Washington, N.C., native Susan Dimock became the first woman member of the North Carolina Medical Society in 1872. When she died three years later at the age of 28, she already was a well-respected surgeon, author and medical educator. She merited an obituary in "The New York Times" and pallbearers drawn from the luminaries of Harvard Medical School. 

Dimock was a Southerner who moved to Massachusetts in the middle of the Civil War, an American student in a Swiss medical school and a woman surgeon in orthodox male medicine. An exploration of Dimock's life sheds light on women's education in antebellum North Carolina, the entry of women into medicine and the rise of nursing education, public health and anti-sepsis.

Lecturer: Elizabeth Barthold Dreesen, clinical assistant professor of surgery, UNC

All lectures are free and open to the public. No pre-registration is available and the limited seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. For the most up-to-date information about the fall 2009 Hutchins lectures, please visit the Center’s Web site at www.uncsouth.org.

For more information, to be added to our mailing list or to register by phone, contact Ann-Louise Aguiar '76 at (919) 962-3574 or ccll@unc.edu.