Caroline Brown Winslow (November 19, 1822 – December 7, 1896) was an American physician, and the fifth woman in the United States to graduate in medicine.

Early life

Caroline Brown was born in

Appledore, Kent Appledore is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village centre is on the northern edge of the Romney Marsh, 12 miles (19 km) south-west of Ashford town. The northerly part of this village is Appledore ...

, England, on November 19, 1822, the daughter of Samuel Brown (d. 1857). The family moved to the United States in 1826. In 1850, she studied

human anatomy The human body is the structure of a human being. It is composed of many different types of cells that together create tissues and subsequently organ systems. They ensure homeostasis and the viability of the human body. It comprises a head ...

under

Rachel Brooks Gleason Rachel Brooks Gleason (November 27, 1820 – March 13, 1905) was an American physician, the fourth woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. Early life Rachel Ingall Brooks was born in the village of Winhall, Vermont, on November 2 ...

, M. D., at

Glen Haven, New York Near the southern end (the head end) of Skaneateles Lake, the hamlet of Glen Haven is situated in a splendidly scenic valley in the Town of Scott, Cortland County and the Town of Niles, Cayuga County. Nearby Spafford Landing is in the Town of Sp ...

and in December 1851, entered the Eclectic Medical College, in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

, graduating in June 1853. She was the first woman to graduate from that college and the fifth woman in the United States to graduate with a degree in medicine.

Career

Caroline B. Winslow practiced successfully in Cincinnati from 1853 to 1859 and having become interested in

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a di ...

, graduated in 1856 from the Western College of Homeopathy in Cleveland, Ohio. She then went to

Utica, New York Utica () is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the foot ...

, the home of her parents, where she remained for more than seven years. In April 1864, after the death of her parents, she went to

Washington, D. C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, where she served as a regular visitor in military hospitals under the auspices of the New York State Agency. After the Civil War, she spent eight months in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, before settling in Washington where she set up a homeopathy practice. In November 1882, together with Susan Ann Edson, she opened the Homeopathic Free Dispensary, the first homeopathic pharmacy in Washington, which flourished for some years. It was the first facility where women doctors could practice side-by-side with their male colleagues. She was president for fourteen years of the Moral Education Society of Washington. She edited the ''Alpha'', the journal of that society, for thirteen years. She was a woman-suffragist and an advocate of higher education for all. She was part of the Universal Franchise Association and together with Edson she planned the 1869 conference of the Universal Franchise Association. In 1893 sculptor

Adelaide Johnson Adelaide Johnson (1859–1955) was an American sculptor whose work is displayed in the U.S. Capitol and a feminist who was devoted to the cause of equality of women. She was known as the "sculptor of the women's movement". Biography Born Sa ...

made a bust of Caroline Brown Winslow which was exhibited in the Rotunda of the Woman's Building of the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, h ...

Personal life

Caroline Brown married Austin Crosby Winslow, an artisan, on July 15, 1865, when Winslow was 43 years old. Winslow was the lifelong friend of

Susan Ann Edson Susan Ann Edson (January 4, 1823November 13, 1897) was one of the first women to attend medical school, served as a Civil War Army Nurse, and was a friend and personal physician to President James A. Garfield and his wife Lucretia. Early life a ...

. They probably met at Eclectic Medical College, which both attended. During the Civil War they worked as nurses, as they were not allowed to act as doctors. After the war, Winslow and Edson moved to Washington, D.C., together and established their own practices. Together they wrote a missive to the Congress, ''The Right of Women to Vote''. Winslow adopted her niece, Mary Brown McPherson Janney (1853–1928), after the death of her sister. Caroline B. Winslow died on December 7, 1896. Susan Ann Edson died one year later, in 1897. They are both buried at

Rock Creek Cemetery Rock Creek Cemetery is an cemetery with a natural and rolling landscape located at Rock Creek Church Road, NW, and Webster Street, NW, off Hawaii Avenue, NE, in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States. It is across the stre ...

, Washington.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winslow, Caroline B. 1822 births 1896 deaths American women educators American feminists American homeopaths History of women's rights in the United States American women physicians People from Washington, D.C. American editors English emigrants to the United States People from Appledore, Kent Physicians from Washington, D.C. Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery