From our Pages
In this section, we highlight visual and textual tidbits from past issues of the magazine. These messages from yesteryear remind us about how fast some things in medicine (and life) change, as well as about some timeless truths.
From the Spring 1979 issue
"In the matter of educating women for the practice of medicine, Dartmouth . . . missed a golden first opportunity in the year 1852, when it rejected the application of Emily Blackwell." So wrote longtime DMS faculty member Robert Nye, M.D., in a feature about women in medicine at Dartmouth.
"The following entry appears in the faculty minutes for August 10," continued Nye. " 'At a Faculty Meeting this day . . . the request of Miss Emily Blackwell of Cincinnati to be admitted to the present course of lectures being under consideration, it was voted that in the opinion of this Faculty we should not be justified by the medical profession of New England in complying with her request, and that a copy of this vote be communicated to Miss B. by the Secretary (Done).'
"It was Dartmouth's loss. Emily was the younger sister of Elizabeth Blackwell, who had graduated three years earlier from Geneva Medical College, New York, the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States or Britain, or perhaps anywhere in the western world."
From the Fall 1977 issue
The magazine has also recorded some more lighthearted historical moments, such as this one: "Dr. Maurice Costin '40 of Framingham, Mass., sent in this picture [reproduced below] of Dr. William Bodwell '09. The two men met when Dr. Costin set up his practice in Framingham in 1948, and over the years they exchanged stories of their days in Hanover.
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William Bodwell, DMS 1909, on Main Street. |
"Dr. Costin wrote that 'Dr. Bodwell informed me that he used to have several jobs while working his way through Dartmouth. They included barbering, bartending, washing dishes, waiting tables, helping Dr. Gilman Frost deliver calves on his farm, and taking care of Professor Emory's horses. He informed me that the photograph of the horse and sleigh, with him driving, was taken in March 1909. As you can see, it was in front of College Hall [now Collis], and I suspect the horse and sleigh belonged to Professor Emory." Bodwell died in 1969 and Costin in 1982.
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