Elizabeth Cisney Smith (July 29, 1881 – November 13, 1965) was an American physician. A large collection of her correspondence, notebooks, photographs and other papers at the

Drexel University College of Medicine Drexel University College of Medicine is the medical school of Drexel University, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The medical school represents the consolidation of two medical schools: the first U.S. medical school f ...

Legacy Center offers rich first-hand sources on women's medical education in the 1910s, and on women's medical careers in the first half of the twentieth century.

Early life and education

Elizabeth E. Cisney was born in Nossville,

Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania Huntingdon County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,092. Its county seat is Huntingdon. The county was created on September 20, 1787, mainly from the northern part of Bedford County ...

, the daughter of William Henry Cisney and Margaret Kelly Cisney. She trained as a teacher at the State Normal School in California, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the

Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP) was founded in 1850, and was the second medical institution in the world established to train women in medicine to earn the M.D. degree. The New England Female Medical College had been establishe ...

in 1911.

Career

Smith practiced medicine mostly in rural Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio. She and her husband received their Ohio medical licenses in 1917. In the 1930s she worked for the

Pennsylvania Department of Health Pennsylvania Department of Health is a cabinet-level agency in Pennsylvania. Secretaries See also * Health department * List of Pennsylvania state agencies State related agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Agencies *Pennsylvania A ...

, and briefly in North Dakota. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, she worked in

Middle River, Maryland Middle River is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 33,203 at the 2020 census. A Middle River Train Station first appeared on the 1877 G.M. Hopkins & Co Baltimore ...

, serving the families of aircraft workers at a bomber plant. She retired from medical work in 1946. In Ohio, Smith was founding president of a chapter of the Business and Professional Women's Club. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In retirement she lived in

Reseda, California Reseda is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1912, and its central business district started developing in 1915. The neighborhood was devoted to agriculture for many years. Earthquake ...

, and traveled for a year in Europe.

Personal life and legacy

Cisney married fellow teacher Augustus Edwin Smith in 1903, and both of them entered medical schools in Philadelphia in 1906. They had four children, the first one born in 1909 when they were both still medical students. Her husband died in 1934, and she died in 1965, at the age of 84, in Peabody, Massachusetts. Her daughter Isabel Smith Stein donated a large collection of her papers to the Drexel University College of Medicine Legacy Center.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Elizabeth Cisney 1881 births 1965 deaths 20th-century American women physicians 20th-century American physicians People from Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania alumni Physicians from Pennsylvania