Academy Exhibit Honors Life of First Woman to Serve as an Ambulance Surgeon in New York City in 1902

NEW YORK CITY, April 7???The first photograph in the Academy???s exhibit honoring the long medical career of Dr. Emily Dunning Barringer was taken upon her graduation from Cornell University in 1897. A serious young woman in profile wears a flat, tasseled cap and voluminous gown. She gazes into the distance, perhaps contemplating the marvelous future ahead. Barringer was one of the few women fortunate enough to gain a sound education at the cusp of the 20th century, and with it, she accomplished amazing things in the field of medicine. After her graduation from Cornell, Barringer became the first ambulance surgeon in New York City, a practicing gynecologist who studied venereal disease in women, an advocate for the health of female prisoners, a champion of women???s rights, and an early female Fellow of the Academy.

In reminding us of the achievements that Barringer worked hard to gain, this exhibit in The New York Academy of Medicine Library inspires appreciation for the trailblazing women of the past that devoted their lives to creating a more just world, thus paving the way for greater opportunities for the generations of women to come. The exhibit will run through Friday, April 28.

The title of the exhibit, From Bowery to Hollywood: Emily Dunning Barringer, MD, Fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine, is derived from Barringer???s 1950 autobiography, Bowery to Bellevue: The Story of New York???s First Woman Ambulance Driver. She wrote her memoir at the age of 74, covering the first 28 years of her life, from her birth in 1876 on her parent???s estate in Scarsdale, New York, through 1904, when she completed her training as a doctor and married Dr. Benjamin Barringer. In her book, Barringer relates the compelling story of her desire to become a doctor at a time when few women aspired to such a vocation, and her fight to obtain the same medical residency and training opportunities as were available to men. Her story was made into the 1952 Hollywood film, Girl in White, starring June Allyson.

Barringer grew up in a well-to-do New York family that fell on hard financial times when she was eight years old. As a result of their circumstances, the daughters of the family, who were being raised to marry well, faced the need to pursue careers instead. While Barringer???s mother accepted their new and difficult situation, she was determined that her daughter Emily would attend college rather than become apprenticed to a craftsperson. When Barringer came of age, it was unusual for a woman to attend college, but, fortunately for her, her uncle Henry Sage was a founder of Cornell. He arranged for her to attend his progressive co-educational university and paid her tuition. After graduating from Cornell, Barringer chose to attend the College of Medicine of the New York Infirmary, the only medical school in New York City open to a woman apart from a homeopathic college. The College of Medicine was founded by three pioneering women, Elizabeth Blackwell, Emily Blackwell, and Marie Zakrzewska.

In Barringer???s sophomore year, the College of Medicine merged into the new Cornell University School of Medicine, and so she acquired an excellent foundation as a doctor, only to realize as graduation neared that few opportunities for residency training were available to women. Their senior year, the men in her graduating class took a special course to prepare them for competitive residency exams, but the women did not, as they were not admitted as residents to general hospitals. The women instead trained at hospitals for women and children or in the private practices of individual doctors. In her autobiography, which is on display, Barringer admits that she ???would not be satisfied to accept an appointment in one of the hospitals for women physicians, if there was any chance of obtaining an internship in a general hospital.???

Barringer lobbied successfully to join the men in the highly rigorous ???Hospital Quiz??? course that prepared them for their exams and, even though she had no chance of gaining a general hospital residency appointment, she sat for the exam. Although she received the top score in her class, she discovered this only by accident over thirty years later. She began training with Dr. Mary Jacobi Putnam in her private practice and on Putnam???s advice, sat for the residency exam a second year, this time gaining one of four training spots at New York City???s Gouverneur Hospital. Medical training then entailed serving as an ambulance surgeon, and in her memoir, Barringer describes becoming a physician through caring for the suffering immigrant populations of New York???s Lower East Side, which is where Gouverneur is still located. She also tells of the hazing she endured from her male colleagues.

The display cases offer early 20th century pictures of the young Dr. Barringer on a horse-drawn ambulance in New York City, along with copies of newspaper and magazine articles about her, her autobiography, and memorabilia related to the movie Girl in White. But, as other items in the exhibit reveal, her triumphs as a young medical student and doctor-in-training merely preceded a trailblazing career as a physician and activist. A practicing gynecologist, Barringer wrote about venereal disease in women at a time when the subject was seldom discussed, cared for female prisoners at a time when they were not considered worthy of medical attention, and, during the Second World War, successfully lobbied for female medical personnel to be admitted into the Armed Forces as doctors and nurses. Papers, photos, and articles from these varied and impressive sides of Barringer???s long life ??? she died in 1961 at the age of 85 ??? provide much food for thought.

For further information about the exhibit, contact curator Patricia Gallagher at 212.822.7324. The New York Academy of Medicine is the country???s premier urban health policy and intervention center, and focuses on enhancing the health of people living in cities through research, education, advocacy, and prevention. It is home to the second largest medical collection open to the general public in the United States.

-by A'Dora Phillips

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Posted on April 7, 2006

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Contact:
Andrew J. Martin
Director of Communications
The New York Academy of Medicine
1216 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10029
212-822-7285
amartin@nyam.org

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