Part of the American History & Genealogy Project

Anna Lukens 1844 ~

 

Was born in Philadelphia, October, 1844. Her family were residents of Plymouth, Pennsylvania, and belonged to the Society of Friends. She was graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, in 1870. Was a member of the class attending clinics in the Pennsylvania Hospital, November, 1869, when the students from the Woman's Medical College were hissed by the male members of the clinic. Miss Lukens and a Miss Brumall led the line of women students who passed out of the hospital grounds amid the jeers and insults of the male students, who even threw stones and mud at them, but these brave women were not discouraged by such conduct and might be considered to have blazed the way for other women who today enjoy the privilege.

In 1870, Miss Lukens entered the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, as an interne and in 1871 she began to teach in the college as an instructor in the chair of physiology. In 1872 she taught pharmacy in the college by lectures and practical demonstrations in the dispensary of the Women's Hospital.

She was the first woman to apply for admission to the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Not meeting with much encouragement, owing to the opposition which existed at that time against all women taking up this vocation, she entered the College of Pharmacy in New York City, and took a course in analytical chemistry in the laboratory of Dr. Walls.

In 1873 she became attending physician of the Western Dispensary for Women and Children, and at some portions of the time paid the rent for this dispensary out of her own pocket in order to keep up the work. In 1873 she was elected a member of the New York County Medical Society. In 1877 she was appointed assistant physician in the Nursery and Child's Hospital of Staten Island, assuming entire charge of the pharmaceutical department.

In 1880 she was appointed resident physician of the Nursery and Child's Hospital. Two papers which she read before the Staten Island Clinical Society were published in the New York Journal and copied in the London Lancet and received favorable notice by the British Medical Journal.

In 1884 she went abroad for study in children's diseases in the principal hospitals of Europe, and later opened an office for private practice in the city of New York. She was elected consulting physician of the Nursery and Child's Hospital of Staten Island, and a fellow of the New York State Medical Society. Was appointed in 1876, one of the vice-presidents of the New York Committee for the Prevention and State Regulation of Vice.

She is a member of the Sorosis Club, and is considered a woman of marked executive ability for hospital administration. Her work is of a high standard and she occupies a conspicuous position for a woman in the profession which she has chosen.

Women of America

Source: The Part Taken by Women in American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.

 

Please Come back Soon!!




This page was last updated Monday, 02-Feb-2015 20:09:41 EST

Copyright August 2011 - 2024The American History and Genealogy Project.
Enjoy the work of our webmasters, provide a link, do not copy their work.