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Harriot Kezia Hunt was an early female physician.
Hunt was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1805, the daughter of Jacob Hunt and Kezia Wentworth Hunt. She and her sister, Sarah Hunt, studied medicine under Elizabeth Mott and Richard Dixon Mott. She was the first woman to apply to
Harvard Medical SchoolHarvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
, but was denied entrance in both 1847 and 1850. She worked practicing and as an advocate for the right for women to learn and practice medicine. Much of her career is described in her memoirs,
Glances and Glimpses; Or, Fifty Years' Social, Including Twenty Years' Professional Life (Boston: J.P. Jewett and Company, 1856).
She is buried in
Mount Auburn CemeteryMount Auburn Cemetery was founded in 1831 as "America's first garden cemetery", or the first "rural cemetery", with classical monuments set in a rolling landscaped terrain...
, near
BostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. Her grave marker includes a statue of the Greek goddess of health, Hygeia, carved by the African American sculptor,
Edmonia LewisMary Edmonia Lewis was the first African American and Native American woman to gain fame and recognition as a sculptor in the international fine arts world...
.
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