Susan Dimock
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Susan Dimock (April 24, 1847May 7, 1875) was a pioneer in American medicine who received her qualification as a doctor from the
University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
in 1871 and was subsequently appointed resident physician of the
New England Hospital for Women and Children The New England Hospital for Women and Children was founded by Marie Zakrzewska on July 1, 1862. The Hospitals goal was to provide patients with competent female physicians, educate women in the study of medicine and train nurses to care for the ...
in 1872. The hospital, now known as the
Dimock Community Health Center The New England Hospital for Women and Children was founded by Marie Zakrzewska on July 1, 1862. The Hospitals goal was to provide patients with competent female physicians, educate women in the study of medicine and train nurses to care for the ...
, was renamed in her honor after her death from drowning in 1875. Dimock was traveling to Europe for pleasure and profession when she died in the shipwreck of the
SS Schiller SS ''Schiller'' was a 3,421 ton German ocean liner, one of the largest vessels of her time. Launched in 1873, she plied her trade across the Atlantic Ocean, carrying passengers between New York and Hamburg for the German Transatlantic Steam Naviga ...
off the coast of the
Scilly Isles The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...
. She is also remembered for becoming the first woman member of the North Carolina Medical Society.


Childhood

Susan Dimock was born in
Washington, North Carolina Washington is a city in Beaufort County, North Carolina, United States, located on the northern bank of the Pamlico River. The population was 9,744 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Beaufort County. It is commonly known as "Original W ...
, the daughter of Henry Dimock and Mary Malvina Dimock (née Owens). The family descended from Thomas Dimock who emigrated from England to Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1637 and later resettled in
Barnstable, Massachusetts The Town of Barnstable ( ) is a town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod, and is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipalit ...
. Susan Dimock was a distant cousin of Ira Dimock (1827–1917), a silk manufacturer, and she was also related to Henry F. Dimock, a New York City attorney associated with the
Whitney family The Whitney family is an American family notable for their business enterprises, social prominence, wealth and philanthropy, founded by John Whitney (1592–1673), who came from London, England to Watertown, Massachusetts in 1635. The historic fa ...
business interests. Her father, who was a native of
Limington, Maine Limington is a town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,892 at the 2020 census. Limington is a tourist destination with historic architecture. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford, Maine metrop ...
, was appointed headmaster of Roxbury High School in 1831 although he was entirely self-educated. Later he moved to
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
where he taught school, studied law and was admitted to the bar, and served as editor of the ''North State Whig''. His wife Mary was also a schoolteacher and supplemented their income by managing a hotel.''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography'', Vol. XIX, p. 30. New York: James T. White & Company, 1926. After her father died in 1863, Susan Dimock was home-schooled by her mother. At the close of the Civil War she moved with her mother to
Sterling, Massachusetts Sterling is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, USA. The population was 7,985 at the 2020 census. History Sterling was first settled by Europeans in 1720 and was officially incorporated in 1781. Previous to its incorporation it was " ...
, where she attended a girls' school and undertook an ambitious reading of every medical textbook she could borrow. In the fall of 1865 she taught school at
Hopkinton, Massachusetts Hopkinton is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, west of Boston. The town is best known as the starting point of the Boston Marathon, held annually on Patriots' Day each April, and as the headquarters for the Dell EMC corp ...
. On January 10, 1866, she entered the
New England Hospital for Women and Children The New England Hospital for Women and Children was founded by Marie Zakrzewska on July 1, 1862. The Hospitals goal was to provide patients with competent female physicians, educate women in the study of medicine and train nurses to care for the ...
where she began to learn medicine by close observation in the wards and dispensary. Dimock was also permitted to attend clinical rounds at Massachusetts General Hospital as well as those of the Eye and Ear Infirmary.


Professional life

When her application to enroll at
Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...
was rejected, Dimock turned to the medical schools of Europe and was admitted to the University of Zurich in Switzerland in 1868. She graduated with high honors in 1871 and her thesis was published that year in Zurich. The last years of her studies she lived in the family of her friend, Marie Heim-Vögtlin, also a physician, where she felt very happy. Despite her somewhat dire financial situation she decided to go to
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
together with fellow Zurich medical graduate Marie Bokowa for a few months, where among others she met
Auguste Forel Auguste-Henri Forel (1 September 1848 – 27 July 1931) was a Swiss myrmecologist, neuroanatomist, psychiatrist and eugenicist, notable for his investigations into the structure of the human brain and that of ants. For example, he is considere ...
and C. E. Hoestermann. The four of them called themselves the "Wiener Quartett" (Vienna quartet) and planned on meeting again in July 1875 in Zurich. After her clinical studies in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
and
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, she returned to the United States. As the all-male North Carolina Medical Society would only grant her honorary membership, Dimock rejoined the New England Hospital for Women and Children, where she was appointed resident physician on August 20, 1872. She greatly improved and increased the service of the hospital, in the course of which she opened the first graded school of nursing in the United States on September 1, 1872. She worked as a surgeon, developed a private practice in obstetrics and gynecology and performed a number of important surgical operations, a number of which were mentioned in the medical journals of the day.


Death and legacy

Dimock had long wanted to visit Europe once more; when the opportunity to do so came about in May 1875, Dimock and two of her closest friends—Caroline Crane and Elizabeth "Bessie" Greene (daughter of reformer William Batchelder Greene)--boarded the iron steamship
SS Schiller SS ''Schiller'' was a 3,421 ton German ocean liner, one of the largest vessels of her time. Launched in 1873, she plied her trade across the Atlantic Ocean, carrying passengers between New York and Hamburg for the German Transatlantic Steam Naviga ...
, bound from New York to Plymouth and
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
. On 7 May 1875, Dimock, Greene, and Crane were among the 336 people who lost their lives when the hit the Retarrier Ledges off the Isles of Scilly near the Bishop Rock lighthouse in heavy fog. Dimock was 28 years old. Her gravestone at
Forest Hills Cemetery Forest Hills Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery, greenspace, arboretum and sculpture garden located in the Forest Hills section of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery was established in 1848 as a public ...
,
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
reads: "Susan Dimock. Surgeon and physician to the New England Hospital for Women and Children. Lost in the steamer Schiller on the Scilly rocks. May 8 , 1875". "At the time of her death, her loss was considered irreparable as there were few, if any, among her sex endowed with the skill and qualified by the requisite training to take her place." - ''The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography'', XIX:30 (1926) In 1939, the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development erected a historic marker in her honour. In 1996, the original
marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
gravestone was moved from Boston to St. Peter's Episcopal Church cemetery in
Washington, North Carolina Washington is a city in Beaufort County, North Carolina, United States, located on the northern bank of the Pamlico River. The population was 9,744 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Beaufort County. It is commonly known as "Original W ...
because a group in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
decided to replace it with a granite replica. The New England Hospital for Women and Children, where Susan Dimock trained and worked, now bears her name as The Dimock Center, a multi-service agency including Dimock Community Health Center, behavioral health residential programs, and child and family services.


See also

*
Sophia Jex-Blake Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake (21 January 1840 – 7 January 1912) was an English physician, teacher and feminist. She led the campaign to secure women access to a University education when she and six other women, collectively known as the Edi ...
*
Elizabeth Blackwell Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 182131 May 1910) was a British physician, notable as the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman on the Medical Register of the General Medical Council for the United Ki ...
*
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (9 June 1836 – 17 December 1917) was an English physician and suffragist. She was the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon. She was the co-founder of the first hospital staffed by women, ...
* Linda Richards, America's first trained nurse, trained by Dimock at
New England Hospital for Women and Children The New England Hospital for Women and Children was founded by Marie Zakrzewska on July 1, 1862. The Hospitals goal was to provide patients with competent female physicians, educate women in the study of medicine and train nurses to care for the ...


References


External links


Gravestone of Dr. Susan Dimock

Mass Moments - Dr Susan Dimock begins residency, August 20th 1872




* [http://archives.hsl.unc.edu/NYAMTheses/DimmockZurich1871.pdf ''Ueber die verschiedenen formen des puerperalfiebers : Nach Beobachtungen in der Züricher Gebäranstalt''. Thesis (Dr. med.)--Universität Zürich, 1871.]
Harvard University. Corporation. Committee on Admitting Women to the Medical School. Report 1867. Mar 23. HUA. Call no HUG 4823.72

''Transactions of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Medical Society of the State of North Carolina, held at New Bern, N.C., May 1872'', pp. 10-12


/nowiki>, 1875.] * ttp://www.letempsarchives.ch/page/GDL_1875_08_18/1 ''Une victime du naufrage du SCHILLER''. Auguste Forel, Gazette de Lausanne, Aug 18 1875, pp. 1-2 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dimock, Susan 1847 births 1875 deaths University of Zurich alumni American gynecologists American expatriates in Switzerland Women gynaecologists People from Washington, North Carolina Deaths due to shipwreck at sea Physicians from North Carolina 19th-century American women physicians 19th-century American physicians