Morton, Rosalie Slaughter (1876–1968)
Morton, Rosalie Slaughter (1876–1968)
American physician. Born Rosalie Slaughter, Oct 28, 1876, in Lynchburg, VA; died May 5, 1968, in Winter Park, FL; dau. of Mary Haines (Harker) Slaughter and John Flavel Slaughter (lawyer and banker); graduate of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1897; m. George B. Morton Jr. (attorney), Sept 5, 1905.
The 1st woman faculty member at 2 medical schools (New York Polyclinic Hospital and Post-Graduate Medical School, 1912–18, and Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1916–18), supported the women physicians' involvement during WWI; conducted postgraduate studies in Europe (from 1899) and India (6 months studying the bubonic plague); established a Washington, DC, private practice (1902); after marriage (1905), moved to and practiced in NYC; established the Social Service Department of the New York Polyclinic Hospital and Post-Graduate Medical School (1917); named a special American Red Cross commissioner for the Serbian army (WWI, 1916); appointed chair of the War Service Committee (later became the American Women's Hospital Service) to provide care in war-torn nations (1917); moved to Winter Park, FL (1930), where she practiced; lectured in Europe, Africa and Australia; invented a surgical shoe, a treatment lamp and adjustable bed-lifting blocks.
See also autobiography, A Woman Surgeon (1937).