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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.
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