Woman's Medical College of St. Louis - Second College

Second College

In 1891, a new Woman's College was incorporated by T. J. Beattie, J. Block, C.A. Dannaker, and R.S. Sloan. Now separate from the Western College, this new incarnation was the first college west of the Mississippi River that existed solely for the education of women in medicine. The first classes were held in September 1892.

The opening of the college was met with opposition from the local medical community. The St. Louis-based Medical Mirror published an editorial saying that "omen are not endowed by nature or art with the qualities, nor can they gain the necessary equipment for making a successful physician." Following the graduation of the first class in 1894, the Medical Mirror reported that the St. Louis Board of Health "found it inexpedient to admit women to the hospitals as assistant physicians ...inasmuch as the admission of women would mark a change from the established order of things." According to Clevenger, only one graduate, Henrietta Borck, was ever admitted to the St. Louis Medical Society, nineteen years after her graduation.

Following a move to a new building, the Woman's College was affected by the Panic of 1893 and began to struggle financially. It closed permanently in 1896.

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