Physician / Suffragist / Educator
Born: 6 March 1858, Columbia, Pennsylvania
Died: 24 February 1938, Columbia, Pennsylvania
Lilian R. Welsh was born in Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to Thomas Welsh and Annie Eunice Young (of Wrightsville). Lilian was an American physician (quite rare for her time), educator, suffragist, and advocate for women’s health.
She graduated from Columbia High School in 1873, and two years later, graduated from Millersville State Normal School and even taught mathematics there for a time. After graduating from Millersville, she held the position of principal at Columbia High School for five years before entering the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1886. Lilian earned her Doctorate of Medicine three years later. She was initially interested in teaching physiological chemistry and attended the University of Zurich in preparation for that pursuit.
Lilian became a physician at Norristown State Hospital in 1890. A couple of years later, she joined her longtime friend, Mary Sherwood, in a private practice in Baltimore. They were most interested in “preventive medicine and the health of expectant mothers and babies.” Again, a very advanced goal for anyone at that time, especially for a female doctor. Considering the discrimination of the times, it’s not particularly surprising that they eventually had to close their practice. She said this in 1927:
“Most people still prefer men physicians to women in practically all lines. The women who have the largest general practice have settled, for the most part, in sections where live those who are not especially well off financially and where there are large foreign populations. In those communities which are popularly supposed to be inhabited by the more enlightened, the prejudice is all in favor of the masculine physician, no matter what may be the skill of the women.”
In 1894, Welsh joined the faculty at Woman’s College of Baltimore (later known as Goucher College), and served as the physician to students and professor of physiology. For several years, Lilian was the only female full professor. She associated with Goucher College for thirty years. In 1897, Welsh became the secretary of the Baltimore Association for the Promotion of the University Education of Women which advocated for women’s acceptance into the graduate school at Johns Hopkins University, which eventually occurred in 1908.
Lilian Welsh was an active member of the National American Women Suffrage Association, even helping to prepare for the 1906 convention. She collaborated Mary Garrett, her close friend Mary Sherwood, and Susan B. Anthony on the ‘College Evening’ event. She was also a member of the Arundel Club and the Arundel Good Government Club. It cannot be over-stressed the impact Lilian Welsh’s bold actions and dedication to purpose had in the future of women’s and children’s health in America.
After the passing of her dear friend, Mary Sherwood, in 1935, Dr. Lilian Welsh, M.D., LL.D. returned to Columbia, where she died three years later of encephalitis lethargica (‘sleeping sickness’). When Dr. Welsh died, the Goucher College board of trustees wrote a resolution commending “her outstanding service in the community both in her professional capacity and in her interest in the welfare of women and in her eagerness to secure for them the recognition of full opportunities and usefulness.” In 2017, Lilian was inducted into the Maryland’s Hall of Fame.
for a time, lilian worked closely with susan b. anthony to promote women for more professional roles.
lilian r. welsh, daughter of columbia’s brigadier general thomas welsh.
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