Alice Hamilton (February 27, 1869–September 22, 1970) was the first U.S. physician to devote herself to research in industrial medicine. Born into a prominent family in Indiana (her sister was the well-known classicist Edith Hamilton), Alice graduated from medical school at the University of Michigan in 1893. After accepting a teaching position at the Women’s Medical School of Northwestern University in 1897, she moved into Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago. There she opened a well-baby clinic for poor families in the local settlement house neighborhood. As she acquainted herself with the families in the neighborhood, she learned of their pains, strange deaths, lead palsy, and "wrist drop," and of the high numbers of widows. Encouraged by the reformers of Hull House, she began to apply her medical knowledge to these problems.
Dr. Hamilton realized that little was written or understood about occupational illnesses in the United States. In 1908, she published her first article about occupational diseases in this country and was soon a recognized expert on the topic. Starting in 1910, initially under the aegis of a commission of the State of Illinois, and later the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, she explored occupational disorders and their social consequences. Relying primarily on "shoe leather epidemiology" and the emerging laboratory science of toxicology, she pioneered occupational epidemiology and industrial hygiene in the United States. Her findings were so scientifically persuasive that they caused sweeping reforms, both voluntary and regulatory, to improve the health of workers. Continue reading from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Alice Hamilton received a degree in medicine from the University of Michigan in 1893 and combined laboratory research and field-work to affect social change. Hamilton was a pioneer in industrial toxicology, the first female faculty member at Harvard University, and the founder of the field of occupational health. Continue Reading from Hull House Museum
The Nation’s Leading Expert on Industrial Diseases (Connecticut History)
Alice Hamilton (CT Women's Hall of Fame)
Dr. Alice Hamilton (U.S. National Parks Service)
Scientific Biographies: Alice Hamilton (Science History Institute)
First Female Faculty Member at Harvard (Harvard University)
Alice Hamilton and the Birth of Occupational Medicine (Stuff You Missed in History Class)
