Emily Dunning Barringer (September 27, 1876 - April 8, 1961) was the world's first female ambulance surgeon and the first woman to secure a surgical residency.
Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame Web site, Web page titled "Emily Dunning Barringer", accessed August 15, 2011 Emily Dunning was born in Scarsdale, New York, Scarsdale, New York to Edwin James Dunning and Frances Gore Lang. The well-to-do New York family fell on hard times when she was about ten years old, and her father left for Europe to try to recoup his fortune, leaving her mother with five children. When a well-meaning friend of Dunning's mother suggested that the girl might become a milliner's apprentice, her mother said "That settles the question. You are going to go to college." Dr. Mary Corinna Putnam Jacobi, a friend of the family, recommended Cornell University's medical preparatory course, and her uncle, Henry W. Sage, a founder of Cornell, agreed to pay her tuition. Other family friends also helped with expenses. Emily Dunning graduated in 1897 and decided to attend the College of Medicine of the New York Infirmary. During her sophomore year there, the college merged with the new Cornell University School of Medicine.
National Library of Medicine Web site, Web page titled "Celebrating America's Women Physicians: Changing the Face of Medicine: Dr. Emily Dunning Barringer" accessed November 1, 2006 She earned her medical degree in 1901, then received the second-highest grade in the qualifying exam for an internship at Gouverneur Health, Gouverneur Hospital in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. The hospital denied her application. The next year she applied again, this time with the support from political and religious figures, and the hospital accepted her—the first woman ever accepted for post-graduate surgical training in service to a hospital.

Residency

"Barringer's fellow medical residents assigned her difficult 'on call' schedules and ward duties, and harassed her in other ways," according to the Web site of the National Medical Library. She wrote about the harassment in her autobiography, which "illustrates the value of support from mentors, family, friends, nursing staff, and the public." A woman doctor was a curiosity for the Lower East Side neighborhood where she worked, and New York City newspapers published feature articles about her. She married Benjamin Barringer, also a physician, the day after she finished her residency in 1904. The couple had two children, Benjamin Lang Barringer (1910-1992) and Velona Barringer Steever (1918-1989). During World War I, she served as vice-chair of the American Women's Hospitals War Service Committee of the National Medical Women's Association (later the

American Medical Women's Association The American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) is a professional advocacy and educational organization of women physicians and medical students. Founded in 1915 by Bertha Van Hoosen, the AMWA works to advance women in medicine and to serve as a v ...

) and led a campaign to raise money for ambulances to be sent to Europe.

Later career

After the war, Barringer took a post on the gynecological staff at New York Polyclinic Hospital. She was also an attending surgeon at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, specializing in the study of venereal disease. She also became an attending surgeon at Kingston Avenue Hospital in Brooklyn and later its director of gynecology. Barringer was an advocate of women's suffrage and worked to improve medical education for women, public health, and reforms for the treatment of imprisoned women. She was President of the American Medical Women's Association in 1942. As Co-chair of the association's War Service Committee, she organized the American Women's Hospital in Europe, which provided medical and surgical care during and after the war. 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 ...

, Barringer lobbied Congress to allow women doctors to serve as commissioned officers in the Army Medical Reserve Corps. Congress passed the Sparkman Act in 1943, which granted women the right to receive commissions in the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

, and Public Health Service. She later lived in Darien and

New Canaan New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census. About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bounde ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

. She was inducted into the

Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame The Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame (CWHF) recognizes women natives or residents of the U.S. state of Connecticut for their significant achievements or statewide contributions. The CWHF had its beginnings in 1993 when a group of volunteers partn ...

in 2000. Her autobiography, ''Bowery to Bellevue: The Story of New York's First Woman Ambulance Surgeon'', was made into a 1952 film, ''

The Girl in White ''The Girl in White'' is a 1952 American drama film directed by John Sturges and starring June Allyson, Arthur Kennedy and Mildred Dunnock. It is based on the memoirs of the pioneering female surgeon Emily Dunning Barringer. Plot Her pregnan ...

'', by MGM.

References

External links

Emily Dunning Barringer page at the National Library of Medicine Web site

Emily Dunning Barringer Inductee Profile at the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame

Detailed review of ''The Girl in White.'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Barringer, Emily 1876 births 1961 deaths People from Darien, Connecticut People from Scarsdale, New York 20th-century American physicians Weill Cornell Medical College alumni American women's rights activists Women surgeons 20th-century American women physicians 20th-century surgeons