Annie Isabella Hamilton (1866–1941) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and the first woman to receive a medical degree in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. She earned a degree in medicine (MD ChM) from Dalhousie University in 1894.

Early life and education

Annie Isabella Hamilton was born in 1866 in

Brookfield, Nova Scotia Brookfield (2021 population: 439) is a Canadian rural community located in southern Colchester County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Brookfield is a growing community in the heart of Nova Scotia, just forty minutes from the provincial capital of Halif ...

. When she was 14, she raised money for a local missionary society in Brookfield. Hamilton attended

Pictou Academy Pictou Academy (PA), founded in 1815 by Dr. Thomas McCulloch, is a secondary school in Pictou, Nova Scotia. Prior to the twentieth century, it was a grammar school; a liberal, nonsectarian degree-granting college; and then a secondary school. Pic ...

, which awarded her a gold medal for educational excellence, and received a degree from Truro Normal School (later

Nova Scotia Teachers College The Nova Scotia Teachers College (NSTC) was a normal school located in the Canadian town of Truro, Nova Scotia. History The Nova Scotia Teachers College was founded as the Provincial Normal School by an act of the Nova Scotia House of Assembl ...

). She enrolled in the medical program at Dalhousie University in 1888, after the death of her parents. She excelled academically, earning particularly high grades in botany and

histology Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology which studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures vi ...

. She also studied Chinese and campaigned unsuccessfully for a smoke-free campus. Some of Hamilton's male Dalhousie classmates criticized her supposedly unfeminine dress and appearance, and created a petition to obtain a

bustle A bustle is a padded undergarment used to add fullness, or support the drapery, at the back of women's dresses in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. ...

for her.

Career

Hamilton set up a practice in Halifax after graduation. In 1895, she assisted Maria Louisa Angwin, the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Nova Scotia, in a series of lectures on hygiene. In 1903, she moved to China, where she served as a medical missionary and teacher, and wrote textbooks for her university students. She died in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

in 1941.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Annie Isabella 1866 births 1941 deaths Canadian women physicians 19th-century Canadian physicians 19th-century Canadian women physicians