County of Brant Public Library Digital Collections

Mount Pleasant Women's Institute at Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen Plaque, 1962

Description

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

This photograph shows a number of members of the Mount Pleasant Women's Institute standing by the memorial plaque for Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen in June 1962, possibly at the time it was unveiled. Stowe Gullen was an early feminist who was key to Canada's suffrage movement, and Canada's first licensed female doctor. She was the daughter of Emily Stowe, the first female doctor to practise in Canada.

The women in this photograph are: Miss Margaret Smyth (historian); Mrs. Athel Murray (treasurer); Mrs. Fletcher Helson (1st vice); Mrs. J.L. Goold (president); Mrs. Cecil James (2nd vice); Mrs. Cecil Longstreet (secretary).

Inscriptions

The plaque reads:

DR. AUGUSTA STOWE GULLEN
1857-1943

Canada's first woman graduate in medicine was born in Mount Pleasant. She attended the Toronto School of Medicine, received her degree from Victoria University in 1883, and was licensed to practise. Her mother, Dr. Emily Howard Stowe, had graduated in New York State in 1868, and after a prolonged struggle for recognition had been licensed to practise medicine in 1880, thus becoming Canada's first woman doctor. Both were ardent feminists, and devoted themselves to the advancement of women in education and public life. Dr. Emily Stowe organized the Canadian movement for female suffrage, and under her daughter's leadership women in Ontario received the franchise in 1917.

Erected by the Ontario Archaeological and Historic Sites Board.

Date of Publication