Dr. Laura Ross Wolcott (born Laura J. Ross; July 16, 1826December 8, 1915) was the first woman to become a physician in

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

and the third woman in the United States to earn a medical degree.

Life and education

In 1826 or 1834, Laura was born in

York, Maine York is a town in York County, Maine, United States, near the southern tip of the state. The population in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census was 13,723. Situated beside the Atlantic Ocean on the Gulf of Maine, York is a well-known summe ...

. She was educated at George Emerson's School in Boston and later at the Horace Mann Normal School. She may also have studied in private with faculty at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. In 1856, she graduated with a medical degree from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. She married Dr. Erastus B. Wolcott in 1869. In 1894 she moved to Ravenswood, Illinois. She died in 1915 in Ravenswood, Illinois.

Career and activism

In 1857, Wolcott moved to

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. She served as a consulting physician to hospitals, schools, and the Convent of Notre Dame. She also maintained a private practice. She was denied entry to the Medical Society of Milwaukee County because she was a woman. One male physician even published a false obituary of Laura in order for her patients to assume that she was dead, and thus find another doctor. A rival paper reported that she was still alive. Thus, she moved to Paris in 1867. She attended lectures at The University of Paris, then the Sorbonne. She also worked in a hospital. Additionally, she served as a commissioner to the World's Fair in Paris in 1867. She returned to Milwaukee, and was finally admitted to the Medical Society of Milwaukee County after a long waiting period. Her eventual admission was largely due to the work of an older doctor, Erastus Wolcott. He would eventually become her husband. Wolcott also organized meetings for

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Madison, Wisconsin. She organized the first women's suffrage convention in Milwaukee in 1869. Susan B. Anthony spoke at the convention. Wolcott went on to become the first president of the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association and was active not only in campaigning for suffrage but also for the higher education of women. She expanded the organization from Milwaukee to branches in many other cities. She remained the organization's president for over 12 years. After her husband died in 1880, she gradually retired from practicing medicine.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolcott, Laura 1826 births 1915 deaths American women physicians Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania alumni History of women in Wisconsin Physicians from Wisconsin