to  use  it,  but  it  is  his  duty  to 
do  so.    Once  in  a  parlor  meeting  where  I  was  one  of  the 


114    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

two  speakers  debating  the  question  of  woman  suffrage, 
I  made  the  assertion  that  in  my  opinion  not  only  should 
every  adult  individual  in  a  democracy  have  a  right  to 
vote,  but  that  he  or  she  should  be  punished  by  fine  or 
imprisonment  for  failure  to  exercise  that  right.  A  lady 
in  the  audience  gave  vent  to  her  aversion  to  such  senti- 
ments by  a  prolonged  hiss.  As  I  passed  her  to  my  seat 
she  seized  some  part  of  me  and  said:  "Do  you  mean  to 
say  that  if  the  vote  comes  to  women  I  ought  to  be  fined 
or  sent  to  prison  if  I  fail  to  use  it,"  "Yes,  madam,"  I 
replied,  "that  is  my  opinion,  but  do  not  fear.  You  and 
I  will  not  live  to  see  any  such  really  democratic  day." 


Chapter  VIII 

Personal  Experiences  as  a  Member  of  the  Goucher 
College  Faculty 

In  1894  I  was  appointed  by  Dr.  Goucher,  then  presi- 
dent of  the  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore,  to  succeed 
Dr.  Mary  Mitchell  as  professor  of  Physiology  and 
Physical  Training.  The  first  statement  issued  by  the 
Woman's  College,  announcing  its  opening  and  its  pro- 
posed courses,  stated  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the  au- 
thorities of  the  College  to  make  provision  for  the  care 
of  the  health  of  its  students  in  a  department  which 
should  be  co-ordinate  with  the  other  departments  of 
the  College.  The  catalogue  of  1892  announced  the  ap- 
pointment of  Dr.  Alice  Hall  as  the  head  of  a  depart- 
ment of  Physiology  and  Physical  Training  with  the  title 
of  professor  and  a  place  on  the  faculty  and  on  its  Board 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    115 

of  Control  which  consisted  of  the  president,  the  dean  and 
instructors  holding  the  rank  of  professor.  It  was  not 
President  Goucher's  policy  to  appoint  women  to  pro- 
fessorships and  except  in  this  department  for  many 
years  the  only  woman  on  the  Board  of  Control  was  the 
woman  physician.  In  1904  Dr.  Eleanor  Lord,  associate 
professor  of  history,  was  made  a  full  professor,  and 
from  that  time  until  1916  Dr.  Lord  and  I  were  the  only 
women  on  the  Board  of  Control  which  determined  the 
academic  policy  of  the  College,  and,  until  student  gov- 
ernment became  a  part  of  College  policy,  exercised  a 
certain  measure  of  control  over  the  rules  and  regulations 
for  the  conduct  of  students. 

Now  a  woman  who  accepted  a  position  in  a  woman's 
college  in  1890  to  develop  a  department  of  hygiene  en- 
tered an  unworked  field  and  could  practically  make  of 
it  what  she  pleased.  She  could  expect  little  or  no  help 
from  her  colleagues  in  trying  to  give  her  department 
academic  rank  because  the  subject  of  hygiene  as  a  dig- 
nified subject  for  department  standing  in  a  college  of 
liberal  arts  was  unheard  of  and  a  professor  of  physical 
training  was  given  scant  consideration  by  the  early  gen- 
eration of  doctors  of  philosophy  who  were  rapidly  fill- 
ing the  professorial  chairs  in  colleges.  Indeed  doctors 
of  medicine  themselves  looked  with  doubtful  eyes  on 
teachers  of  college  hygiene  who  supposedly  gave  their 
time  to  teaching  gymnastics.  I  recall  that  Dr.  Frances 
Emily  White  who,  as  professor  of  physiology  in  the 
Woman's  Medical  College  of  Pennsylvania,  had  taught 
Dr.  Hall,  Dr.  Mitchell  and  myself,  lamented  the  fact 
that  three  of  her  students  were  wasting  their  talents  and 


116    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

their  medical  education  in  teaching  gymnastic  move- 
ments to  girls. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  none  of  us  could  have  taught  gym- 
nastics had  we  desired  to  do  so  nor  were  we  engaged 
for  that  purpose. 

My  predecessors  saw  to  it  that  the  foundations  for 
developing  a  department  of  hygiene  were  well  laid  in 
that  they  insisted  that  animal  physiology  was  to  have  a 
distinct  place  in  the  curriculum  and  that  its  teaching 
should  be  controlled  by  their  department. 

Other  women's  colleges  had  physicians  in  their  facul- 
ties, but  they  were  employed  primarily  to  look  after  the 
sick.  In  the  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore  the  distinct 
understanding  was  that  the  physician  did  not  look  after 
the  sick.  In  my  first  interview  with  Dr.  Goucher  he  told 
me  that  the  policy  of  the  college  was  to  designate  two 
male  physicians  resident  in  Baltimore,  one  of  the  regu- 
lar school  (he  said  "allopathic")  and  one  homeopathic, 
to  be  called  to  the  dormitories  in  cases  of  illness,  the 
nurse  in  charge  calling  the  doctor  after  ascertaining 
from  the  student  her  preference.  Until  1914  the  cata- 
logue stated  that  illness  in  the  dormitories  was  entirely 
in  the  care  of  the  resident  trained  nurse.  She  made  her 
report  to  Dean  Van  Meter  every  morning,  and  received 
her  instructions  from  him.  The  woman  physician  on 
the  college  faculty  had  no  official  recognition  so  far  as 
the  dormitories  were  concerned  and  no  authority  over 
the  nurse.  Her  salary  included  nothing  for  medical 
services  to  sick  students. 

Manifestly  there  were  difficulties  in  such  an  arrange- 
ment. To  the  nurses  themselves  it  was  unsatisfactory 
and  I  found  they  were  eager  to  seek  advice  and  direc- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    117 

tion  from  me.  As  time  passed  on  I  gradually  assumed 
the  medical  direction  of  the  infirmary  without  any  com- 
pensation and  without  any  official  appointment.  This 
led  to  two  complications — one  an  occasional  explosion 
from  Dr.  Van  Meter  when  difficulties  arose,  the  other 
the  assumption  of  students  that  they  were  entitled  to 
medical  service,  although  they  paid  nothing  for  it  even 
in  the  shape  of  an  infirmary  fee. 

When  Dr.  Noble  became  President  I  was  appointed, 
by  action  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  medical  adviser  to 
the  College  with  the  understanding  that  I  was  to  organize 
the  care  of  the  sick  in  an  infirmary  as  I  saw  best,  but 
to  receive  no  compensation  for  medical  services  from 
the  College.  I  was  never  willing  to  establish  a  relation 
with  students  on  a  fee  basis,  as  I  felt  that  such  an  ar- 
rangement was  not  compatible  with  the  relationship  de- 
manded for  preventive  work.  So  long  as  the  College 
was  small  and  the  medical  work  light  I  was  glad  to  in- 
clude the  care  of  the  sick  girls  in  the  infirmary  among 
my  duties,  especially  as  the  policy  was  early  adopted  of 
sending  those  acutely  ill  for  more  than  a  few  days  to 
various  hospitals  of  the  city. 

When  Dr.  Guth  came  to  the  presidency  he  confirmed 
this  arrangement  and  gave  me  full  authority  in  the  in- 
firmary. When  the  number  of  students  increased  rap- 
idly and  my  other  duties  became  likewise  greater,  one 
year,  with  President  Guth's  approval.  Dr.  Mabel  Belt, 
one  of  our  own  alumnae,  was  called  in  to  care  for  stu- 
dents in  the  infirmary  ill  for  more  than  one  day.  When, 
at  my  request,  she  sent  her  modest  bills  to  the  students 
there  was  a  great  uproar  in  the  College.  A  meeting  of 
the  student  organization  was  called  to  consider  the  mat- 


118    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

ter.  Parents  wrote  protesting  letters  to  the  president 
and,  altogether,  the  situation  was  very  unpleasant,  for 
Dr.  Belt,  who,  by  the  way,  has  never  been  able  to  col- 
lect those  bills.  The  catalogue  distinctly  stated  that 
students  were  not  entitled  to  medical  care.  My  own  re- 
action was  first  one  of  indignation  and  second  the  reflec- 
tion that  it  was  my  own  fault.  However,  this  led  to  the 
final  step  in  the  organization  of  the  department  of  hy- 
giene. An  infirmary  fee  to  be  paid  by  all  resident  stu- 
dents was  instituted  and  an  additional  physician  with 
the  title  of  assistant  professor  of  hygiene  was  included 
in  the  personnel  of  the  department,  part  of  whose  duty 
is  the  care  of  sick  girls  in  the  infirmary.  We  were  for- 
tunate to  find  one  of  our  own  alumnae — Dr.  Van  Duyne 
— to  inaugurate  this  arrangement. 

So  far,  then,  as  my  duties  were  defined  when  I  be- 
came associated  with  the  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore, 
they  included  a  physical  examination  of  every  student 
who  entered  college,  day  students  and  resident  stu- 
dents, placing  on  permanent  record  the  results  of  this 
examination.  On  the  basis  of  these  examinations  I  was 
to  assign  students  to  the  work  they  might  do  in  the  gym- 
nasium. The  instructors  in  the  gymnasium  were  my 
assistants  and  were  directly  responsible  to  me  in  all 
questions  affecting  health.  I  was  to  give  one  hour  lec- 
ture weekly  on  hygiene  to  freshmen,  who  were  required 
to  attend  this  course,  and  was  to  have  charge  of  a  course 
in  animal  physiology  as  part  of  the  work  required  of 
students  making  a  major  in  biology. 

The  two  parts  of  this  program  which  appealed  to  me 
were  the  opportunity  of  observing  presumably  healthy 
girls  and  the  effect  of  exercise  upon  them,  and  the  op- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    119 


portunity  of  teaching  physiology.  The  one-hour  course 
in  hygiene  did  not  seem  to  me  worth  while  as  a  college 
course. 

In  1894  we  were  still  in  the  midst  of  the  discussion 
precipitated  by  Dr.  Clarke's  book  entitled  "Sex  in  Edu- 
cation." The  reproductive  organs  in  women  were  looked 
upon  as  the  source  of  most  of  their  ills  and  the  function 
of  menstruation  as  a  monthly  recurrent  disabling  period, 
even  if  not  accompanied  by  dysmenorrhaea.  One  has 
only  to  read  the  pages  devoted  to  the  subject  by  Stanley 
Hall  in  his  monumental  work  on  Adolescence  to  realize 
on  what  insecure  foundations  one  may  weave  a  theory 
as  to  a  suitable  education  for  women.  It  seemed  to  me 
that  the  gymnasiums  connected  with  women's  colleges 
should  be  looked  upon  as  laboratories  where  one  might 
study  the  effects  of  exercise  and  of  mental  work  upon 
the  health  of  girls  and  women.  Moreover,  the  emer- 
gence of  gynaecology  as  a  specialty  of  medicine  with 
its  intensive  study  of  the  cause  of  the  diseases  of  the 
reproductive  organs  of  women  and  their  secondary  mani- 
festations was  yielding  a  harvest  of  generalizations 
founded  on  sound  knowledge  that  were  revolutionary  in 
their  character  so  far  as  their  bearing  on  the  health  of 
women  was  concerned.  No  one  can  appreciate  this  quite 
so  clearly  as  a  woman  physician  who  knew  women  stu- 
dents and  their  ideas  on  these  subjects  in  1894  and  who 
dealt  with  the  daughters  of  these  students  and  the  daugh- 
ters of  other  women  of  the  same  generation  twenty-five 
years  later.  There  was  scarcely  a  student  in  those  early 
days  with  a  neurotic  history  or  a  neurotic  tendency 
whose  mind  was  not  fixed  upon  her  reproductive  organs 
as  the  source  of  all  her  troubles.    Her  dismay  and  that 


120    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

of  her  friends  at  the  idea  of  systematic  gymnastic  exer- 
cise or  of  athletics  as  a  required  subject  was  often  too 
great  to  overcome.  One  young  woman  told  me  once  that 
an  eminent  gynaecologiest  of  the  old  school  had  told 
her  that  if  women  knew  what  dangers  lurked  in  their 
pelvic  organs  they  would  not  step  from  the  pavement  to 
their  carriages  or  vice  versa.  When  I  mildly  suggested 
that  it  was  then  fortunate  that  the  majority  of  women 
in  the  United  States  didn't  have  the  opporuniy  of  per- 
forming these  acts  she  did  not  seem  much  impressed. 

Dr.  Alice  Hall,  who  had  organized  the  department  of 
physical  training,  had  advised  that  the  College  adopt  the 
Swedish  system  of  educational  gymnastics  and  the  em- 
ployment of  teachers  trained  in  the  Royal  Central  In- 
stitute in  Stockholm.  The  early  students  will  remem- 
ber the  various  Swedes  who  presided  over  their  required 
gymnasium  work.  Miss  Oberg,  Miss  Palmquist,  Miss 
Kellman,  Miss  Erickson.  They  possibly  never  knew 
that  these  teachers  looked  upon  the  American  girls  as 
"soft"  in  the  sense  that  they  were  obliged  to  give  them 
very  mild  exercises  compared  to  what  their  country- 
women demanded.  It  was  difficult  for  these  teachers 
to  learn  that  they  must  make  many  concessions  to  the 
prejudices  of  the  American  girl  and  not  require  her 
adherence  to  rigid  rules  or  ask  her  to  undertake  really 
vigorous  exercise. 

When  I  accepted  appointment  to  the  faculty  of  the 
College  it  was  understood  that  I  would  proceed  to  Swe- 
den and  observe  directly  the  methods  of  educational 
gymnastics  used  there.  So  in  April,  1894,  Dr.  Sher- 
wood and  I  set  forth  to  learn  what  we  could  about  Swe- 
dish Educational  Gymnastics  in  Stockholm.     We  spent 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    121 

five  months  in  the  study  and  observation  of  the  training 
schools  for  teachers  and  the  actual  teaching  of  gymnas- 
tics in  Sweden,  Germany  and  England.  I  came  back 
convinced  that  the  Swedish  system  offered  the  best  foun- 
dation for  systematic  formal  gymnastics  in  classes,  but 
that  there  should  be  added  the  English  zest  for  sports 
and  athletics.  I  advised  Dr.  Goucher  to  try  an  English 
teacher  when  the  next  vacancy  occurred,  from  the  School 
of  Madame  Osterberg,  a  Swede,  who  had  introduced 
the  Swedish  system  into  England  and  established  a 
school  there  for  training  teachers  which  specially  em- 
phasized athletics  and  sports.  In  1897,  when  I  visited 
England  again,  I  was  commissioned  by  Dr.  Goucher  to 
find  a  teacher,  and  through  Madame  Osterberg's  influ- 
ence I  was  fortunate  in  securing  the  services  of  Miss 
Hillyard  who  will  be  remembered  by  many  former  stu- 
dents as  a  splendid  specimen  of  physical  vigor  and  an 
inspiring  leader  in  outdoor  sports.  She  introduced 
hockey  to  the  College.  Miss  Hillyard  had  been  a  stu- 
dent at  Girton,  but  because  her  health  seemed  not  good 
had  gone  into  physical  training  as  a  profession,  and 
after  her  own  experience  could  often  laugh  a  girl  out 
of  her  ideas  concerning  physical  disability. 

While  Dr.  Sherwood  and  I  were  in  Stockholm  Dr. 
Sherwood  received  a  cablegram  from  President  Thomas 
asking  her  to  accept  a  position  as  medical  director  of 
Bryn  Mawr  School  and  as  lecturer  on  hygiene  and  medi- 
cal examiner  of  students  in  Bryn  Mawr  College.  She  was 
at  that  time  lecturer  in  pathology  at  the  Woman's  Medi- 
cal College  in  Philadelphia,  which  took  her  to  Philadel- 
phia once  a  week  during  the  college  year.  She  accepted 
the  position  offered  and  for  a  number  of  years  spent  a 


122    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

day  and  a  half  in  Bryn  Mawr  and  Philadelphia  until  her 
medical  work  in  Baltimore  no  longer  permitted  of  such 
regular  absences.  By  this  arrangement  Dr.  Sherwood 
and  I  began  at  the  same  time  practical  work  in  hygiene 
with  girls  in  secondary  schools  and  with  college  women. 
We  worked  out  together  methods  of  instruction  and 
of  medical  supervision.  As  Dr.  Sherwood  has  con- 
tinued as  medical  director  of  Bryn  Mawr  School  ever 
since  her  appointment  we  have  been  most  helpful  to  each 
other  in  school  and  college  work. 

Until  1913  the  instructors  in  physical  training  in  the 
Woman's  College  were  Swedes  and  English  women,  with 
one  exception  who  did  not  increase  my  desire  for  Ameri- 
can trained  teachers.  However,  our  own  schools  of 
physical  education  were  steadily  improving  and  an  in- 
creasing number  of  women  college  graduates  were  en- 
tering these  schools,  so,  finally,  when  Miss  Jervis,  an 
English  woman  who  had  followed  Miss  Rodway,  who 
had  succeeded  Miss  Hillyard  and  who  was  one  of  the 
most  successful  of  all  our  teachers,  left  us  for  work  in 
China,  the  department  was  organized  with  all  American 
teachers,  with  one  of  our  own  graduates  as  director.  The 
success  of  Miss  Von  Borries  is  a  great  satisfaction  to 
the  College  authorities.  I  believe  the  department  of 
physical  training  in  Goucher  College  has  never  been  so 
efficient  as  it  is  at  present. 

Gradually  as  I  gained  experience  and  knowledge  and 
compared  the  final  organization  of  our  department  in 
Goucher  College  with  that  in  other  women's  colleges  I 
became  fully  convinced  of  the  wisdom  of  our  arrange- 
ment in  making  physical  training  a  special  phase  of  hy- 
giene administered  in  close  correlation  with  the  teach- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    123 

ing  of  hygiene  and  the  care  of  the  sick  in  one  compact 
department  with  a  definite  head.  As  a  rule  the  instruc- 
tors in  physical  training  have  learned  to  value  this  or- 
ganization, especially  as  they  have  been  given  free  hand 
to  develop  their  own  ideas  after  thorough  discussion  and 
have  been  given  full  authority  in  their  own  field. 

The  basis  of  the  supervision  of  the  health  of  students 
is  laid  in  their  physical  examinations  made  on  entrance. 
In  the  early  days  these  were  the  subject  of  much  discus- 
sion and  of  frequent,  sometimes  violent,  objection.  It 
was  said  it  was  useless  and  expensive  and  an  interfer- 
ence with  personal  liberty.  In  the  light  of  the  present 
day  campaign  for  periodical  physical  examinations  of 
all  individuals  as  a  fundamental  requisite  for  personal 
hygiene  it  is  interesting  to  remember  these  objections. 
As  years  passed  by  and  the  methods  of  physical  exami- 
nations used  in  colleges  and  elsewhere  were  made  more 
uniform  and  complete  our  records  have  become  more 
valuable  for  systematic  study.  In  the  light  of  large 
numbers  of  such  examinations  it  is  no  longer  possible 
to  assert  that  college  conditions  have  detrimentally  af- 
fected the  health  of  women  students.  It  can  usually  be 
shown  that  the  symptoms  attributed  to  college  life 
existed  when  the  student  entered  college.  I  know  more 
than  one  student  who  thinks  her  health  was  permanently 
injured  by  her  gymnasium  requirements  or  by  her  stu- 
dies in  college,  but  I  fail  to  recall  one  such  case  where 
the  claims  could  be  substantiated.  Fortunately,  in  re- 
cent years,  one  rarely  hears  these  forlorn  stories. 

When  I  had  my  first  interview  with  Dr.  Goucher  I 
told  him  of  my  interest  in  some  of  the  physiological 
problems  that  might  be  studied  in  the  gymnasium  and 


124    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

he  expressed  his  interest  and  thought  I  would  have  time 
for  some  of  the  studies  I  had  in  mind.  This  did  not 
prove  to  be  the  case  and  my  own  contributions  to  the 
literature  of  this  subject  have  been  nil.  Yet  I  have 
never  lost  sight  of  the  possibility  and  have  urged  the 
same  attitude  on  other  members  of  the  department  and 
induced  them  to  make  special  studies  and  publish  their 
results. 

The  prospect  of  teaching  physiology  to  major  stu- 
dents held  special  attractions  for  me  because  my  inter- 
est in  chemistry  had  been  a  factor  in  deciding  me  to 
take  up  the  study  of  medicine.  In  my  medical  school 
days  I  had  decided  to  take  up  the  subject  of  physiologi- 
cal chemistry  as  a  profession  if  I  could  get  the  oppor- 
tunity. In  my  last  year  in  medicine  I  consulted  Dean 
Bodley  of  the  medical  school  in  which  I  was  a  student, 
one  of  the  first  women  in  our  country  to  teach  chemistry, 
about  leaving  the  medical  school  and  taking  up  the  study 
of  chemistry  at  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology. She  said  to  me:  "My  experience  in  life  has 
been  that  it  is  well  to  finish  what  one  begins.  You  are 
one  year  from  your  medical  degree  and  I  think  you 
would  be  unwise  not  to  finish  your  course."  She  pointed 
out  that  opportunities  for  women  in  the  field  of  chem- 
istry were  very  limited.  The  last  consideration  did  not 
deter  me,  indeed  it  served  as  a  stimulus  until  I  learned 
the  truth  by  experience.  Her  advice  to  finish  what  I  had 
begun  was  very  helpful  and  I  have  passed  it  on  many 
times  to  perplexed  students.  At  the  end  of  my  last  years 
in  college,  however,  I  was  led  to  believe  that  if  I  were 
qualified,  a  position  for  teaching  physiological  chemis- 
try would  be  available  for  me.    I  did  not  desire  to  prac- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    125 

tice  medicine  and  I  rather  think  I  seized  upon  the  some- 
what nebulous  hopes  held  out  to  me.  I  decided  to  go 
to  Zurich  as  it  seemed  on  inquiry  the  best  place  avail- 
able for  a  woman  to  get  what  1  wanted.  At  the  end 
of  a  year  and  a  half  in  Ziirich,  when  I  was  about  to  be- 
gin my  thesis  for  the  degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy  with 
physiological  chemistry  as  my  major  subject,  the  pros- 
pects of  securing  the  teaching  position  I  had  in  view 
vanished.  As  I  did  not  feel  justified  in  incurring  fur- 
ther financial  obligations  without  a  more  definite  out- 
look for  the  future,  I  returned  home  to  seek  a  job, 
which  I  found  in  a  hospital  for  the  insane.  When  the 
Hopkins  Medical  School  opened  in  1893  I  was  residing 
in  Baltimore,  and  found  the  opportunity  of  taking 
up  a  problem  in  physiological  chemistry  in  Dr.  Abel's 
laboratory.  Work  in  this  was  interrupted,  however,  by 
my  appointment  to  the  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore 
with  its  requirement  of  a  trip  to  Sweden. 

I  make  this  rather  detailed  statement  because  it  ex- 
plains why  I  say  that  the  prospect  of  teaching  physiology 
to  somewhat  advanced  students  was  particularly  attrac- 
tive to  me  and  why  I  have  always  claimed  physiological 
chemistry  as  a  course  to  be  given  in  the  department  of 
physiology.  My  first  advanced  courses  were  largely  de- 
voted to  this  subject. 

When  I  accepted  a  position  in  the  Woman's  College 
of  Baltimore  in  March,  1894,  Bennett  Hall  Annex  was 
in  process  of  building,  not  because  the  College  needed 
more  gymnasium  space,  I  was  told,  but  because  Mr.  Ben- 
nett was  willing  to  give  an  additional  building,  but  only 
one  for  physical  training  purposes.     It  was,  however, 


126    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

agreed  that  the  first  story  and  basement  of  the  Annex 
were  to  be  fitted  up  for  the  use  of  the  departments  of 
biology  and  physiology  and  hygiene,  which  were  then 
taken  care  of  in  the  basement  of  Goucher  Hall. 

Dr.  Maynard  M.  Metcalf  was  then  in  charge  of  the 
department  of  biology.  When  I  entered  upon  my  duties 
in  September,  1894,  the  new  building,  while  not  quite 
completed,  was  ready  for  partial  use.  Students  from 
1894  to  1916  will  remember  the  first  story  of  Bennett 
Hall  Annex,  one  half  its  present  size,  divided  into  lec- 
ture room  and  laboratory  serving  the  purpose  of  teach- 
ing biology,  botany,  physiology  and  hygiene. 

Whatever  success  I  had  in  those  early  days  in  teach- 
ing was  in  large  measure  due  to  the  generous  en- 
couragement and  cordial  co-operation  of  Dr.  Metcalf. 
Our  departments  had  a  common  budget  which  he  ad- 
ministered. All  his  material  was  freely  at  my  disposal 
and  our  apparatus  and  books  chosen  with  reference  to 
the  needs  of  the  two  departments  were  common  prop- 
erty. The  assistants  and  the  mechanic  were  common  to 
both.  To  me  it  was  a  congenial  and  helpful  atmosphere 
and  I  feel  I  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  Dr.  Metcalf  that 
I  have  never  been  able  to  repay. 

Dr.  Metcalf  was  a  stimulating  and  inspiring  teacher 
and  the  department  of  biology  under  his  direction  took 
a  leading  place  in  the  college  and  my  work  shone  by 
reflected  light.  Of  the  five  or  seven  students  who  were 
majoring  in  biology  in  my  first  year  three  subsequently 
took  advanced  degrees.  Florence  Peebles  did  distin- 
guished work  at  Bryn  Mawr  as  graduate  scholar  and 
ifellow.  She  won  the  Bryn  Mawr  European  fellowship 
and  took  her  degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy  at  Bryn 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    127 

Mawr  in  1900.  Subsequently  she  returned  for  a  time  to 
the  Woman's  College  as  an  instructor  in  our  department 
and  organized  the  first  classes  in  vegetable  physiology. 
Letitia  Snow,  now  associate  professor  of  botany  at  Wel- 
lesley  College,  a  Ph.D.  in  botany  of  Chicago,  was  also 
in  that  group.  The  third  student  of  the  group,  Lily  Kol- 
lock,  took  a  Ph.D.  in  chemistry  at  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania  in  1899.  These  were  the  first  Goucher 
graduates  who  proceeded  to  the  degree  of  doctor  of 
philosophy.  Of  the  forty-six  Goucher  graduates  who 
have  taken  the  degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy  or  that 
of  doctor  of  medicine  at  a  university  the  large  majority 
have  majored  in  biology.  It  is  evident  that  this  depart- 
ment has  stimulated  its  students  to  proceed  with  scholar- 
ly work. 

It  is  rather  significant  that  the  part  of  the  work  I  was 
engaged  to  do  when  I  entered  the  faculty  of  the  Woman's 
College  which  interested  me  least  was  the  weekly  lec- 
ture on  hygiene  to  freshmen,  and  yet,  eventually,  this 
elementary  course  led  to  the  most  important  work  I  did 
at  Goucher  College  as  a  teacher  and  to  the  constructive 
contribution  I  made  to  the  College,  the  organization  of 
a  department  of  hygiene  with  three  subdivisions.  Health 
Instruction,  Health  Supervision  and  the  Care  of  the 
Sick. 

The  foundations  for  such  a  department  were  laid  by 
my  predecessors,  but  the  superstructure  was  not  possi- 
ble in  their  day.  It  was  a  gradual  growth  due  to  several 
factors,  the  most  important  of  which  was  the  rapid  ad- 
vance of  scientific  knowledge  upon  which  modern  hy- 
giene is  based.  A  second  important  factor  was  that  in 
1895  the  one-hour  lecture  course  was  changed  to  a  three- 


128    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

hour  course  required  of  all  students  in  the  sophomore 
year.  A  one-hour  required  lecture  course  to  College 
students  on  a  subject  which  they  think  they  know  all 
about  without  any  instruction  commands  respect  neither 
from  students  nor  faculty  and  that  was  exactly  the  posi- 
tion hygiene  as  a  college  subject  held  in  women's  col- 
leges, at  least  for  many  years. 

When  I  was  called  upon  to  organize  a  three-hour 
course  in  hygiene  for  college  sophomores  there  were 
available  no  text-books,  no  periodicals  and  no  reference 
books  on  the  subject  adapted  to  college  requirements. 
The  preceding  chapters  of  these  reminiscences  show  that 
during  the  early  years  of  my  college  connection  my  own 
education  was  advancing  and  my  interests  were  being 
definitely  crystallized  in  the  subject  of  hygiene  and  pub- 
lic health.  My  problem  was  to  take  a  class  of  students, 
the  majority  of  whom  had  had  no  previous  training  in 
science,  and  give  them  the  necessary  biological,  chemi- 
cal and  physical  concepts  necessary  to  the  understanding 
of  hygiene  as  applied  science,  to  thoroughly  instil  into 
their  minds  a  respect  for  hygiene  as  a  growing  body  of 
truths  of  fundamental  importance  to  human  life  and 
human  happiness,  and  finally  to  make  them  familiar 
with  the  sources  to  which  they  might  look  in  the  future 
for  authoritative  information  on  hygienic  subjects.  How 
well  I  succeeded  students  alone  can  tell,  but  at  any  rate 
for  many  years  by  the  method  of  lectures,  recitations 
and  demonstrations  under  the  designation  of  "R  one" 
I  conducted  a  semi-popular  course  running  through  the 
year  that  at  least  possessed  the  one  merit  Hippocrates 
regarded  as  fundamental  for  any  method  of  treating 
bodily  ills — it  did  no  harm.     I  was  accustomed  to  tell 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    129 

the  students  that  they  might  forget  most  of  what  they  had 
learned  in  the  classroom — which  might  be  an  advan- 
tage— but  the  subject  itself  would  constantly  grow  in 
importance  as  they  grew  older.  I  presume  most  of  them 
know  now  that  this  is  true,  even  those  who  began  the 
course  with  dislike  and  aversion  and  ended  it  with  the 
same  sentiments. 

Fortunately  early  in  the  history  of  this  course  the 
general  college  curriculum  was  modified  so  that  all  stu- 
dents in  the  freshman  year  were  required  to  study  either 
chemistry  or  physics.  Finally,  in  1914,  when  the  college 
curriculum  was  entirely  reorganized  on  a  semester  basis 
a  required  course  in  general  biology  was  made  to  pre- 
cede the  hygiene  course,  which  became  a  one  semester 
course.  At  present  students,  with  few  exceptions,  come 
to  the  study  of  hygiene,  having  had  preceding  courses 
in  chemistry,  physics  and  general  biology.  Moreover, 
with  the  phenomenal  growth  and  revival  of  spirit  that 
have  occurred  in  the  College  since  Dr.  Guth  became 
president,  the  department  of  physiology  and  hygiene 
has  had  its  share  in  the  general  development.  It  has 
been  generously  dealt  with  in  the  matter  of  personnel 
of  its  staff,  in  buildings  and  in  equipment.  Its  courses 
have  been  increased  and  expanded,  and  as  I  look  back 
over  the  years  and  see  its  progress  I  feel  very  grateful 
to  have  had  a  share  in  developing  this  department  of 
Goucher  College. 

Early  in  my  college  experience  I  saw  that  my  time 
would  be  increasingly  taken  up  with  this  elementary 
course  in  hygiene  and  administrative  duties  and  that  I 
should  not  be  able  to  continue  teaching  the  advanced 
course  in  physiology. 


130    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

In  the  most  depressing  period  of  the  College  history, 
when  the  outlook  for  the  future  was  very  grave  with 
the  finances  of  the  College  at  their  lowest  ebb,  the  neces- 
sity arose  for  me  to  have  an  independent  assistant, 
who  could  give  all  her  time  to  my  department.  I  felt 
this  was  my  opportunity  to  secure  the  services  of  a 
physiologist,  but  two  great  difficulties  stood  in  the  way. 
First,  women  physiologists  were  very  rare  and,  second, 
Dr.  Noble,  then  president  of  the  College,  could  not  see 
his  way  clear  to  offer  any  adequate  salary.  It  was 
rather  a  hopeless  quest,  successful  finally  only  because 
while  women  physiologists  were  scarce,  positions  open 
to  them  were  still  scarcer. 

While  I  was  pondering  over  a  method  of  finding  a 
satisfactory  assistant  I  received  a  letter  of  inquiry  from 
a  young  woman  who  said  she  was  about  to  receive  her 
degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy  in  physiology  from  Cor- 
nell University  and  was  seeking  a  position  for  the  fol- 
lowing year.  This  I  learned  subsequently  was  one  of 
several  letters  she  sent  out  to  various  women's  colleges. 
I  urged  President  Noble  to  give  me  at  least  a  small  ap- 
propriation to  which  I  agreed  to  add  from  my  own  slen- 
der salary  one-third  the  amount  granted.  With  this  I 
was  able  to  offer  the  young  woman  a  position  which 
looked  very  unpromising  both  as  to  salary  and  as  to  con- 
ditions under  which  she  must  do  her  teaching.  We 
were  then  using  the  gallery  of  Bennett  Hall  Annex  for 
a  demonstration  laboratory  and  the  small  room  over  the 
archway  as  a  physiological  laboratory.  She  agreed  to 
come  to  Baltimore  for  an  interview  on  her  way  to  her 
home  in  Indiana  after  the  Cornell  commencement.  She 
came  and  seemed  rather  contemptuous.     The  one  thing 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    131 

besides  her  general  air  of  disapproval  that  I  remember 
clearly  about  that  interview  was  that  she  looked  delicate 
and  carried  the  heaviest  suit  case  I  had  ever  lifted.  I 
had  no  idea  1  would  ever  see  her  again.  That  summer 
I  spent  in  Europe  in  low  spirits  over  the  next  college 
year  prospects.  In  August  I  heard  from  the  young 
woman  that  she  would  accept  the  position  offered  her 
and  so  Miss  King  came  to  the  Woman's  College. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  tell  Goucher  students  of 
the  last  fourteen  years  that  whatever  success  has  attend- 
ed the  work  of  the  department  of  physiology  and  hygiene 
in  these  years  has  been  largely  due  to  Miss  King,  and 
that  the  development  of  the  advanced  courses  in  physi- 
ology and  bacteriology  are  almost  entirely  her  work. 
Her  services  have  been  invaluable. 

I  served  the  College  under  four  presidents — Dr. 
Goucher,  Dr.  Noble,  Dr.  Van  Meter  and  Dr.  Guth.  I 
honestly  think  that  I  never  failed  in  loyalty  to  any  of 
them  and  I  think  they  were  all  my  friends.  With  Dr. 
Goucher  and  Dr.  Noble  I  never  had  conflicts  of  any  kind 
and  with  Dr.  Van  Meter  and  Dr.  Guth  none  that  could 
not  be  amicably  settled.  I  saw  each  of  these  men  render 
invaluable  service  to  the  College  and,  except  Dr.  Noble, 
whose  service  was  too  brief  for  that,  their  personalities 
were  permanently  impressed  upon  the  traditions  of  the 
College.  I  have  already  had  the  opportunity  of  giving  the 
alumnae  my  personal  impression  of  Dr.  Goucher — his 
invariable  optimism,  courtesy,  consideration  and  friend- 
liness are  the  qualities  that  always  come  to  my  mind 
first  when  I  think  of  him. 

While  we  are  all  wont  to  think  of  Dr.  Van  Meter  as 
"Dean"  Van  Meter  he  was  far  more  intimately  con- 


132    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

nected  with  the  college  and  its  policy  than  would  be  in- 
dicated by  that  title.  Dr.  Goucher  because  of  the  mul- 
tiplicity of  his  interests  was  absent  from  the  College  for 
long  periods  at  a  time  and  the  continuity  of  its  academic 
policy  for  many  years  was  the  work  of  Dr.  Van  Meter. 
It  would  be  difficult  for  me  to  put  into  words  what  I  feel 
about  Dr.  Van  Meter  and  his  services  to  the  Woman's 
College  of  Baltimore,  especially  to  its  students.  My 
long  association  with  him  in  faculty  meetings,  on  the 
Board  of  Control,  and  in  his  office  in  intimate  discus- 
sions about  the  welfare  of  individual  girls  inspired  me 
with  respect  for  his  ideals,  confidence  in  his  judgments 
and  willingness  to  follow  his  intellectual  leadership. 

Dr.  Noble  came  to  the  presidency  of  the  college  at 
the  darkest  period  in  its  history.  It  was  during  his  presi- 
dency and  through  his  influence  that  the  name  of  the 
College  was  changed  from  the  Woman's  College  of  Bal- 
timore to  Goucher  College.  I  remember  the  evening  of 
the  day  he  had  presented  his  final  report  to  the  Trustees 
with  his  resignation  that  he  and  Mrs.  Noble  came  to 
dine  with  Dr.  Sherwood  and  myself.  He  was  late  and 
very  tired.  He  said  he  thought  in  his  final  report  he 
had  rendered  a  great  service  to  Goucher  College,  and 
I  am  sure  he  did.  As  a  result  of  that  report  the  Trus- 
tees of  the  College  were  obliged  to  face  the  situation  of 
a  college  hopelessly  in  debt  and  with  no  endowment. 

The  recollection  of  the  two  or  three  years  of  the  Col- 
lege, immediately  preceding  the  advent  of  Dr.  Guth, 
seem  to  me  somewhat  of  a  nightmare.  I  recall  once  dur- 
ing those  years,  when  Dr.  Van  Meter  was  acting  presi- 
dent, I  had  an  unusually  attractive  offer  of  a  position 
outside  of  Baltimore.  When  I  asked  Dr.  Van  Meter's  ad- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    133 


vice  on  the  subject  he  said:  "Were  I  in  your  place  I 
should  accept  at  once,  the  future  for  Goucher  College  is 
very  dark."  I  had,  however,  no  intention  at  that  time  of 
leaving  Baltimore  even  if  Goucher  College  went  out  of 
existence. 

In  the  campaign  undertaken  in  1913  for  a  million 
dollars  to  pay  the  debts  of  the  College,  it  was  clear  to 
those  who  knew  that  even  were  the  College  debts  paid 
the  College  could  not  continue  to  exist,  and  certainly 
could  not  grow  and  develop  if  funds  for  a  productive 
endowment  were  not  available. 

The  first  interview  I  ever  had  with  Dr.  Guth  he  said: 
"I  do  not  know  what  I  came  to  Goucher  for  at  any  rate." 
It  was  a  hot  day  in  Baltimore  and  he  and  Mrs.  Guth 
had  been  house  hunting.  I  didn't  see  myself  why 
he  had  come,  until  I  knew  him  better.  Then  I  saw  that 
the  hard  job — to  take  a  dying  college  and  restore  it  to 
life  and  vigor — offered  a  challenge  to  him.  The  "job" 
has  been  hard,  no  one  not  intimately  familiar  with  the 
inside  history  of  President  Guth's  administration  knows 
how  hard,  nor  how  successfully  he  has  met  it.  Since  I 
have  been  away  from  Baltimore  Dr.  Guth  has  given  to 
the  Alumnae  Quarterly,  I  understand,  an  estimate  of 
me  in  my  relations  to  Goucher  College.  My  observa- 
tions of  him  and  his  method  of  attacking  his  problem 
will  be  reserved  for  a  later  number  of  the  same  periodi- 
cal. 

In  the  early  days  of  my  college  relationship  the  fac- 
ulty was  small  enough  for  all  of  us  to  get  pretty  well 
acquainted  with  each  other.  All  of  the  members  of  the 
faculty  were,  I  think,  my  friends  and  many  of  them 
were  not  only  my  friends  but  my  patients.     This  was 


134    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

true  of  the  faculty  families.  I  saw  the  Frolicher  boys 
through  various  children's  diseases  and  the  Butler  chil- 
dren through  more  serious  illnesses.  Students  of  the 
early  years  will  remember  Professor  Butler,  professor 
of  English,  as  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  attractive  men 
who  have  ever  been  members  of  the  faculty.  He  gave 
the  name  to  Donnybrook  Fair,  suggested  the  publication 
and  assisted  the  students  in  getting  out  the  first  editions. 
It  was  a  sad  day  for  us  when  he  was  called  to  Boston 
University. 

Assisting  Dr.  Butler  for  several  years  was  Miss  Lathe, 
a  rare  spirit  and  an  able  and  inspiring  teacher.  To  the 
students  she  looked  the  picture  of  robust  health,  but  she 
was  in  the  early  stage  of  an  invalidism  which  ended  in 
her  death  a  few  years  after  she  joined  the  faculty.  In 
addition  to  Dr.  Butler,  Miss  Lathe  and  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Frolicher,  I  found  in  the  faculty,  in  1894,  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, professor  of  Latin,  a  quiet  scholarly  gentleman 
who  undoubtedly  preferred  his  study  and  classroom 
to  the  administrative  duties  of  the  presidency,  which  had 
been  his  as  first  president  of  the  College;  Dr.  Shefloe, 
professor  of  romance  languages  and  librarian — never 
so  happy  as  when  he  was  doing  chores  for  the  students 
who  knew  well  how  to  take  advantage  of  his  good  na- 
ture; Dr.  Blackshear,  professor  of  chemistry,  who  did 
not  think  the  female  mind  was  adapted  to  the  study  of 
his  subject  and  who  was  the  object  of  never  ending  jokes 
among  the  students  because  of  a  devoted  mother  who 
always  spoke  of  him  as  "Charlie"  and  related  to  them 
innumerable  stories  of  his  precocious  childhood;  Dr. 
Metcalf,  associate  professor  of  biology,  who  has  become 
one  of  the  most  distinguished  members  of  that  early 


;j 
a 

J 

o 

'-J 

o 

o 

'^"^ 

2; 
2; 

< 

H 
H 

Z 

CQ 
Q 

hj 

< 
a 

H 
H 

CQ 

h-) 
<i1 
M 

o 
o 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE     135 

group;  Dr.  Thomas,  the  much  quoted  by  students — who 
was  expected  to  cover  in  his  teaching  American  history 
and  all  the  social  and  political  sciences — always  an  un- 
compromising advocate  of  woman  suffrage;  Dr.  Gorton, 
professor  of  mathematics,  who  died  early  in  the  session 
of  1894,  familiar  to  more  recent  students  from  the  por- 
trait which  hangs  in  Goucher  Hall;  Dr.  Maltbie,  asso- 
ciate professor  of  physics  who  took  over  mathematics  at 
Dr.  Gorton's  death  and  had  charge  of  two  departments 
until  Miss  Gates  was  called  to  the  chair  of  physics  in 
1897.  Aggressively  efficient  he  organized  a  model  regis- 
trar's office  on  a  modern  efficiency  basis  and,  eventually, 
left  the  teaching  profession  because  it  offered  too  re- 
stricted a  field  for  his  growing  interest  in  social  and  po- 
litical problems.  Miss  Lord,  associate  professor  of  his- 
tory, who,  in  her  long  connection  with  the  College,  left 
an  indelible  impression  on  the  students  whom  she  stimu- 
lated to  scholarly  work  and  upon  the  larger  group  with 
whom  she  dealt  for  many  years  as  Dean  of  the  College; 
Mademoiselle  Melle,  a  brilliant  and  interesting  French 
woman  who  assisted  Dr.  Shefloe  and  furnished  abund- 
ance of  entertainment  to  students  and  faculty;  Miss 
Wells,  who  taught  Greek  and  who  constantly  told  the 
students  how  things  were  done  at  Smith,  her  alma  mater, 
and  who  managed  to  get  some  graduate  instruction  at 
the  Hopkins,  but  not  in  Greek;  Miss  Bunting,  assistant 
in  biology  and  physiology,  who  kept  the  students  in- 
formed of  how  things  were  done  at  Bryn  Mawr,  where 
she  had  been  a  graduate  student. 

On  the  whole  the  faculty  was  a  strong  faculty  and 
did  good  team  work.  Among  the  women  especially 
there  was  an  eager  desire  to  send  students  on  to  gradu- 


136    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

ate  study,  and  in  the  main  I  believe  it  is  true  that  most 
of  the  students  of  the  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore 
who  sought  opportunities  for  university  study  in  the 
early  years  received  their  stimulation  from  some  woman 
member  of  the  faculty  as  well  as  the  assistance  they 
needed  in  finding  ways  and  means  of  proceeding  to 
graduate  study.  Students  of  the  earlier  period  of  the 
College  history  will  recall  Miss  North,  who  succeeded 
Miss  Wells  in  Greek,  an  able  and  forceful  woman  whose 
students  under  her  direction  gave  a  Greek  play,  one  of 
the  outstanding  scholarly  performances  in  the  history 
of  the  College;  Miss  Van  Dieman,  now  one  of  the  best 
known  authorities  of  the  world  in  certain  phases  of 
Roman  archaeology,  a  stimulating  and  inspiring  teacher; 
Miss  Knapp,  famous  in  the  English  department  for  her 
short  story  and  theme  work;  Miss  Abel,  a  driving  per- 
sonality whose  course  in  history  furnishes  fireside  talk 
wherever  her  former  students  gather;  Miss  Williams, 
Mile.  Melle's  successor  in  French,  gracious  and  charm- 
ing, taking  upon  herself  in  her  work  burdens  all  too 
heavy  for  her  physical  well  being — sacrificing  herself 
to  her  scholarly  and  teaching  ideals,  laying  down  her 
work  only  when  overcome  by  permanent  invalidism. 

Two  women,  Mrs.  Frolicher  and  Miss  Bacon,  belong 
in  a  peculiar  way  to  the  history  of  the  College.  One 
will  be  remembered  best  by  the  early  students,  and  the 
other  by  all  the  students  of  the  College  since  1895. 
Mrs.  Frolicher  represents  the  pioneers  among  women 
who  were  obliged  to  seek  their  university  training  in  a 
foreign  country.  She  was,  I  think,  the  fourth  American 
woman  who  took  the  degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy  at 
the  University  of  Zurich  at  a  time  when  neither  Ameri- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    137 

can  nor  German  Universities  would  receive  women  stu- 
dents. It  is  no  wonder  she  exercised  a  powerful  influ- 
ence upon  the  early  scholastic  ideals  of  the  Woman's 
College.  She  was  the  first  professor  of  German  in  the 
College  and  brought  Dr.  Frolicher  over  as  the  first  pro- 
fessor of  French,  marrying  him  on  his  arrival,  thus  ter- 
minating the  engagement  which  had  taken  place  when 
they  were  both  students  in  Ziirich.  Even  students  who 
did  not  come  directly  in  the  classroom  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Frolicher  appreciated  the  indi- 
rect influence  that  radiated  from  the  German  depart- 
ment. The  Schiller  Kranzchen  and  the  German  plays 
which  they  conducted  were  popular  and  well  known. 
Undoubtedly  many  strong  students  majored  in  German 
merely  to  come  under  their  scholarly  direction. 

Miss  Bacon  was  brought  into  the  college  in  1895  on 
the  recommendation  of  Dr.  Maltbie  as  assistant  in 
Mathematics.  I  think  I  never  knew  any  woman  who 
kept  at  her  subject  more  patiently  and  persistently  than 
Miss  Bacon.  She  took  every  opportunity  she  could  find 
for  advancing  her  mathematical  education.  When  the 
Hopkins  admitted  women  to  its  graduate  departments 
she  began  work  with  Professor  Morley  and  ultimately 
took  her  doctor's  degree  with  but  one  semester's  leave  of 
absence  from  her  college  duties.  Every  one  in  College 
trusts  Miss  Bacon — students  and  faculty  alike.  They 
know  she  is  honest  and  just,  loyal  to  the  College,  a  sym- 
pathetic friend  to  colleagues  and  students  and  a  teacher 
who  demands  much  of  her  students  and  urges  them  to 
scholarly  work.  She,  as  well  as  Miss  Lewis,  was  a  Fel- 
low of  the  Baltimore  Association  for  Promoting  the  Uni- 
versity Education  of  Women. 


138    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

Five  of  our  own  graduates  became  major  members  of 
the  faculty  after  they  had  completed  their  university 
work.  Dr.  Florence  Peebles  and  Dr.  May  Kellar,  the 
first  of  this  group,  remained  but  a  few  years  when  other 
opportunities  offered  them  a  more  promising  future. 
Dr.  Annette  Hopkins,  the  next  of  this  group,  has  served 
her  Alma  Mater  as  a  member  of  the  department  of  Eng- 
lish, at  present  its  chairman,  both  as  a  teacher  and  as  an 
Alumna,  with  rare  efficiency,  devotion  and  loyalty.  Dr. 
Merritt  and  Dr.  Barton  are  the  youngest  of  this  group. 

Manifestly  a  college  faculty  is  a  changing  group. 
While  there  was  no  very  marked  increase  in  the  size 
of  the  college  either  as  to  students  or  as  to  faculty 
until  1914,  numerous  faculty  changes  had  occurred  be- 
fore that  date  especially  in  positions  held  by  instructors 
and  assistants.  The  assistants  have  always  been  largely 
recruited  from  our  own  graduates  and  in  most  depart- 
ments it  has  been  the  policy  to  urge  them  after  two 
year's  service  to  proceed  to  advanced  study  or  to  seek 
positions  in  secondary  schools.  It  has  been  rare  to  have 
men  appointed  as  assistants  or  instructors — Mr.  Gay  was 
brought  from  Hackettstown  Seminary  by  President 
Noble  as  instructor  in  the  English  department  when  Dr. 
Hodell,  who  had  succeeded  Dr.  Butler,  was  professor 
of  English.  When  Dr.  Hodell  whose  name  is  indis- 
solubly  associated  in  the  minds  of  his  students  and  his 
associates  of  the  faculty  with  "the  Ring  and  the  Book," 
resigned  to  go  into  business  for  which  he  had  developed 
a  great  talent,  Dr.  Van  Meter,  then  acting  president, 
nominated  Mr.  Gay  as  his  successor.  When  Dr.  Metcalf 
was  called  to  Oberlin  President  Goucher  appointed  as 
his  successor  a  man  carefully  selected  by  Dr.  Metcalf — 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    139 

Dr.  Kellicott,  distinguished  for  his  scholarly  and  teach- 
ing ability.  It  had  always  been  Dr.  Metcalf's  purpose 
to  establish  an  independent  department  of  botany  and 
he  had  brought  into  the  College  Dr.  Florence  Peebles 
and  then  Dr.  Forrest  Shreve  for  this  purpose.  Subse- 
quently Dr.  Mast,  and  on  his  call  to  the  Hopkins  Dr. 
Langley,  were  nominated  for  this  post  by  Dr.  Kellicott. 
Of  these  four  only  one,  Dr.  Shreve,  had  chosen  botany 
for  his  field,  the  others  were  zoologists,  willing  to  teach 
botany  for  a  time.  It  was  fortunate  for  the  College 
that  Dr.  Langley  was  on  the  ground  ready  to  succeed 
Dr.  Kellicott  in  zoology.  He  has  selected  Dr.  Cleland, 
a  botanist,  to  develop  a  College  department  of  botany. 
Dr.  Shreve  found  his  wife  in  the  department  of  physics 
at  Goucher  College  and  turned  her  into  a  botanist.  He 
resigned  to  accept  a  place  in  the  Government  service  in 
research  at  Tucson,  Arizona.  Mr.  Gay,  by  the  way,  also 
found  his  wife  in  the  Goucher  physics  department. 

In  my  thoughts  of  Goucher  College  I  am  accustomed 
to  think  of  my  association  with  it  as  divided  into  two 
distinct  periods — one  from  1894  to  1914  and  one  from 
1914  to  1924.  In  the  second  period  I  saw  the  College 
take  on  new  life,  new  vigor  and  new  growth.  The  fac- 
ulty has  become  so  large  that  it  is  no  longer  possible 
for  one  member,  like  myself,  to  have  the  intimate  con- 
tact with  her  colleagues  that  was  a  marked  feature  of 
the  early  days,  and  yet  by  the  various  devices  of  faculty 
club,  faculty  teas  and  faculty  meetings  for  general  dis- 
cussion and  other  methods  of  approach  between  instruc- 
tors a  rather  surprising  unity  of  purpose  is  attained. 
When  there  is  added  to  this  the  social  and  other  tradi- 
tions of  students  and  faculty  carried  over  from  the  old 


140    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

period  into  the  new,  one  realizes  that  there  really  exists 
a  distinctive  Goucher  spirit,  constantly  being  translated 
into  Goucher  ideals. 

To  my  mind  the  most  difficult  and  perplexing  prob- 
lem in  the  large  college  is  to  devise  a  method  for  secur- 
ing true  co-ordination  of  effort  in  the  various  depart- 
ments themselves,  and  then  the  co-ordination  of  the  vari- 
ous departments  into  a  unity  of  effort  to  secure  that  kind 
of  education  for  all  the  students  which  will  fit  women 
to  meet  the  demands  life  will  make  upon  them.  In  a 
multitude  of  counsellors  chaos  will  result  unless  there 
is  wisdom  with  authority  to  settle  differences  and  en- 
force unity.  For  this  reason  I  rejoice  that  Goucher  has 
a  president  who  is  a  man  of  vision — a  fearless  leader 
with  broad  outlook,  scholarly  attainments  and  adminis- 
trative ability,  and  who  is  a  profound  student  of  the 
problems  of  college  education. 


Chapter  IX 

Personal  Experiences  With  Goucher  College 
Students 

From  1894  to  1924  I  was  more  or  less  closely  asso- 
ciated with  every  student  who  entered  Goucher  College. 
As  my  mind  goes  back  across  the  years  I  see  them  in 
endless  procession — thousands  they  number — passing 
before  my  vision — eternally  young.  However  they  may 
have  differed  at  various  periods  in  external  appearance, 
in  dress,  in  manner,  in  speech,  this  one  thing  they  all 
had   in   common — youth,   with   its   inconsequences,   its 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    141 

seriousness  and  its  fearlessness.  It  is  for  this  last 
quality — their  fearlessness — that  one  loves  them  and 
blesses  them,  and  rejoices  to  live  among  them. 

Many  of  these  young  people  were  constantly  seeking 
advice  v^hich  they  did  not  intend  to  follow,  flitting  from 
one  member  of  the  faculty  to  another,  keeping  their 
friends  awake  at  night  craving  sympathy  for  fancied 
ills,  mental  and  physical,  with  an  insatiable  egoistic 
appetite.  Eagerly  in  the  early  days  they  demanded  op- 
portunities for  "service,"  in  their  modern  vocabulary 
insisting  upon  their  right  to  "self-expression."  It  was 
largely  through  the  persistence  of  one  of  our  students 
who  proceeded  against  the  advice  of  all  the  leading  so- 
cial workers  in  Baltimore  that  a  George  Junior  Repub- 
lic was  formed,  located  between  Baltimore  and  Washing- 
ton, now  defunct,  but  which  had  for  a  number  of  years 
a  more  or  less  precarious  existence. 

College  descriptive  slang  changes  as  fashions  in  dress 
change.  For  many  years  I  haven't  heard  the  word 
"grind"  which,  in  the  early  days,  was  so  constantly 
used  to  express  contempt  for  any  young  woman  who  re- 
garded her  classroom  work  as  the  principal  object  for 
which  she  was  enrolled  as  a  college  student.  This  is, 
doubtless,  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  as  years  have 
passed  the  opinion  has  become  more  general  that  edu- 
cation in  the  College  in  its  broad  sense  means  the  use 
of  all  the  activities  provided  for  the  development  of 
body,  spirit  and  mind,  many  of  which  are  found  outside 
classroom  lectures  and  the  study  of  the  printed  page. 

I  might  devote  this  whole  chapter  to  a  consideration 
of  what  might  be  called  "Excursions  in  Freedom"  in  a 
Woman's  College.     In  thirty  years  discipline,  curricu- 


142    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

lum,  teaching,  administration  have  all  yielded  defence 
after  defence  against  the  onslaughts  made  in  the  name 
of  freedom  or  of  greater  liberty.  Student  government 
has  entirely  replaced  control  of  students'  behavior 
by  president,  trustees  and  faculty — with  constantly  in- 
creasing authority  over  all  conduct  in  the  hands  of  stu- 
dents; the  curriculum  has  been  modified  more  and  more 
by  the  elective  system  with  greater  and  greater  freedom 
of  choice  for  students  to  determine  what  they  will  study 
and  how  much;  already  students  occasionally  pride 
themselves  on  "running  an  instructor  out  of  college," 
and  the  next  step  in  their  progress  will  be  to  demand 
a  choice  of  their  instructors,  a  right  to  which  is  loudly 
now  proclaimed  in  limited  student  circles. 

I  have  often  wondered  whether,  after  all,  the  benefits 
to  be  derived  from  our  present  methods  outweigh  the 
delightful  moral  and  intellectual  irresponsibility  for  the 
student  resulting  from  a  faculty  supervision  of  conduct, 
and  a  rather  fixed  required  curriculum.  One  thing  is 
certain,  students  are  far  more  severe  as  judges  of  con- 
duct and  as  imposers  of  penalties  than  their  instructors 
and  other  constituted  college  authorities  have  ever  been. 
Age  and  experience  of  life  bring  leniency  in  judgment 
of  behavior.  I  have  never  sat  in  committee  or  other  Col- 
lege body  of  instructors  before  which  a  case  of  disciplin- 
ing a  student  was  brought  that  some  one  or  more  did 
not  make  every  effort,  usually  with  success,  of  having 
what  seemed  a  just  penalty  remitted.  As  to  the  curricu- 
lum, with  a  free  elective  system  we  turn  out  neither  bet- 
ter trained  nor  better  satisfied  students  than  we  did  with 
a  fixed  curriculum  when  an  A.B.  degree  indicated  that 
students  had  had  largely  the  same  required  courses. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE     143 


The  first  case  of  discipline  I  recall  that  came  before 
the  Board  of  Control  was  in  my  first  year  in  the  Col- 
lege. President  Goucher  was  in  India  and  Dr.  Van 
Meter  acting  president.  A  group  of  resident  students 
had  gone  to  a  Hopkins  reception  at  McCoy  Hall  under 
the  chaperonage  of  Mrs.  Pierce,  the  first  mistress  of  a 
hall,  I  think,  and  a  woman  who  seemed  to  have  the 
respect  and  confidence  of  the  students.  The  call  of  the 
dance — plenty  of  young  men  being  present — was  strong 
and  six  or  seven  of  the  young  women  yielded  to  tempta- 
tion and  in  spite  of  Mrs.  Pierce's  admonitions  proceeded 
to  enjoy  themselves  on  the  floor.  Now  dancing  in  the 
halls  or  outside  of  them  was  forbidden  in  accordance, 
I  understood,  with  certain  rules  of  discipline  of  the 
Methodist  Church.  All  the  culprits,  I  think,  were  mem- 
bers of  this  church  and  several  of  them  were  daughters 
of  prominent  clergymen  of  this  denomination.  The 
Board  decided  on  some  penalty — I  do  not  think  it  was 
expulsion  because  I  am  quite  sure  1  should  not  have 
voted  for  that — and  I  did  vote  for  a  penalty.  I  think 
the  penalty  imposed  was  that  these  students  must  with- 
draw from  the  halls  of  residence.  At  that  time  stu- 
dents were  not  required  to  live  in  the  halls,  but  when 
they  did  do  so  they  signed  a  paper  on  entrance  saying 
they  understood  the  rules  of  conduct  required  of  stu- 
dents in  residence  and  would  abide  by  them.  It  was, 
therefore,  a  just  penalty  to  withdraw  the  privileges  of 
residence  from  those  who  had  violated  their  promises. 
Action  of  the  Board  of  Control  in  these  matters  had  to 
be  confirmed  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  in  this  case 
the  Board  of  Trustees  did  not  confirm,  but  reversed  the 
action  of  the  Academic  Board  and  the  girls  got  off  with 


144    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

a  reprimand.  I  am  quite  sure  this  suited  Dr.  Van  Meter, 
because  a  softer-hearted  man  to  woman's  fraihies  never 
existed — no  matter  how  fierce  he  sometimes  seemed.  As 
a  rule  this  was  true  of  all  the  men  on  the  faculty.  They 
always  managed  to  find  reasons  and  methods  for  letting 
the  girls  do  what  they  pleased.  Women  instructors,  es- 
pecially of  the  early  period,  jealous  of  the  reputation 
of  college  women  both  as  to  scholarship  and  character 
were  much  more  severe  in  their  judgments  and  greater 
sticklers  for  holding  the  girls  up  to  all  requirements, 
scholastic  and  otherwise. 

As  an  illustration  of  this  attitude  on  the  part  of  women 
instructors  I  shall  cite  an  incident  that  occurred  in  my 
first  or  second  year.  The  German  department  gave  a 
play  during  the  year  in  the  gymnasium  or  in  the  audi- 
torium of  the  Latin  School,  where  plays  were  at  that 
time  presented.  At  this  period,  dramatics,  as  well  as 
attendance  at  theatres  and  operas,  was  interdicted  by 
the  rules  of  the  Methodist  Church.  Dramatic  represen- 
tations were  regarded  as  questionable  performances  for 
college  entertainment.  However,  a  German  play,  given 
in  German,  was  looked  upon  as  more  or  less  scholastic 
in  nature.  At  this  particular  play  there  was  a  mixed  au- 
dience of  men  and  women  and  some  of  the  girls  in  the 
play,  taking  the  parts  of  men,  appropriately  appeared 
in  male  attire.  This  was  contrary  to  custom  in  women's 
colleges  before  mixed  audiences.  Some  of  the  women 
members  of  the  faculty  took  exception  to  this  play  es- 
pecially as  they  overheard  some  objectionable  remarks 
by  young  men  who  were  present.  This  led  to  consider- 
able unofficial  discussion  of  the  subject  among  faculty 
and  students.    The  propriety  of  inviting  men  to  the  an- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    145 

nual  gymnasium  exhibition  came  into  the  discussion.  In 
the  early  years  this  exhibition  was  a  prominent  feature 
in  college  activities  and  always  drew  a  large  and  repre- 
sentative audience.  One  of  these  gymnasium  exhibitions 
which  I  attended  at  the  invitation  of  Dr.  Mitchell,  at  a 
time  when  I  had  no  idea  that  I  should  ever  be  connected 
with  the  College,  was  the  first  time  I  ever  visited 
the  College.  I  recall  standing  in  the  gallery  in  a  dense 
crowd  of  men  and  women  and  overhearing  two  young 
men  who  I  subsequently  heard  were  among  the  "col- 
lege beaux"  commenting  on  the  young  women  in  what 
was  to  me  an  exceedingly  offensive  way.  Moreover,  at 
that  time  in  the  other  women's  colleges  men  were  not 
admitted  to  these  performances  unless,  in  one  college 
at  least,  they  were  sixty  years  of  age  or  over. 

As  a  result  of  the  general  discussion  a  petition  was 
circulated  by  a  few  of  the  older  students,  instigated  un- 
doubtedly by  some  of  the  women  members  of  the  fac- 
ulty, asking  the  Board  of  Control  to  take  action  prohibit- 
ing students  from  giving  plays  in  which  they  took  men's 
parts  in  men's  clothes  before  mixed  audiences  and  ex- 
cluding men  from  the  gymnasium  exhibitions.  Some 
such  action  was  finally  taken  after  much  deliberation 
and  plain  speaking.  It  created  a  great  stir  among  the 
students.  A  few  days  after  the  action  was  made  public 
the  students  undertook  a  demonstration  of  disapproval 
in  Goucher  Hall.  Various  placards  were  put  up  on  the 
walls,  the  general  tenor  of  which  were  objections  to  fac- 
ulty interference  with  the  liberty  of  students  to  enjoy 
themselves  and  employ  themselves  as  they  pleased. 
"Evil  to  him  who  evil  thinks"  appeared  in  various  con- 
spicuous places.    Statues  in  the  hall  were  draped  in  the 


146    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

interests  of  modesty  and  a  large  group  of  students  ap- 
peared in  chapel  with  masks  over  their  faces.  As  no 
one  in  authority  paid  any  attention  to  this  demonstra- 
tion the  hubbub  subsided.  For  a  number  of  years  after- 
wards, however,  these  rules  remained  in  force.  Gradu- 
ally, with  a  changing  attitude  of  public  opinion  and  the 
generally  greater  freedom  permitted  to  young  women, 
or  assumed  by  them,  the  policy  changed  without  any 
official  action. 

For  many  years  it  was  considered  extremely  improper 
for  a  student  to  be  seen  out-of-doors  in  her  gymnasium 
suit.  At  one  period  in  the  history  of  the  College  we 
had  two  high  fences  built  between  which,  unseen  by  the 
outside  world,  gymnasium  and  basket-ball  might  be 
taken  out  of  doors.  For  years  no  men  were  admitted 
to  the  annual  basket-ball  games.  When  the  Annette 
Kellerman  suit  appeared  as  a  bathing  costume  for  stu- 
dents it  aroused  much  adverse  criticism.  Fortunately 
all  these  questions  of  women's  dress  for  athletic  pur- 
suits have  been  settled  by  the  common  sense  rule  that 
if  a  woman  is  to  do  athletics  she  should  be  properly 
dressed  for  the  purpose  and  a  proper  dress  is  one  which 
impedes  her  bodily  motions  as  little  as  possible. 

It  is  somewhat  surprising  when  one  passes  in  review 
the  various  student  activities  that  have  imbedded  them- 
selves as  traditions  in  the  college  life  how  many  had 
their  origin  in  the  very  early  days  of  the  College. 
Either  the  early  students  had  more  ingenuity,  or  enter- 
ing an  empty  field,  they  preempted  all  the  space  with 
things  so  essentially  good  that  they  have  never  been  dis- 
placed. I  have  already  referred  to  Donnybrook  Fair 
as  dating  back  to  Professor  Butler's  day.    The  Phi  Beta 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    147 

Kappa  Chapter  was  secured  for  the  College  largely 
through  the  efforts  of  Dr.  Maltbie.  The  Junior-Senior 
banquets  began  very  early.  They  had  been  instituted 
before  my  time.  The  first  one  I  remember  is  that 
given  by  the  class  of  1898  to  the  class  of  1897,  which 
I  attended  as  honorary  member  of  the  class  of  1898. 
Mr.  Charles  J.  Bonaparte  was  honorary  member  of  the 
class  of  1897  and  he  came  in  from  his  country  home 
and  sat  through  the  entire  evening  seemingly  with  great 
enjoyment,  making  one  of  his  characteristic  speeches  in 
his  inimitable  manner.  His  speech  and  that  of  Georg- 
ette Ross  were  the  features  of  the  evening,  and  I  have 
never  heard  better  on  similar  occasions  since.  I  attend- 
ed the  banquet  the  following  year  given  by  1899  to 
'98.  The  one  thing  I  remember  about  this  banquet 
was  the  presence  of  Mrs.  Goucher,  who  was  the  honorary 
member  of  1899.  She  was  a  gentle  and  gracious  lady, 
and  I  retain  very  vivid  and  unforgettable  memories  of 
the  social  occasions  at  which  she  was  present.  After 
1899  it  was  many  years  before  I  attended  another 
junior-senior  banquet,  as  it  was  not  customary  until 
much  later  to  invite  guests  other  than  the  president  and 
dean  of  the  College  and  the  honorary  members  of  the 
two  classes. 

Honorary  memberships  of  the  classes  were  instituted 
early,  but  these  were  not  always  bestowed  upon  mem- 
bers of  the  faculty,  and  in  their  early  history  honorary 
members  were  looked  upon  as  ornamental  rather  than 
useful.  Since  1902  or  1903  the  honorary  members 
have  always  been  selected  from  the  faculty  and  have 
been  hard  worked  by  their  respective  classes. 


148    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

Senior  dramatics  did  not  exist  as  a  fixed  custom  un- 
til about  1900.  I  have  already  referred  to  the  difficul- 
ties attempts  at  dramatic  presentations  by  students  under 
College  auspices  met  because  of  the  College  church  affili- 
ations. It  was  due,  I  think,  to  the  efforts  of  Dr.  Shefloe 
and  Dr.  Frolicher  after  long  and  earnest  discussions  in 
the  Board  of  Control  that  action  was  finally  taken  that 
in  view  of  their  scholastic  value  to  students  plays  care- 
fully chosen  and  supervised  might  be  given  by  the  stu- 
dents. For  many  years  the  senior  play  was  always  a 
Shakespeare  play.  The  one  I  recall  with  greatest  vivid- 
ness was  that  given  outdoors  at  Evergreen,  the  Buckler 
estate,  not  at  all  because  from  the  dramatic  standpoint 
it  was  the  best,  but  because  of  the  delightful  setting. 
Departmental  plays  were  given  from  time  to  time  more 
frequently  in  the  early  days  than  later.  I  remember 
once  Mademoselle  Melle  urged  me  to  come  to  a  French 
play  the  department  was  arranging.  I  said  I  did  not 
understand  spoken  French  well  enough  to  enjoy  it.  With 
a  characteristic  shrug  of  the  shoulders  she  replied :  "Oh, 
I  shall  not  understand  the  students  either,  but  then  they 
are  young  and  will  look  pretty."    I  went  and  enjoyed  it. 

In  spite  of  the  fears  entertained  as  one  objection  to 
dramatics  in  the  College  that  it  would  enamour  students 
of  a  professional  actor's  life — it  has  not  done  so.  A  few 
of  our  students  have  gone  on  the  stage,  but  as  a  rule 
they  have  not  sought  the  footlights. 

Boat  rides  as  methods  of  class  entertainment  were 
early  institutions.  As  this  method  of  travel  often  has 
unpleasant  consequences  for  me  I  have  rarely  had  the 
pleasure  of  these  excursions.  The  first  one  I  remember 
was  one  over  which  Minna  Reynolds  presided  which 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE     149 

the  juniors  gave  the  seniors — at  least  she  persuaded  me 
to  go  and  looked  after  me  on  the  trip  which  was  very 
wet  and  soggy.  The  second  one  I  took  was  given  by  the 
Pennsylvania  Club  and  I  went  on  that  because  I  was  a 
Pennsylvanian — it  also  was  wet  and  soggy.  The  last 
one,  however,  I  shall  always  remember  with  great  pleas- 
ure because  nothing  in  the  weather  nor  any  other  cir- 
cumstance happened  to  mar  a  perfect  afternoon.  It  was 
one  of  the  recent  sophomore  boat  rides  for  seniors  with 
a  delightful  entertainment  in  the  open  air. 

State  and  other  sectional  clubs  have  in  some  form 
always  existed  in  the  College,  but  with  the  exception  of 
the  Southern  Club,  "they  had  their  day  and  ceased  to 
be."  The  Southern  Club,  as  a  distinct  organization,  no 
longer  exists,  but  it  had  the  longest  lease  of  life  of  any 
of  the  sectional  clubs.  When  1  came  into  the  College 
and  for  many  years  afterwards  "the  Southern  Prom,"  as 
it  was  called,  given  by  the  Southern  Club  was  one  of 
the  chief  events  of  commencement  week,  and  the  South- 
ern Club  held  a  conspicious  place  in  college  activities. 
Not  all  southern  girls  were  admitted,  only  those,  I  was 
told,  who  were  fiercely  loyal  to  "the  lost  cause."  On 
one  occasion,  I  was  told,  feeling  ran  so  high  that  an 
American  flag  was  torn  to  pieces  and  trampled  under 
the  feet  of  these  loyal  young  women. 

It  was  a  great  thing  for  young  women  from  all  sec- 
tions of  the  country  to  be  brought  into  intimate  contact 
with  each  other  and  to  see  that,  after  all,  their  hopes 
and  aspirations  and  problems  were  much  the  same  no 
matter  where  they  came  from,  and  to  learn  that  the 
world  might  hold  other  points  of  view  than  those  of 
the  small  section  which  they  called  home.    I  recall  two 


150    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

Students  coming  to  my  office  one  afternoon  when  the 
cause  of  woman  suffrage  was  beginning  to  be  a  matter 
of  discussion  among  college  students.  When  we  were 
through  with  the  medical  interview  I  said;  "How  do  you 
feel  on  this  suffrage  question?"  One  of  them,  a  splendid 
specimen  of  young  womanhood,  said:  "You  know.  Dr. 
Welsh,  I  am  from  Wyoming,  I  have  always  been  accus- 
tomed to  women  voting  and  I  had  to  come  to  Baltimore 
to  learn  that  it  wasn't  respectable."  "Well,"  I  said,  "you 
know  the  argument  that  suffrage  for  women  will  have 
a  baneful  influence  upon  the  home,  how  is  it  in  Wyo- 
ming; do  women  neglect  their  homes  and  children?" 
"Look  at  me,"  she  answered,  "do  I  look  neglected?"  It 
was  a  sufficient  answer.  Turning  to  the  other  I  asked 
"How  do  you  feel  on  this  question?"  "You  know.  Dr. 
Welsh,  I  am  from  South  Carolina  and  it  is  bad  enough 
for  me  to  have  come  to  college;  if  I  went  home  and  said 
I  was  a  suffragist  I  should  be  looked  upon  as  an  outcast 
in  my  small  community."  These  two  students  belonged 
to  the  same  sorority  and  one  of  the  very  few  benefits  I 
ever  saw  in  sororities  was  that  a  small  group  bound 
together  by  some  sort  of  a  tie  that  held  them,  in  spite 
of  great  differences  in  their  home  environments,  were 
bound  to  reach  some  sort  of  agreement  in  fundamental 
differences  of  opinion. 

Sororities,  or  Fraternities  as  they  were  called  in  the 
earlier  days,  were  introduced  before  my  time.  Whether 
those  responsible  for  their  introduction  were  benefac- 
tors or  malefactors  depends  upon  the  point  of  view. 
They  have  possibly  caused  more  discussion,  more  dis- 
sension, more  ill  will,  more  heart  burnings  than  any 
other  subject  affecting  the  social  life  of  our  students.    I 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    151 


have  known  occasions  when  they  have  been  the  imme- 
diate cause  of  serious  conditions  of  ill  health  in  stu- 
dents. I  recall  only  one  occasion  when  they  were  offi- 
cially considered  by  the  College  authorities.  The  sec- 
ond or  third  year  of  my  college  connection  application 
was  made  for  the  establishment  of  a  new  sorority.  The 
Board  of  Control  appointed  a  committee  to  consider  the 
whole  subject  of  sororities  in  their  relation  to  a  woman's 
college.  I  served  on  this  committee  and  I  remember  I 
thought  the  students  who  appeared  before  us  to  plead 
the  cause  of  the  sororities  made  a  very  poor  showing 
However,  the  committee  finally  reported  that  as  sorori- 
ties were  firmly  established  in  the  College,  to  forbid 
them  would  require  too  drastic  action.  It  recommend- 
ed, however,  that  the  College  should  not  recognize  them 
in  any  official  way  and  that  they  should  be  notified  the 
rooms  which  they  then  used  in  Goucher  Hall  would  be 
needed  for  other  purposes.  When  one  realizes  how  every 
nook  and  cranny  of  Goucher  Hall  is  now  used  for  aca- 
demic purposes  and  that  four  buildings  in  addition 
do  not  today  provide  adequate  accommodations  for 
classrooms,  laboratories  and  library,  it  seems  incredible 
that  at  one  time  in  its  history  the  College  had  rooms  to 
spare  in  Goucher  Hall  for  the  use  of  a  group  of  secret 
organizations  owing  allegiance  to  a  national  body  with 
no  college  connections.  Later  the  control  of  the  ends  of 
the  corridors  of  the  residence  halls  by  the  various 
sororities  was  objectionable  to  many  students  and  was 
finally  not  permitted.  Fortunately,  with  the  growth  of 
the  College,  the  sororities  no  longer  occupy  such  a  con- 
spicuous position  in  the  general  student  life,  and  I  doubt 
whether  it  makes  much  difference  whether  they  exist  or 


152    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

not.  Dr.  Noble,  a  strong  fraternity  man  himself,  ob- 
jected to  them  in  Goucher  College  because  they  did  not 
exist  in  the  other  independent  women's  colleges  of  our 
grade  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 

My  earliest  recollection  of  attending  a  college  social 
function  after  I  had  entered  the  faculty  was  the  Friday 
evening  reception  to  new  students  given  then  by  the  Col- 
lege Young  Women's  Christian  Association — now  more 
appropriately  by  the  Student  Organization.  The  recep- 
tions or  social  functions  which  the  earlier  students  will 
remember  best  were  two  given  annually  by  President 
and  Mrs.  Goucher.  Some  time  in  November,  on  the 
date  of  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
President  and  Mrs.  Goucher  entertained  at  an  evening 
reception  the  senior  class,  the  faculty,  the  officers  of  the 
College  and  the  trustees  in  the  president's  house  on  St. 
Paul  Street,  now  known  as  Goucher  House.  This  was 
always  a  gala  night  for  the  seniors.  It  was  "Alto  Dale 
Day,"  however,  which  students  looked  forward  to  for 
four  years,  and  the  memory  of  which  is  treasured  by 
all  who  ever  enjoyed  those  days  as  one  of  the  most  pleas- 
ant experiences  of  their  college  life.  Seniors,  alumnae, 
faculty,  officers  and  trustees  wandered  through  the  woods 
and  spacious  grounds  surrounding  the  charming  coun- 
try home  of  President  and  Mrs.  Goucher,  drank  water 
from  a  bubbling  spring,  ate  their  suppers  on  the  lawn 
overlooking  the  rolling  country  and  hills  of  eastern 
Maryland,  got  close  together  in  intimate  comradeship, 
forgot  their  diflferences  and  their  troubles,  saw  the  sun 
go  down,  the  grounds  illuminated  with  Chinese  lanterns, 
waited  until  the  moon  came  up  and  walked  down  the 
long  drive  to  the  waiting  cars.  Dr.  Goucher  with  them 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    153 

in  his  grey  hat,  his  panama  suit  and  his  walking  stick, 
always  a  conspicuous  figure  at  the  gate  waving  good 
night.  They  are  unforgettable  days  for  the  earlier 
graduates. 

President  and  Mrs.  Noble  carried  on  the  tradition  of 
a  winter  reception  to  the  seniors  and  faculty.  President 
and  Mrs.  Guth  transformed  this  into  a  most  delightful 
Christmas  party  just  before  the  Christmas  recess,  and  a 
reception  to  seniors  and  alumnae  as  part  of  commence- 
ment week  festivities.  Returning  alumnae  of  the  earlier 
days  who  constantly  bemoaned  the  lack  of  anything  re- 
sembling "Alto  Dale  Day"  will  now  rejoice  in  Alumnae 
Day  on  our  own  beautiful  campus.  Since  this  is  now 
well  established,  why  not  call  it  "Alumnae  Alto  Dale 
Day,"  reviving  the  old  name  for  a  new  setting  and  thus 
carry  on  an  old  tradition? 

In  quite  recent  years  the  annual  Thanksgiving  Dinner 
the  Saturday  evening  before  Thanksgiving  recess,  which 
brings  students,  faculty,  trustees  and  various  officers  of 
the  College  together  in  a  delightfully  informal  way,  has 
been,  I  think,  permanently  engrafted  as  a  College  insti- 
tution. With  this  and  the  revival  of  May  Day  celebra- 
tion, now  an  afternoon's  outing  on  our  own  campus 
in  which  everybody  connected  with  the  College  joins, 
carrying  with  it  an  entertainment  which  annually  be- 
comes more  worthy  and  dignified,  the  College  has  two 
new  methods  of  cultivating  college  spirit.  In  this  con- 
nection the  annual  sing-song  contest  of  recent  years  fixed 
tion,  now  an  afternoon's  outing  on  our  own  campus 
for  one  of  the  evenings  during  the  fall  meeting  of  the 
Alumnae  Council  should  be  mentioned  as  another  in- 
formal occasion  where  students  come  together  in  friendly 


154    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

rivalry  and  show  that  spirit  of  true  sportsmanship  that 
all  efforts  in  athletics  are  designed  to  cultivate. 

The  annual  passing  of  Sophy  Moore  and  other  similar 
exclusively  interclass  social  amenities,  including  the 
freshmen  hazing,  take  place  as  they  have  done  from 
the  earliest  years  with  little  variation.  I  have  person- 
ally come  to  endure  the  hazing  period  as  a  silly  season, 
representing  a  mental  escape  from  the  repressions  of 
adolescence — always  hoping  that  a  new  form  indicating 
more  originality  and  ingenuity  will  be  developed,  better 
suited  to  adult  life. 

In  my  own  department  gymnasium  and  athletic  activi- 
ties have  assumed  many  new  forms  and  intra-mural 
contests  innumerable  mark  the  various  periods  of  the 
year.  The  required  three  hours  a  week  in  physical  edu- 
cation for  all  students  is  still  in  force,  but  the  earlier 
students  subjected  to  the  strictly  Swedish  system  would 
have  difficulty  in  recognizing  its  modern  applications. 
One  thing,  however,  students  both  of  the  early  and  later 
periods  would  find  preserved,  a  faithful  and  loyal  pre- 
siding genius  in  Bennett  Hall,  earlier  known  as 
"Amanda"  and  later  as  "Harriet."  Amanda  I  found 
established  in  her  place  and  Harriet  I  contributed  as  her 
successor.  I,  myself,  am  under  many  debts  to  these  two 
faithful  women.  Amanda  was  born  a  slave  and  looked 
back  upon  her  old  mistress  with  love  and  gratitude  for 
the  lessons  she  had  taught  her.  She  could  neither  read 
nor  write,  but  so  skilfully  did  she  conceal  this  that  it  was 
months  before  I  discovered  it.  She  was  very  intelligent 
and  one  of  the  most  loyal  and  faithful  souls  with  which 
I  have  ever  come  in  contact.  She  was  a  shrewd  judge  of 
character   and   I   never  knew  her  make   a  mistake  in 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE     155 

"sizing  up"  a  girl,  although  she  was  exceedingly  careful 
about  expressing  an  opinion.  She  had  a  quaint  and  home- 
ly philosophy.  It  has  always  been  to  me  a  source  of  re- 
gret that  I  did  not  record  some  of  our  long  conversa- 
tions in  which  she  developed  in  epigrammatic  sentences 
her  observations  of  life  as  she  saw  it,  and  her  common 
sense  rules  for  meeting  her  problems.  Harriet,  in  her 
way,  is  quite  as  individual  a  character.  Both  of  these 
good  women  have  taken  great  pride  in  their  positions, 
and  the  keenest  interest  in  all  College  activities.  Both 
have  had  an  almost  uncanny  power  of  making  just  esti- 
mates of  the  character  of  the  girls  with  whom  they  come 
in  such  close  contact. 

I  could,  of  course,  fill  a  large  volume  with  anecdotes 
of  my  personal  experiences  with  the  students  of  Goucher 
College  in  the  last  thirty  years.  At  times  when  I  have 
been  asked  what  my  specialty  in  medicine  is  I  have  re- 
plied "young  women  between  the  ages  of  seventeen  and 
twenty  who  go  to  college,  whose  bodily  ills  are  few  and 
whose  mental  ills  are  not  usually  serious."  For  this 
very  reason,  however,  the  College  physician  must  be 
constantly  on  the  alert  or  she  will  frequently  find  her- 
self in  diagnostic  error.  I  have  seen  unusual  and  rare 
medical  cases  in  my  college  practice  that  I  have  not 
found  in  my  private  practice  nor  in  a  large  dispensary 
practice.  My  most  important  work,  however,  and  that 
which  I  have  valued  most,  is  the  intimate  personal  con- 
tact which  one  gets  with  the  students  in  a  doctor's  office 
where  the  doctor  must  seek  to  penetrate  into  the  inmost 
recesses  of  the  emotional  nature,  to  make  the  girl,  as 
it  were,  look  at  her  real  self  as  a  first  step  to  finding  a 
way  out  of  her  difficulties.    Girls  have  occasionally  said 


156    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

to  me:  "Now,  Dr.  Welsh,  do  not  use  me  as  an  example 
in  your  lectures,"  I  have  always  been  able  to  reply:  "Do 
not  trouble  yourself,  I  have  had  plenty  of  experiences 
before  I  ever  saw  you  and  I  do  not  draw  on  recent  ones 
for  illustrative  material.  You  will  never  be  able  to  fix 
any  of  the  illustrations  I  use  in  class  upon  any  one  you 
ever  knew."  I  had  just  one  principle  in  dealing  with 
students.  I  told  them  the  truth  always  as  I  saw  it  at  the 
time.  I  made  many  mistakes  in  dealing  with  them;  I 
was  often  impatient  over  what  seemed  to  them  matters 
of  great  moment  and  I  never  hesitated  about  giving  a 
girl  "a  piece  of  my  mind"  when  I  thought  she  needed 
it.  Some  never  forgave  me,  but  then  that  was  to  me  a 
sure  sign  that  they  needed  to  be  told  by  some  one  what 
I  had  said  to  them.  In  my  own  memory  there  linger 
only  one  or  two  disagreeable  recollections  connected 
with  any  of  the  Goucher  students  I  have  known.  I  think, 
on  the  whole,  they  believed  in  the  honesty  of  my  inten- 
tions and  my  desire  to  be  of  service  to  them. 

While  it  would  be  manifestly  improper  for  me  to 
record  experiences  with  individuals,  I  can  give  a  few 
examples  to  illustrate  the  qualities  which  made  a  strong 
appeal  to  me  in  these  young  people,  their  essential  kind- 
liness, their  self-control  and  their  efficiency  as  shown 
in  collective  action. 

Always  in  my  lectures  in  hygiene  I  was  obliged  to 
point  out  the  essential  need  of  the  ballot  as  a  tool  for 
securing  conditions  in  the  community  favorable  to 
health.  My  opinions  on  suffrage  for  women  were  well 
known  to  the  students.  I  have  referred  in  the  chapter 
on  suffrage  to  the  demonstration  and  great  parade  staged 
in  Washington  the  day  before  Mr.  Wilson's  inaugura- 


o 

hJ 

o 

p: 

w 

£^ 
o 
o 

fa 
o 

en 
Cu 

< 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    157 


tion  in  1913.  I  have  told  there  how  Goucher  College 
failed  to  give  a  holiday  for  that  event.  I  had  undoubt- 
edly told  my  classes  that  I  intended  to  march  in  this 
parade  as  I  always  took  them  into  my  confidence  about 
any  of  my  actions  that  had  a  public  or  semi-public 
character.  The  parade  was  to  take  place  Monday  after- 
noon. I  had  two  classes  meeting  from  nine  to  eleven  on 
Monday  morning.  Very  late  Sunday  night  a  letter  was 
delivered  to  me  at  my  home  saying  that  the  sophomore 
class  appreciated  the  fact  that  I  desired  to  take  part  in 
the  suffrage  parade  in  Washington  and  they  wanted  me 
to  be  free  to  do  so  without  feeling  that  I  was  neglecting 
any  of  my  duties.  They  had,  therefore,  decided  unani- 
mously to  "cut"  the  nine  and  ten  o'clock  hygiene  classes. 
As  I  had  no  intention  of  going  to  Washington  until 
twelve  o'clock,  I  presented  myself  as  usual  behind  the 
lecture  platform  at  nine  and  ten-twenty,  but  the  seats 
were  all  empty.  The  kindness  and  generosity  to  me  had 
its  reward,  in  part,  as  a  holiday  for  them  as  the  Goucher 
contingent  in  the  parade  was  a  large  one  and  the  stu- 
dents made  an  entire  day  of  it. 

The  self-control  of  the  average  student  and  her  ability 
to  meet  an  emergency  is  sometimes  very  surprising  to 
those  who  believe  in  the  traditional  view  of  woman's 
entire  lack  of  these  two  qualities.  I  can  recall  so  many 
incidents  when  students  have  shown  presence  of  mind 
and  ability  to  meet  emergencies  of  serious  nature  that  it 
is  difficult  to  select  one  for  illustration.  I  was  called 
by  a  student  one  evening  to  come  to  one  of  the  residence 
halls  at  once.  She  said  a  serious  accident  had  occurred. 
A  trained  and  experienced  nurse,  who  was  acting  as 
temporary  mistress  of  a  residence  hall,  in  manipulating 


158    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

the  elevator  met  with  an  accident  that  caused  her  death 
in  a  few  hours.  The  students  handled  the  situation  with 
rare  good  judgment.  When  I  arrived  very  promptly  on 
the  scene  the  woman  was  dying,  but  she  was  in  her  bed 
with  doctors  and  the  College  nurse  in  attendance.  Stu- 
dents had  released  her  from  the  elevator  and  secured 
prompt  aid.  I  spent  the  night  in  the  hall  with  the  stu- 
dents, but  there  was  not  the  slightest  evidence  of  panic. 

In  all  cases  of  unusual  illness,  accidents  and  cases  of 
infectious  disease,  I  took  the  students  promptly  into  my 
confidence,  explained  the  situation  to  them  clearly  and 
asked  for  their  co-operation  which  I  always  got.  They 
understood  this  and  that  nothing  was  concealed  from 
them  about  illness.  Miss  Browne,  the  resident  nurse 
for  a  long  period,  was  a  very  careful  observer,  and 
while  the  students  sometimes  objected  to  her  as  a  nurse 
and  to  me  as  a  doctor  on  the  ground  possibly  of  our 
peppery  tongues  they  knew  they  had  good  and  efficient 
service. 

When  the  great  epidemic  of  influenza  occurred  very 
soon  after  College  had  opened  in  the  fall  of  1918,  I 
had  a  good  illustration  of  the  collective  efficiency  of  the 
students.  We  had  more  than  one  hundred  cases  to  care 
for.  It  was  possible  to  get  but  one  nurse  in  addition  to 
Miss  Browne,  our  one  resident  nurse.  These  two  nurses 
were  obliged  to  give  all  their  time  to  the  infirmary 
which  had  about  twelve  beds  reserved  for  the  more  seri- 
ous cases.  The  remainder  of  the  residence  hall  of  which 
the  infirmary  occupies  the  top  floor  was  turned  into  a 
temporary  hospital.  With  a  volunteer  service  of  stu- 
dents and  a  few  women  of  the  faculty  we  were  able  to 
organize  the  care  of  the  sick  in  a  way  that  would  other- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE     159 

wise  have  been  impossible.  The  student  assistants 
never  failed  us,  and  I  recall  their  efficient  assistance  as 
the  one  relieving  feature  in  a  situation  fraught  with 
great  anxiety  and  responsibility. 

At  another  period  in  the  history  of  Goucher  College 
the  assistance  and  encouragement  of  the  students  car- 
ried me  through  a  very  anxious  period  when  I  acted  as 
chairman  of  the  Women's  Committee  in  the  campaign 
for  a  million  dollars  undertaken  by  the  College  in  1913. 
In  this  campaign,  lasting  for  a  week,  daily  reports  of 
various  teams  were  made  at  luncheon  at  the  Emerson 
Hotel.  The  trustees  stated  publicly  that  the  College 
would  close  its  doors  if  a  million  dollars  was  not  pledged 
by  the  end  of  the  week.  I  shall  never  forget  that  week 
with  its  daily  disappointments  at  noon  and  the  daily  en- 
couragement of  the  afternoons  when  students  and  alum- 
nae always  buoyed  up  my  depressed  spirits  by  some  un- 
expected contributions  and  by  their  unfailing  optimism. 
It  was  during  this  campaign  that  two  large  and  impos- 
ing meetings  were  organized  and  carried  through  by 
students  and  faculty — one  held  in  Ford's  Opera  House 
with  the  aid  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  High  Schools 
and  with  a  message  from  President  Wilson  regarding 
Goucher  College  brought  over  from  Washington  and 
read  by  his  daughter  Jessie,  one  of  our  alumnae. 
The  second  was  a  rally  of  College  women  held  in  McCoy 
Hall  with  President  Thomas  of  Bryn  Mawr  as  the 
speaker  of  the  evening.  Her  address  of  that  evening 
published  and  widely  distributed  was  an  important  con- 
tribution to  our  college  literature  and  should  have  a 
permanent  place  on  the  library  shelves  of  every 
alumna. 


160    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

In  short,  as  I  review  the  thirty  years  I  have  associated 
with  the  students  of  Goucher  College,  I  am  more  and 
more  impressed  with  the  debt  I  owe  them.  I  have 
learned  more  lessons  from  them  than  I  have  ever  suc- 
ceeded in  teaching  them.  I  have  received  from  them 
many  evidences  of  friendship  and  good  will  that  have 
given  me  precious  memories — I  am  very  grateful  to 
them. 

A  few  days  ago,  riding  on  a  funiculaire  up  a  wooded 
mountain  which  I  was  considering  walking  down,  I 
looked  through  a  beautiful  forest  of  beeches  to  see  if 
a  road  was  available.  I  said  to  Dr.  Sherwood,  who  was 
with  me:  "There  is  a  road  which  goes  down  as  well  as 
up,  we  shall  certainly  be  able  to  take  it."  I  did  not  un- 
derstand for  several  minutes  why  she  seemed  so  much 
amused.  When  I  finally  saw  the  point  I  could  not 
help  thinking  how  good  it  would  be  in  life  if  we  could 
find  a  road  that  only  "goes  up."  This  is  my  greatest 
wish  for  the  future  of  Goucher  College,  that  it  is  on  a 
road  that  will  always  ascend — always  go  up.  Its  fate  is 
largely  in  the  hands  of  its  students  past,  present  and 
future.  I  am  confident  they  can  be  trusted,  and  that 
for  Goucher  College  "the  best  is  yet  to  be." 

Chapter  X 

Conclusion 

A  well  known  philosopher  and  teacher  is  said  to  have 
begun  his  lecture  to  students  by  telling  them  what  he  in- 
tended to  say,  then  saying  it  and  to  have  ended  by  tell- 
ing them  what  he  had  said.     Having  begun  these  remi- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    161 


niscences  by  saying  that  my  residence  of  more  than 
thirty  years  in  Baltimore  covered  a  very  interesting 
period  in  the  history  of  the  education  of  women,  of  their 
organizations,  of  their  political  enfranchisement,  and  of 
their  active  participation  in  public  life;  having  reviewed 
in  a  general  way  these  various  movements  as  I  saw  them 
begin  and  progress  in  this  city,  it  may  be  well  finally 
to  sum  up  briefly  what  I  trust  I  have  said. 

It  was  more  than  a  lucky  chance  that  brought  Dr. 
Sherwood  and  me  to  Baltimore  in  the  early  years  of  the 
last  decade  of  the  last  century.  I  feel  confident  that  no 
other  city  in  the  United  States  could  have  offered  at  that 
time  the  same  opportunities  for  personal  education  and 
public  service  to  two  women  physicians  interested  pri- 
marily in  the  sound  elementary  education  of  girls;  in 
training  opportunities  for  the  collegiate  and  university 
education  of  women;  in  the  extension  of  the  sphere  of 
activities  in  which  women  might  engage  outside  of  the 
home,  and  in  the  application  of  scientific  knowledge  to 
the  solution  of  social  problems  of  the  community  and 
to  the  special  problems  of  the  home  with  which  the 
majority  of  the  women  must  always  deal. 

In  1890  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  fifteen  years 
old,  leading  and  promoting  the  development  of  Univer- 
sity education  in  our  country,  had  influenced  the  ad- 
vance of  standards  of  secondary  education  of  boys  in 
Baltimore  by  the  relation  of  the  undergraduate  require- 
ments to  the  public  high  schools  and  other  secondary 
schools  for  boys.  The  Woman's  College  of  Baltimore, 
five  years  old,  was  destined  to  exert  an  even  greater  in- 
fluence on  the  secondary  education  of  girls.  It  was  of 
primary  importance  to  the  secondary  education  of  girls 


162    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

in  Baltimore  that  a  college  for  women  should  have  ad- 
vanced academic  standards.  Fortunately  the  Woman's 
College  was  founded  in  the  shadow  of  the  Johns  Hop- 
kins and  at  a  time  when  standards  for  the  collegiate 
education  of  women  were  well  established  north  of  the 
Mason  and  Dixon  line.  Vassar  was  twenty-two  years 
old,  Wellesley  and  Smith  were  firmly  established,  while 
Mount  Holyoke  with  a  proud  history  of  seminary  work 
behind  her  had  entered  upon  her  collegiate  career.  Bryn 
Mawr  was  busy  attacking  the  final  problem  of  higher 
education  of  women  by  organizing  its  work  on  a  univer- 
sity basis.  It  seemed  at  that  time  that  the  history  of 
securing  collegiate  and  professional  opportunities  for 
women  in  our  country  must  be  repeated,  that  is,  that 
the  sole  hope  of  obtaining  university  opportunities  lay 
in  providing  at  least  one  special  institution  for  this  pur- 
pose. Intelligent  women  in  Baltimore  knew  well  what 
should  be  required  of  an  institution  professing  to  give 
college  education  to  women.  The  success  of  such  an 
institution  would  depend  upon  whether  its  founders  and 
those  responsible  for  its  academic  success  builded  on  a 
firm  foundation  of  sound  scholarship  and  broad  toler- 
ance of  the  search  for  truth. 

It  cannot  be  gainsaid  that  in  the  early  history  of  the 
Woman's  College  of  Baltimore  suspicion  was  outspoken 
as  to  the  possibility  of  a  college  founded  under  denomi- 
national and  sectarian  influence  meeting  the  ultimate  re- 
quirements for  the  collegiate  education  of  women.  As 
a  member  of  the  faculty  of  this  Baltimore  College  from 
1894,  and  because  of  relationships  outside  the  College, 
I  had  abundant  opportunity  of  watching  its  development 
both  from  within  and  from  without.     In  1915  in  an  ad- 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    163 

dress  made  at  the  celebration  of  the  twenty-fifth  anni- 
versary of  the  founding  of  the  College,  the  day  preced- 
ing the  inauguration  of  President  Guth,  I  reviewed  the 
influences  of  external  aid  which  seemed  to  have  forced 
the  College  into  the  path  of  academic  soundness.  After 
referring  to  external  causes  already  mentioned  I 
said  "Within  the  college  various  forces  were  working 
towards  this  same  end  (academic  soundness).  There 
was  President  Goucher's  unfailing  optimism  which  kept 
the  College  doors  open  in  spite  of  constantly  increas- 
ing financial  indebtedness.  Moreover,  there  was  his 
zealous  guiding  of  the  academic  freedom  of  instructors 
against  attacks,  whose  rumblings  were  heard,  upon  the 
teaching  especially  of  biology,  Bible  and  history.  There 
was  Dr.  Van  Meter,  a  target  of  attack  because  of  his 
teaching  of  Biblical  history  and  interpretation — his  ear 
always  close  to  the  educational  ground,  always  an  advo- 
cate of  educational  progress  and  educational  freedom. 
There  were  the  young  men  professors  for  the  most  part 
doctors  of  philosophy  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University, 
fresh  from  their  university  work,  holding  high  ideals  of 
scholarship.  Above  all,  shall  I  say  beneath  all,  was 
the  influence  of  the  women  instructors,  the  majority  of 
them  graduates  of  northern  women's  colleges,  deter- 
mined that  the  instruction  of  girls  in  this  College  should 
m.easure  up  to  the  standards  women  had  set  for  them- 
selves. In  the  class  room  and  outside  of  it  they  were 
continually  encouraging  the  students  to  form  high  ideals 
of  scholarship  and  to  demand  that  the  college  should 
stand  for  these  ideals,  bringing  their  influence  to  bear  on 
the  college  authorities  on  the  one  hand  and  on  the 
students  on  the  other." 


164    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

Whatever  other  forces  were  at  work  these  external 
and  internal  influences  certainly  helped  powerfully  to 
guide  the  college  in  the  direction  of  academic  success. 
In  1913  during  a  campaign  the  College  made  for  money 
to  liquidate  its  indebtedness,  President  Thomas  of  Bryn 
Mawr  made  an  address  to  a  large  meeting  in  McCoy 
Hall  on  the  subject:  "What  College  Education  Means  to 
Woman.  What  Goucher  College  Means  to  Baltimore." 
Miss  Thomas  is  a  native  of  Baltimore  and  the  most  dis- 
tinguished woman  Baltimore  has  produced  in  my  gen- 
eration. College  women  at  least  know  that  Miss  Thomas 
is  very  chary  of  bestowing  praise  on  educational  insti- 
tutions for  women  unless  it  is  well  deserved. 

In  the  course  of  this  address  President  Thomas  said: 
"Recently  to  the  surprise  of  Baltimoreans,  perhaps 
even  to  the  surprise  of  the  faculty  of  Goucher  College 
as  well,  Dr.  Kendrick  Charles  Babcock,  the  Educational 
Expert  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  after 
a  searching  examination  extending  over  several  years, 
has  singled  out  Goucher  and  placed  it  among  the  fifty- 
nine  colleges  and  universities  of  the  first  academic  rank 
in  the  United  States.  No  one  who  is  not  in  the  college 
world  can  realize  the  full  significance  of  Goucher's 
place  in  Class  I  of  the  five  hundred  and  eighty-one  col- 
leges and  universities  of  the  United  States,  many  of 
them  with  great  reputations  and  endowments  and  long 
years  of  effort  behind  them.  Only  fifty-nine  have  been 
placed  in  Class  I  and  little  Goucher,  only  twenty-four 
years  old,  without  a  penny  of  endowment,  staggering 
under  its  crushing  load  of  a  half-million  dollars  of  debt, 
is  among  those  fifty-nine  colleges.  Of  the  twenty-one 
best  women's  colleges  in  the  United  States  only  six  are 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    165 

in  Class  I:  Bryn  Mawr,  Mount  Holyoke,  Smith,  Vassar, 
Wellesley  and  Goucher.  Of  the  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  colleges  and  universities  south  of  the  Mason  and 
Dixon  line,  only  five  are  in  Class  I:  the  University  of 
Virginia,  the  University  of  Texas,  Vanderbilt  Univer- 
sity, the  Johns  Hopkins  University  and  Goucher  College. 
But  although  Baltimore  may  have  been  surprised,  other 
colleges  like  the  Hopkins  and  Bryn  Mawr  which  year 
after  year  have  been  testing  the  undergraduate  training 
of  Goucher  as  its  graduates  have  worked  side  by  side 
with  the  graduates  of  other  colleges  in  their  graduate 
schools  were  not  surprised.  They  know  Goucher  ranks 
high  among  colleges  for  the  excellence  of  its  teaching." 
Since  1915  Goucher  College  has  kept  its  pace  in  the 
educational  world.  It  has  more  than  doubled  in  size, 
and  has  been  placed  on  a  sound  financial  basis.  To 
have  had  a  part  in  the  development  of  a  great  college 
for  women  with  its  direct  influence  upon  secondary  edu- 
cation of  girls  would  in  itself  justify  the  statement  that 
I  had  had  in  Baltimore  unusual  opportunities  for  ob- 
serving the  development  of  educational  opportunities  for 
women.  But  further  than  this  I  have  had  unusual  op- 
portunities of  observing  the  extension  of  university 
privileges  to  women  by  a  Baltimore  university.  This 
came  slowly.  Qualified  women  tried  in  the  early  years 
of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University  to  enter  as  graduate 
students.  There  are  traditions  of  women  seated  behind 
curtains  listening  to  lectures.  Christine  Ladd  (Mrs. 
Franklin)  had  a  fellowship  in  mathematics;  Florence 
Bascom  won  her  degree  of  doctor  of  philosophy,  but 
took  her  diploma  by  proxy. 


166    REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE 

Educational  militancy  was  not  unknown  in  Baltimore 
in  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century.  Just  two  years 
after  the  Woman's  College  was  born  a  few  militant 
Baltimore  women  having  gained  wisdom  by  defeat  in 
fromtal  attacks  on  the  carefully  guarded  portals  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  executed  a  successful  flank 
movement,  forced  an  entrance  through  a  side  door  and 
made  it  simply  a  question  of  time  when  full  freedom 
for  all  university  courses  would  be  theirs.  When  the 
Medical  School  was  opened  in  1893  on  a  foundation 
provided  by  women  the  University  circulars  contained 
the  statement:  "The  medical  school  is  open  to  women, 
but  they  are  not  admitted  to  any  other  departments." 
From  1897  until  such  restrictions  were  removed  the 
Baltimore  Association  for  the  Promotion  of  the  Univer- 
sity Education  of  Women  kept  an  eye  upon  the  Univer- 
sity watching  for  the  first  sign  of  a  kindly  spirit 
toward  women  graduate  students  and  the  other  eye  on 
Baltimore  watching  for  women  who  demand  univer- 
sity opportunities. 

The  proximity  to  the  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital  in  the 
pre-medical  school  days  and  to  the  hospital  and  medical 
school  subsequently  gave  Dr.  Sherwood  and  me  oppor- 
tunities for  medical  work  and  for  following  the  public 
health  movement  unparalleled  in  any  other  city  in  the 
country.  The  Hopkins  laboratories  and  clinics  were  a 
me(Hcal  Mecca  for  both  men  and  women  physicians 
throughout  the  United  States.  Dr.  Osier,  Dr.  Welsh, 
Dr.  Kelly,  Dr.  Halstead  and  Dr.  Hurd  saw  to  it  that  the 
women  who  came  found  their  way  to  Dr.  Sherwood  and 
me.  These  women  invariably  told  us  that  they  found 
nowhere  else  conditions  so  favorable  for  the  study  of 


REMINISCENCES  OF  THIRTY  YEARS  IN  BALTIMORE    167 

medical  science  and  for  stimulating  interest  in  medico- 
social  problems.  We  owe  many  lasting  friendships  to 
these  women  medical  pilgrims. 

While  it  is  doubtful  whether  our  medical,  educational 
and  sociological  interests  would  have  brought  us  in  any 
other  city  under  the  influence  of  such  great  men  as  we 
learned  to  know  in  Baltimore,  I  am  quite  certain  that 
elsewhere  in  our  country  we  would  not,  in  1891,  have 
come  into  intimate  contact  with  a  small  group  of  out- 
standing women  actively  interested  in  the  medical  edu- 
cation of  women  and  in  advancing  professional  oppor- 
tunities of  women  physicians.  Subsequently  Baltimore 
brought  us  opportunities  for  service  in  all  phases  of  the 
movement  which  concerned  itself  with  advancing  the 
interests  of  women  and  children. 

My  thirty  years  in  Baltimore  then  have  been  rich  in 
opportunities  for  progressive  self-education  and  de- 
velopment; for  contacts  with  great  men  and  remarkable 
women;  for  lasting  friendships;  for  service  in  educa- 
tional and  social  fields.  They  have  stored  up  precious 
memories.  Could  any  other  place  in  the  world  have 
given  me  so  much?  I  doubt  it  and  am  profoundly 
grateful. 

Baltimore,  November  10,  1925.