This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Surgery, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic

Ira M. Rutkow, MD, MPH, DrPH

Arch Surg. 2000;135:489.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

BORN IN OSWEGO TOWN, NY, in 1832, Mary Walker is one of America's more eccentric and intriguing medical personalities. Long determined to become a physician, in an era when medicine was not a generally approved calling for women, she entered Syracuse Medical College, Syracuse, NY, and after a little more than 12 months of study was awarded an MD degree (1855). Walker soon married a former medical school classmate, Albert E. Miller, and moved to Rome, NY, where she and her husband practiced together. A life-long nonconformist, Walker wore trousers and a dress-coat at the wedding, insisted on the omission of the usual promise to honor and obey, and went by her maiden name.

Mary Walker was honored by the US Postal Service in 1982. This is the only American commemorative stamp ever issued with the word "surgeon" on it.

By all accounts the . . . [Full Text of this Article]