1869-1970

American Pathologist and Industrial Toxicologist

Alice Hamilton was a social crusader who fought for safe conditions in industry and for workers' compensation laws. She laid the foundation for the new field of industrial medicine and became the first female professor at Harvard Medical School.

Born on February 27, 1869, in New York City, Hamilton was second in the family of five born to Montgomery Hamilton, a wholesale grocer, and Gertrude Hamilton. In this very privileged family the children were encouraged to develop their minds and were taught at home and in private schools. Her sister, Edith Hamilton, became a well-known scholar of myth and culture in ancient Greece.

Alice became very interested in medicine and first attended a small, uncertified school before transferring to the University of Michigan, where she received a M.D. degree in 1893. After interning in Minneapolis and Boston, she decided that research in...