Emily Dunning Barringer was the world's first female ambulance surgeon and the first woman to secure a surgical residency.

Emily Dunning was born in Scarsdale

Scarsdale, New York

Scarsdale is a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the northern suburbs of New York City. The Town of Scarsdale is coextensive with the Village of Scarsdale, but the community has opted to operate solely with a village government, one of several villages...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 to Edwin James Dunning and Frances Gore Lang. The well-to-do New York family fell on hard times when she was 8 years old, and her father left for Europe to seek his fortune. When a well-meaning friend of Dunning's mother suggested that the girl might become a milliner's apprentice, her mother said "That settles the question. You are going to go to college." Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, a friend of the family, recommended Cornell University's

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 medical preparatory course, and her uncle, Henry Sage, a founder of Cornell, agreed to pay her tuition. Other family friends also helped with expenses. Emily Dunning graduated in 1897 and decided to attend the College of Medicine of the New York Infirmary. During her sophomore year there, the college merged with the new Cornell University School of Medicine.

She earned her medical degree in 1901, then received the second highest grade in the qualifying exam for an internship at Gouverneur Hospital in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The hospital denied her application. The next year she applied again, this time with the support from political and religious figures, and the hospital accepted her -- the first woman ever accepted for post-graduate surgical training in service to a hospital.

Residency

"Barringer's fellow medical residents assigned her difficult 'on call' schedules and ward duties, and harassed her in other ways," according to the Web site of the National Medical Library.. She wrote about the harassment in her autobiography, which "illustrates the value of support from mentors, family, friends, nursing staff, and the public." A woman doctor was a curiosity for the Lower East Side

Lower East Side

The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....

 neighborhood where she worked, and New York City newspapers published feature articles about her.

She married Benjamin Barringer, also a physician, the day after she finished her residency in 1904. The couple had two children, Benjamin Lang Barringer and Velona Barringer Steever.

During World War I she served as vice chair of the American Women's Hospitals War Service Committee of the National Medical Women's Association (later the American Medical Women's Association

American Medical Women's Association

The American Medical Women's Association is a professional advocacy and educational organization of women physicians and medical students. Founded in 1915 by Bertha VanHoosen, the AMWA works to advance women in medicine and to serve as a voice for women's health...

) and led a campaign to raise money for
ambulances to be sent to Europe.

Later career

After the war, Barringer took a post on the gynecological staff at New York Polyclinic Hospital. She was also an attending surgeon at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, specializing in the study of venereal disease.
She also became an attending surgeon at Kingston Avenue Hospital in Brooklyn and later its director of gynecology.

Barringer was an advocate of women's suffrage and worked to improve medical education for women, public health, and reforms for the treatment of imprisoned women. She was President of the American Medical Women's Association in 1942. As Co-chair of the association's War Service Committee, she organized the American Women's Hospital in Europe, which provided medical and surgical care during and after the war.

During World War II, Barringer lobbied Congress to allow women doctors to serve as commissioned officers in the Army Medical Reserve Corps. Congress passed the Sparkman Act in 1943, which granted women the right to receive commissions in the Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

, Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

, and Public Health Service.

She later lived in New Canaan

New Canaan, Connecticut

New Canaan is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, northeast of Stamford, on the Fivemile River. The population was 19,738 according to the 2010 census.The town is one of the most affluent communities in the United States...

, Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

. She was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.

Her autobiography, Bowery to Bellevue: The Story of New York's First Woman Ambulance Surgeon, was made into a 1950 film, The Girl in White

The Girl in White

The Girl in White is a 1952 anthology film directed by John Sturges....

, by MGM..

External links

• http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_23.html Emily Dunning Barringer page at the National Library of Medicine Web site
• http://www.cwhf.org/inductees/science-health/emily-dunning-barringer Emily Dunning Barringer Inductee Profile at the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame
• http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/notes/girl_in_white.html Detailed review of The Girl in White.