In 1891, graduates from the Women’s Medical College in Baltimore founded the Evening Dispensary for Working Women and Girls to provide out-patient medical care and advice to women. Establishing an evening clinic was important because many working women could not leave during the daytime to go to a doctor’s appointment, and many women just disliked having a male physician.
The Dispensary also provided an opportunity for female medical students to gain practical experience. But the Dispensary was not just for providing medical care. It also provided a clean milk distribution service for sick babies, social services for families, a visiting nurse program and public baths.
The women who founded the Evening Dispensary were mainly graduates of the Women’s Medical College, both here in Baltimore and in Philadelphia. Many of them were also among the Faculty’s earliest female members. Dr. Lillian Welsh and Dr. Mary Sherwood, both on the faculty of Goucher College, were two of the most well-known members.
Contemporary accounts note that these early physicians were friends with the Suffragettes and were proponents of women on bicycles.