Withington, Alfreda (1860–1951)

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Withington, Alfreda (1860–1951)

American physician. Born Alfreda Bosworth Withington, Aug 15, 1860, in Germantown, PA; died Oct 1, 1951, in Pittsfield, MA; dau. of Alfreda (Bosworth) Withington and James Harvey Withington; Cornell University, BA, 1881; graduate of Woman's Medical College of the New York Infirmary, 1887.

Pioneering physician who was the 1st woman student admitted to K. K. Allgemeines Krankenhaus teaching hospital in Vienna, Austria, and the 1st woman to perform an autopsy; became the 1st woman resident physician at Czech National Obstetrical Hospital (c. 1889); opened a medical and surgical practice in Pittsfield, MA (1891); played an important role in the creation of a Tuberculosis Society (c. 1907); during WWI, as a chief physician of American Red Cross, traveled to work at the Franco-American Dispensary in Dreux, France (1917); worked and wrote of her experience as a physician in rural (KY) mountains.

See also autobiography Mine Eyes Have Seen: A Woman Doctor's Saga (1941).