Like Dr. Elda Anderson, Dr. Emily Dunning Barringer (1876–1961) was a woman of science who would prove to have a major impact on World War II (1939–45). Barringer attended Cornell University and Women's Medical School in New York City, graduating in 1901. She ultimately received an appointment to the staff of New York's Gouverneur Hospital to complete her internship and residency (on-the-job training required to complete one's medical education). The public announcement made headline news as she was the first woman in America to be given such an opportunity.

Barringer's initial application to the hospital had been refused because she was a woman. Acceptable employment for women outside of the home at the end of the nineteenth century included teaching, dressmaking, and even nursing, but in the world of medicine, female physicians were struggling to establish their place. The general municipal hospitals of New York City and...