The Women of 1899 Photo

Eleven out of forty-four, or one quarter, of the Cooper Medical College Class of 1899 were women. Eight of the eleven gathered for this photo taken by classmate Willard Chapin Bailey, the only known photo of the Class of 1899. Ray Lyman Wilbur, later dean of the Stanford School of Medicine and then president of Stanford Univeristy was also a member of Cooper's Class of 1899.

May McKinney, Elizabeth Keys, Grace Sharp, Nellie Morse, Mary Harriss, Mariana Bertola, Beatrice Hinkle, Elizabeth Grotefend

In 1899 the requirements for graduation were:

1) The candidate must be of good moral character, and at least twenty-one years of age.
2) He must have attended four Regular Courses of Medical Lectures (unless admitted to the second course, as specified in the paragraph headed "Advanced Standing"), the last of which, at least, must have been delivered in this institution.
3) He must have attended at least two Courses of Practical Anatomy in the Dissecting-room, and present evidence of having dissected at least one entire subject (five parts).
4) He must write a Medical Thesis, and submit the same to the Faculty. It is recommended that the thesis shall be based upon cases actually observed and studied by the student at college and hospital clinics.
5) He must have passed successfully the examination required by the Faculty, and have paid all fees due the College.

May Alma McKinney Palmer

For her medical thesis, May McKinney wrote Inaugural Thesis Upon Diabetes Mellitus . By the time she received her certificate from the Medical Society of the State of California on November 7, 1899 she had married Franklin Sawyer Palmer, an 1890 graduate of the Medical Department of Harvard University who had come to San Francisco from Seattle to marry. The official register of Californian physicians indicate that both the Palmers had an office in San Francisco until around 1904. A biography of Franklin Palmer indicates that they traveled to Korea where Franklin served as a physician and to Paris where he studied both medicine and the organ. The 1906 and 1907 register of Californian physicians indicates that they were then located in New York City. In 1907 the Palmers returned to Seattle where Franklin became the organist for St. James Cathedral. Nothing more is known of May's life except that she died April 22, 1936, a year after the death of her husband.

Elizabeth Florence Emma Keys

Elizabeth Keys was apparently born in Canada and orphaned along with several siblings. It is not known how she came to be in California, but she matriculated at Cooper Medical College in 1897. Her medical thesis was entitled Inaugural Dissertation Upon Chronic Constipation in Children . She received her certificate from the Medical Society of the State of California on October 13, 1899. The official register of Californian physicians indicates that she had offices in San Francisco moving from Sutter Street to Sacramento to the Medico-Dental Building on Post Street in the 1930s. Further details are unknown, but she was deceased by the time of the cumulative Stanford alumni directory of 1956.

Grace Honora Sharp Thille

Grace Sharp, descended from western pioneers, was born in Bennett Valley, California, on September 5, 1875. Her family eventually settled in Ventura County and she attended Santa Paula High School. She then attended the University of California in Berkeley for two years before she enrolled at Cooper Medical College in 1896. During vacations from school she would return home and assist two local doctors to gain practical experience. Her medical thesis was entitled An Inaugural Dissertation Upon Pernicious Anaemia . She received her certificate from the Medical Society of the State of California on her twenty-fourth birthday on September 5, 1899 (a number of the members of the class of 1899 received their certificates on this date). After graduation she returned to Ventura County where she worked as a general practitioner. In reminiscing about her time in practice she recalled that she "had a horse and buggy and not much else. I had an x-ray machine. It was a very simple thing, but it helped out in making diagnoses. I worked like a Trojan and had to cover a lot of areas of knowledge and a lot of territory as well." Shortly before graduation from Cooper, Grace learned that she had contracted tuberculosis; eventually the need to take a mountain cure and the difficulty of making a living as a doctor in the poor rural area of Ventura County led Grace to abandon regular medical practice and take up work for the Saticoy Walnut Grower's Association. She retained her license and often pitched in in times of medical need. In 1925 she married John Thille. The couple were heavily involved in the creation of the Santa Paula Memorial Hospital and Grace served on the board of trustees. In the 1950s she wrote her memoirs Day Before Yesterday and Yesterday . John died in 1971 and Grace died in 1979 at the age of 103.

Nellie Louisa Morse Shultz

Nellie Morse matriculated at Cooper Medical College in 1895. Her medical thesis was entitled An Inaugural Dissertation Upon Chorea . She received her certificate from the Medical Society of the State of California on June 5, 1900, by which time she was already Mrs. Nellie L. M. Shultz. She had an office in San Francisco from 1901 to 1903, but in 1904 her office had moved to Berkeley. Her last full appearance in the official register of Californian physicians is in 1910 after which she was listed as "address unknown."

Mary Anne Harriss

Mary Harriss matriculated at Cooper Medical College in 1896. Her medical thesis was entitled Inaugural Dissertation Upon Hysteria . She received her certificate from the Medical Society of the State of California on September 5, 1899. In 1899 she served as an externe at San Francisco City and County Hospital. The official register of Californian physicians indicates that she was temporarily abroad in 1901 and after 1902 she does not appear. She died in San Francisco on May 15, 1936.

Mariana Bertola

Mariana Bertola was born May 7, 1865 in Contra Costa County, California, to pioneer parents. Her father arrived in California in 1852, mined in Tuolumne, and, in 1857, established the first fruit and grocery store in Martinez as well as planting the first extensive vineyard in the county. Mariana graduated from Cooper Medical College in 1899 and served as an interne and assistant resident physician at the Children's Hospital for two years and as an associate in the medical clinic at Cooper for three. For seven years, she also taught and was principal in the Martinez public schools. As a result of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, Mariana lost her home and was left with a single, fully-equipped obstetrical bag. In 1907 she commissioned Julia Morgan to build two houses for her office and for rental suites. In the 1920s she was the Mills College physician and she was a founder of the San Francisco Women's Vigilant Committee, an organization formed to push for enforcement of laws protecting women and to provide public support for female victims at legal proceedings. Mariana was a political activist and social reformer who helped lobby for every public hospital in California to include maternity and children's wards. She died on December 7, 1955.

Beatrice Moses Hinkle

Beatrice Moses was born in San Francisco. When she matriculated at Cooper Medical College in 1896, she was married to Walter Scott Hinkle, a lawyer, who apparently died the same year she graduated. Her medical thesis was entitled An Inaugural Dissertation Upon Enuresis in Children . She received her certificate from the Medical Society of the State of California on September 5, 1899 and had an office on Divisadero Street in San Francisco until 1904. The official register of Californian physicians indicates that by 1907 she was at the Academy of Medicine in New York. In New York she became associated with Dr. Charles R. Dana and together they founded the country's first psychotherapeutic clinic in 1908. In 1909 she went to Europe where she was a student of both Freud and Jung. In a 1911 letter to Freud, Jung describes her as "Dr. Hinkle-Eastwick (an American charmer)." She translated Jung's Psychology of the Unconcious and was a practitioner of Jung's theories. She died on February 28, 1953.

Elizabeth Eaton Grotefend

Elizabeth Eaton, a native of California, married Fred Grotefend in 1866 in Redding. In 1897 she matriculated at Cooper Medical College in 1897. Her medical thesis was entitled Inaugural Dissertation on the Epidemic Form of Spinal Meningitis . She received her certificate from the Medical Society of the State of California on November 7, 1899 and had an office on Sutter Street in San Francisco. She does not appear in the official register of Californian physicians after 1902.

Medical events of 1899

• Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark. Aspirin was the first mass-produced and first mass-marketed drug.
• The AMA appoints a committee to report on the nature of tuberculosis, means of control, public education and advisability of establishing national and state sanitariums. It also urges that local boards of health adopt laws requiring compulsory smallpox vaccination.

Innovations of 1899

• Marconi sends his first successful signal across the English Channel (first transatlantic transmission in 1901).
• Henry H. Bliss becomes the first person killed by an automobile in the U.S.
• Kresge founds what eventually becomes Kmart.

San Francisco in 1899

• Mount Zion Hospital opens.
• Letterman Army Hospital opens to treat patients from the Spanish-American War and the Philippines.
• The plague arrives in San Francisco. Officially it is denied. (See Robert Barde, "Prelude to the Plague: Public Health and Politics at America's gateway, 1899," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume 58, Number 2, April 2003.)

The Stanford 500

Jane Stanford amends the Founding Grant to limit the number of female students to 500.

Women are entering American colleges in record numbers during the 1890s. Female enrollment at Stanford has risen from 25 percent of the student body to more than 40 percent in eight years, fueling public debate regarding the comparative purposes of women's and men's education. Stanford's fully coeducational academic setting--that is, women and men share classrooms, curriculum, major professors, graduation requirements--is heavily criticized by those who see distinctive differences between male and female capacities as well as social roles. Against those who believe the presence of women dilutes men's education, Jordan and Elliott strongly argue that both benefit, the men gaining in sense of responsibility and moral character, the women in self-confidence and clearer life goals. It is noted that Stanford women provide serious academic competition for its male students. Although she has expressed pride in the women's accomplishments, Mrs. Stanford believes men's educational needs must predominate, and fears men will be discouraged from attending. She sets the limitation at 500, despite Elliott's recommendation of a percentage limit. The 500 limit is first reached in 1903, when women are denied admission as 'specials.' -- A Chronology of Stanford University and Its Founders: 1824-2000