First - African American Woman to Receive a Medical Degree (Home of) - Boston, MA - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com

In Boston's West End District, is this plaque at 67 Joy Street about Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African-American woman to receive a medical degree.

The plaque is on the face of a white and gray brick building along Joy Street. It is on the east side, on the slope of Beacon Hill, down hill of Smith Court.

The bronze plaque has the following text:

"Rebecca Lee Crumpler
1831-1895
First African American woman to earn a medical degree, 1864, from the New England Female Medical College. She lived at 67 Joy Street in 1869."

Rebecca Lee (later Crumpler) was born in 1833 and raised by her grandmother in Pennsylvania. In the 1850s she moved to Boston and worked as a nurse. She attended the New England Female Medical College and graduated in 1864 with a Doctress of Medicine degree. After receiving her degree, she went to Virginia to care for newly freed slaves (after the ending of the U.S. Civil War), who rarely ever received medical care. In 1869, she returned to Boston and, at this address, established a physician's office here. Later she moved to Hyde Park, MA and retired, but wrote a two volume book, A Medical Discourse. She was one of the first African-Americans to publish a medical work.

FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group Date of FIRST: 01/01/1864 More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.