March 12, 2025

Alumni and guests gathered to celebrate Founders’ Day at the Queen Lane campus on March 11, kicking off the 175th anniversary celebration of the establishment of one of the College of Medicine’s predecessor institutions.

The occasion included a luncheon, a presentation by the Legacy Center Archives and Special Collections, and a talk by author Janis Daly, whose work highlights pioneering female physicians and is inspired by her own genealogical link to Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (WMCP).

WMCP was founded as the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1850. It was the first medical school in the world for women authorized to award a medical degree, or MD. As a legacy institution of Drexel University College of Medicine, WMCP is proudly recognized for contributing to Philadelphia as a pioneering center for medicine and as a leader in women’s higher education.

“From the beginning in 1850 to now, the school was one of opportunity for those who could only dream about being doctors,” says Barbara Schindler, MD, WMC ’70, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, medical director of The Caring Together Program, and vice dean emerita of educational and academic affairs at the College of Medicine. “The founders and early matriculants also clearly demonstrated that important ideas need to be followed up on and obstacles can be overcome with perseverance and creativity.”

WMCP grew out of reformist ideas, which were prevalent in the U.S. during the 1840s and ’50s. This included the belief that women had a right to education and should have the opportunity to become physicians. In 1850, progressive male physicians and laymen in the area, mostly Quakers, founded the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Notable founders included William J. Mullen, Dr. Joseph S. Longshore and Dr. Bartholomew Fussell, who were activists for abolition, prison reform and temperance. The College's first building was located at 627 Arch Street in Philadelphia.

During the Founders’ Day event, the College of Medicine’s Walter H. and Leonore Annenberg Dean and Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs Charles B. Cairns, MD, accompanied by a group of alumni and medical students, visited Laurel Hill Cemetery in the East Falls section of Philadelphia to lay wreaths on the grave sites of William J. Mullen and Daly’s ancestor William S. Peirce, Esq.

Mullen served as the first president of the Board of Corporators of Woman's Medical College and was a wealthy manufacturer turned philanthropist. He was best known for advocating for prison reform and for establishing the House of Industry in Philadelphia, a center that assisted immigrants and people experiencing homelessness.

WMCP trained thousands of women physicians who practiced all over the world, some as medical missionaries. It provided opportunities for women to teach, practice, conduct research and manage a medical school. WMCP was the longest-lasting women-only medical college in the U.S. — it became coeducational in 1970, admitting four men into the renamed Medical College of Pennsylvania.

 

According to Dean Cairns, Founders’ Day in its 175th year represents “an historic milestone that honors the vision of those who came before us and the generations of physicians who have shaped the future of our College and indeed, all of medicine, through their dedication, resilience and innovation.”