Helen Walker McAndrew | |
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| Born | Helen Walker (1825-02-06)February 6, 1825 |
| Died | October 26, 1906(1906-10-26) (aged 81) |
| Alma mater | Trall Institute |
| Occupation | physician |
| Spouse | William McAndrew |
| Children | 2 (includingWilliam) |
Helen Walker McAndrew (6 February 1825 – 26 October 1906)[1] was aScottish-American doctor and the first documentedfemale physician inWashtenaw County, Michigan. According to some sources, she was also the first female physician in the U.S. state ofMichigan.
Helen Walker was born inKirkintilloch, Scotland, to Thomas Walker and Margaret Boyd. In 1849, she married William McAndrew inGlasgow. The couple emigrated from Scotland shortly after their marriage and arrived inYpsilanti, Michigan, by way ofNew York.[2] On June 24, 1852, McAndrew gave birth to their first-born son, Thomas.[2] On August 20, 1863, she gave birth to another son,William Jr.,[2] who later became a noted educator.[3]
In Ypsilanti, McAndrew practiced as a self-trained nurse. When her son was still an infant, she decided to pursue medicine. No medical school west of New York would admit female students, so she traveled toNew York City to attend theTrall Institute (New York Hydropathic and Physiological School), where she earned herM.D. in 1855.[4]
When McAndrew returned to Ypsilanti, she was ostracized by the public she had previously nursed. She turned to practicing medicine for the marginalized poor andAfrican Americans in her community. She was not accepted as a doctor by most members of her community until she saved the life of local State Senator Samuel Post's long-suffering wife, helping her where distinguished physicians fromAnn Arbor failed. As a proponent of thewater cure, she subsequently established a private practice with asanatorium in her home andmineral baths in the nearbyHuron River.
By numerous accounts, McAndrew was the first female licensed physician in the state of Michigan.[5][6]
McAndrew was a leader of the push to admit women into the department of medicine at theUniversity of Michigan, which succeeded in 1870. She, along with her husband, participated in theUnderground Railroad,[7]temperance societies and thesuffrage movement in Washtenaw County. She worked with several prominent leaders on the suffrage movement includingElizabeth Cady Stanton andSusan B. Anthony.
McAndrew was widowed after the death of her husband on October 22, 1895. She died eleven years later on October 26, 1906, inYpsilanti, Michigan.[8]
In 1931, McAndrew was posthumously named Ypsilanti's "Most Distinguished Business and Professional Woman." She was inducted into theMichigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.[9][10]
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