48 Facts About Alice Hamilton

Alice Hamilton was an American physician, research scientist, and author.

Alice Hamilton was a leading expert in the field of occupational health, laid the foundation for health and safety protections, and a pioneer in the field of industrial toxicology.

Alice Hamilton became a professor of pathology at the Woman's Medical School of Northwestern University in 1897.

Alice Hamilton received numerous honors and awards, including the Albert Lasker Public Service Award.

Alice Hamilton's work led to improvements in safety and regulation, and is sometimes credited with leading to the founding of the United States' Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Alice Hamilton spent a sheltered childhood among an extended family in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where her grandfather, Allen Hamilton, an Irish immigrant, had settled in 1823.

Alice Hamilton married Emerine Holman, the daughter of Indiana Supreme Court Justice Jesse Lynch Holman, in 1828 and became a successful Fort Wayne businessman and a land speculator.

The Alice Hamilton family spent many summers at Mackinac Island, Michigan.

Alice Hamilton studied in Germany, where he met Gertrude Pond, the daughter of a wealthy sugar importer.

Alice Hamilton's father became a partner in a wholesale grocery business in Fort Wayne, but the partnership dissolved in 1885 and he withdrew from public life.

Alice Hamilton was the second eldest of five siblings that included three sisters and a brother, all of whom were accomplished in their respective fields.

Arthur, the youngest Alice Hamilton sibling, became a writer, professor of Spanish, and assistant dean for foreign students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Arthur was the only sibling to marry; he and his wife, Mary Alice Hamilton, had no children.

Alice Hamilton earned a medical degree from the university in 1893.

Alice Hamilton had already decided that she was not interested in establishing a medical practice and returned to the University of Michigan in February 1895 to study bacteriology as a resident graduate and lab assistant of Frederick George Novy.

Alice Hamilton began to develop an interest in public health.

Alice Hamilton planned to study bacteriology and pathology at the advice of her professors at Michigan, while Edith intended to study the classics and attend lectures.

The Alice Hamilton sisters faced some opposition to their efforts to study abroad.

Alice Hamilton had the opportunity to learn from William H Welch and William Osler.

In 1897 Alice Hamilton accepted an offer to become a professor of pathology at the Woman's Medical School of Northwestern University.

Alice Hamilton directed the men's fencing and athletic clubs, operated a well-baby clinic, and visited the sick in their homes.

The experience caused Alice Hamilton to begin considering how to merge her interests in medical science and social reform to improve the health of American workers.

Alice Hamilton investigated a typhoid epidemic in Chicago before focusing her research on the investigation of industrial diseases.

In 1907 Alice Hamilton began exploring existing literature from abroad and noticed that industrial medicine was not being studied as much in America.

Alice Hamilton set out to change the situation and published her first article on the topic in 1908.

Alice Hamilton led the commission's investigations, which focused on industrial poisons such as lead and other toxins.

Alice Hamilton authored the "Illinois Survey," the commission's report that documented its findings of industrial processes that exposed workers to lead poisoning and other illnesses.

Alice Hamilton discovered over seventy industrial processes through which workers became exposed to lead poisoning.

Alice Hamilton focused her explorations on occupational toxic disorders, examining the effects of substances such as aniline dyes, carbon monoxide, mercury, tetraethyl lead, radium, benzene, carbon disulfide and hydrogen sulfide gases.

Alice Hamilton created the specialized field of industrial medicine in the United States.

Alice Hamilton's findings were scientifically persuasive and influenced sweeping health reforms that changed laws and general practice to improve the health of workers.

Alice Hamilton led a team that included George Minot, a professor at Harvard Medical School.

Alice Hamilton deduced that the workers were being sickened through contact with the explosive trinitrotoluene.

Alice Hamilton recommended that workers wear protective clothing to be removed and washed at the end of each shift, solving the problem.

Alice Hamilton traveled with Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch to the 1915 International Congress of Women in The Hague, where they met Aletta Jacobs, a Dutch pacifist, feminist, and suffragist.

Alice Hamilton returned to Europe with Addams in May 1919 to attend the second International Congress of Women at Zurich, Switzerland.

In January 1919, Alice Hamilton accepted a position as assistant professor in a newly formed Department of Industrial Medicine at Harvard Medical School, making her the first woman appointed to the Harvard University faculty in any field.

Alice Hamilton was excluded from social activities, could not enter the Harvard Union, attend the Faculty Club, or receive a quota of football tickets.

Alice Hamilton became a successful fundraiser for Harvard as she continued to write and conduct research on the dangerous trades.

At a tetraethyl lead conference in Washington, DC in 1925, Alice Hamilton was a prominent critic of adding tetraethyl lead to gasoline.

Alice Hamilton visited the Soviet Union in 1924 and Nazi Germany in April 1933.

Alice Hamilton wrote "The Youth Who Are Hitler's Strength," which was published in The New York Times.

Alice Hamilton criticized the Nazi education, especially its domestic training for girls.

Alice Hamilton spent her retirement years in Hadlyme, Connecticut, at the home she had purchased in 1916 with her sister, Margaret.

Alice Hamilton's autobiography, Exploring the Dangerous Trades, was published in 1943.

Alice Hamilton enjoyed leisure activities such as reading, sketching, and writing, as well as spending time among her family and friends.

Alice Hamilton died of a stroke at her home in Hadlyme, Connecticut, on September 22,1970, at the age of 101.

Alice Hamilton was a tireless researcher and crusader against the use of toxic substances in the workplace.