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Born on this Day Woman at Harvard!
27 February 2015

Woman at Harvard!

“A Woman On Harvard Faculty – The Last Citadel Has Fallen – The Sex Has Come Into Its Own.” This was the headline of a New York Tribune article in 1919 celebrating the appointment of Alice Hamilton, an American bacteriologist, to the new Department of Industrial Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She was the first woman ever appointed to the Harvard faculty. Hamilton pioneered the field of toxicology, studying the dangerous effects of industrial metals and chemical compounds in the human body, such as lead poisoning. Living in a settlement house in Chicago side by side the poor residents of the community, she became increasingly interested in industrial medicine and the illnesses factory workers suffered from. She became a leading expert in occupational health disorders. She was born on this day in 1869.

Written by Nick Kennedy

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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BPoD is also available in Catalan at www.bpod.cat with translations by the University of Valencia.