1871-1953

American Physician

Florence Sabin was born in Central City, Colorado, and, after earning her baccalaureate from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, went on to became the first woman to graduate from Johns Hopkins Medical School. Sabin is honored as one of the leading women scientists of her time.

While still in medical school, Sabin studied anatomy and helped transform the field of anatomy from a purely descriptive science to an academic discipline concerned with the relationships between form and function. Sabin's text, An Atlas of the Medulla and Mid-Brain (1901), became a classic.

In admitting Sabin, Johns Hopkins fulfilled a charter promise to admit and train both men and women in medicine. After graduation, Sabin performed her medical internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and subsequently accepted a postgraduate fellowship in the Department of Anatomy. Sabin started research on the embryological development of...