Chester County’s Dr. Ann Preston, the former dean of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, led the way for female medical students in a male-dominated industry in the 1800s, writes Mark E. Dixon for Main Line Today. 

While they were walking towards a lab at Pennsylvania Hospital, Preston and her female students received constant abuse from their male counterparts. 

“The male medical students shouted insults and threw paper, tinfoil, and tobacco quids,” wrote historian Margaret Hope Bacon. “The female medical students remained composed and attended the clinic, but on their way out they were pelted with rocks.” 

Encouraged by local Quakers interested in medical education for women, Preston became an apprentice in the office of Dr. Nathaniel Moseley in 1847. After being turned down from medical colleges because of her gender, she joined the Female Medical College, the first of its kind, in 1851. She graduated first in her class and moved to Paris for a year to study obstetrics. 

Upon her return, she was hired to teach physiology and hygiene at her former college. She remained a Woman’s Medical College hero long after her death in 1872. 

Read more about Dr. Ann Preston leaving a legacy behind in Chester County in Main Line Today. 

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