Taylor

On Feb. 21, 1866, Lucy Hobbs Taylor received a degree from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati - becoming the first woman in the world to graduate from dental school. Taylor was born in upstate New York in 1833 and taught school in Michigan for 10 years before deciding to study medicine. She applied to the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati, which was the only medical school in the country to admit women. But when she arrived, she discovered that the school had changed its policy and denied her entrance. However, a sympathetic professor tutored her in dentistry, and she proved a gifted dentist. Taylor was refused admission to the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in 1859, but in 1861 she opened an office in Cincinnati anyway. (In those days, neither a degree nor a license was required to be a dentist.) She later moved to Iowa, where she was admitted to the Iowa State Dental Society. In 1865, the Ohio College of Dental Surgery finally accepted her application, and Taylor returned to Cincinnati. She received a doctor of dental surgery degree in 1866. Taylor went on to practice in Chicago and Lawrence, Kan.

Rebecca Goodman

Ohio Moments will appear here daily during 2003. Have a suggestion? Contact Rebecca Goodman at rgoodman@enquirer.com or (513) 768-8361.