Sarah Ann Hackett Stevenson

Born this day in 1841: Sarah Ann Hackett Stevenson (1841–1909), first woman admitted to the American Medical Association

Stevenson, a native of Illinois, was educated at the Mount Carroll Seminary and the State Normal University of Illinois. After graduating in 1863 she taught school for a few years and also served as a principal.

She then began studying at the Woman’s Hospital and Medical College of Chicago, earning an M.D. in 1874. After graduating she entered private practice in Chicago. In 1876 the Illinois State Medical Society elected her as a delegate to the American Medical Association convention in Philadelphia, and for the first time AMA seated a woman delegate.

That was the first of several firsts Stevenson accomplished during her career: she was the first woman on the staff of Chicago’s Cook County Hospital (1881) and the first woman appointed to the Illinois State Board of Health (1893).

In addition to practicing medicine, she was a professor at the Woman’s Hospital and Medical College (1875–1894) and helped found a training school for nurses. She wrote a high school textbook, Boys and Girls in Biology (1875), and a popular work called The Physiology of Woman (1880).

She adhered to the values of the New Woman and was also active in Chicago’s women’s clubs. She once championed the admission of an African American member and was known widely as a humanitarian.

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Alice Putnam

Born this day in 1841: Alice Putnam (1841–1919), kindergarten pioneer who brought kindergarten to Chicago public schools

Alice Putnam was born Alice Whiting in Chicago. She was educated at home by her mother and at Dearborn Seminary. In 1868 she married Joseph Putnam, and the couple had four children.

Putnam’s desire to educate her young children drew her to the kindergarten movement. In 1874 she formed a parents group at her home, and together with about a dozen women and men studied the theories and techniques of German educator Friedrich Froebel. She then completed formal training and began running a kindergarten class from her home.

Her parents group evolved into the Chicago Froebel Association in 1880. By that time, interest in kindergarten had been growing. Between 1880 and 1910, Putnam supervised a kindergarten training school sponsored by the association. At the invitation of Jane Addams, some of this training was offered at Hull House. In addition to teaching kindergarten classes and training kindergarten teachers, she wrote articles and lectured about incorporating education into the lives of young children.

Putnam was instrumental in the establishment of public kindergartens in Chicago. In 1886 the Froebel Association talked the Chicago school board into allowing it to run 10 private kindergartens in public school settings. The experiment was a success, and the school board needed no further convincing to include kindergarten as part of the public school program at both the city and county level.

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