First Women of VP&S

A Glimpse of History

Presented by the CUIMC Archives and Special Collections.

VP&S Goes Co-Ed

Did you know that 2017 marks the centennial of the admission of women to the Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons? VP&S faculty had resisted co-education for decades, but in the spring of 1917 VP&S Dean Samuel Lambert was persuaded by several Barnard students to admit women to the Class of 1921. He had one condition: they must raise $50,000 to allow the school to build bathroom facilities and locker rooms for women. Undaunted, the students along with Barnard Dean Virginia Gildersleeve started fundraising, and 11 women enrolled at VP&S in the fall of 1917. Six graduated in 1921, among whom were the first-, third-, and fifth-ranked class members.

Six of the 11 women admitted to VP&S in a photo taken in fall 1917.

First Women in VP&S: 1917/1918

  • Henrietta Mae Ashton

    New York City

  • Emma E. Corwin

    Newark, NJ
    A.B., Wellesley, 1914

  • Sara Meeker Cummings

    Montclair, NJ
    A.B., Wellesley, 1915

  • Dorothea Estelle Curnow

    New York City
    A.B., Barnard, 1917

  • Susanna Edwards Schuyler Haigh

    Summit, NJ
    A.B., Vassar, 1915

  • Helen Marie Jones

    New York City

  • Gulli Charlotte Lindh

    Tyringe, Sweden
    A.B., Barnard, 1917

  • Mathilde Loth

    New York City
    A.B., Smith, 1917

  • Dorothea March Marston

    Glen Ridge, NJ
    A.B., Wellesley, 1909

  • Elizabeth Wright

    New York City
    A.B., Barnard, 1917

First Women Graduates of VP&S, 1921

  • Emma E. “Jean” Corwin

  • Dorothea E. Curnow

  • Susanna E.S. Haigh

  • Gulli Lindh Muller

  • May Rivkin Mayers (A.B. Barnard, 1911) – entered in Fall 1919

  • Elizabeth Wright