Petticoat surgeon, Pioneering the Upper Midwest 1820 - 1910

This is the autobiography of a distinguished Michigan native who helped to establish a place for women in medicine. Bertha Van Hoosen was born in 1863 to a Dutch Canadian father and a third-generation Michigan mother on a farm near the small town of Rochester. The first chapters of Petticoat Surgeon are full of insights into educational opportunities and farm life in late nineteenth-century Michigan. After college and medical school at the University of Michigan, Van Hoosen spent the early part of her career at the Women's Hospital in Detroit, the Kalamazoo State Hospital, and the New England Hospital for Women and Children, ultimately settling in Chicago to develop her practice in obstetrics and gynecology. Committed to teaching medicine and to delivering medical service to the poor, Van Hoosen taught anatomy and embryology at the Northwestern University Women's Medical School and worked at the Columbia Dispensary. She eventually became an eminent physician, serving as the Chief of Staff of the Women and Children's Hospital and as a member of Cook County Hospital's gynecological staff. She ran weekly surgical clinics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and served as Head and Professor of Obstetrics at Loyola University. The last few chapters of Petticoat Surgeon describe her encounters with physicians in Europe and Asia. Her autobiography also highlights many medical issues debated at the turn of the century: care for unwed mothers, anesthesia for childbirth, discrimination against female doctors, and sex education in the public schools. Van Hoosen was a strong advocate of sex education and worked with the Chicago Woman's Club to have it included in the city's public school curriculum.

Reprint of the 1947 ed. published by Pellegrini & Cudahy, Chicago.

Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site.