November 9 - Florence Sabin
November 9, 2024
“I hope my studies may be an encouragement to other women, especially to young women, to devote their lives to the larger interests of the mind. It matters little whether men or women have the more brains; all we women need to do to exert our proper influence is just to use all the brains we have.” — Florence Sabin, accepting the Pictorial Review achievement award in 1929.
Florence Rena Sabin was a pioneer for women in sciences. She was born in Colorado Territory back on November 9, 1871 (hence why I have picked a photograph of mine from Colorado for today). She passed away at age 81 in Denver on October 3, 1953. She was the first woman to hold several titles and awards, including being the first woman to have a full professorship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the first woman at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research to head one of their departments.
Not only was she a fantastic medical scientist, but she also was a public health activist in Colorado. She received the Albert Lasker Public Service Award for activism in 1951. In 1893, she received her Bachelor’s from Smith College. Then, she enrolled in 1896 at John Hopkins University School of Medicine (she followed in her father’s dream) as one of fourteen women in that year’s class. Did you know that because of a donor’s demand, John Hopkins required that female students be accepted? Thank you from every woman to that donor.
Sabin graduated in 1900. Afterward, she interned with Sir William Osler and won a research fellowship at the Dept. of Anatomy. John Hopkins created a fellowship after that for her.
She began teaching there in 1902, then was promoted to Assoc. Professor by 1905, and finally, in June 1917, she became the first woman to be promoted to a full professorship at a medical college as a Professor of embryology and histology.
Her primary research focused on the origins of blood, blood vessels, blood cells, pathology & immunology of TB, and brain histology. Her work on the origins of blood vessels helped her become the President of the American Association of Anatomists.
She left John Hopkins in 1925 when she wanted to pursue research full-time. She became head of the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research in NYC at their Dept. of Cellular Studies in 1925. Her research focused on TB, blood vessels & cells, and the lymphatic system. That year, she also was voted into the National Academy of Sciences. She was the first woman in this organization and was the lone woman there for the next 20 years. In 1926, she became part of the National Tuberculosis Association’s research committee.
She moved back to Colorado when she retired in 1938. In Colorado, she was pulled out of retirement when she accepted to be the head of a subcommittee on health by Colorado Governor John Vivian’s request in 1944. There is a set of laws in her name from her work there: ”Sabin Health Laws.” In addition, she donated her salary over the next three years to medical research.
Other Awards & Honors: The Statue of Sabin was donated by the state of Colorado to the National Statuary Hall Collection in 1959. 1973: Inducted into National Women’s Hall of Fame; 2005: one of the four colleges at John Hopkins is named after her.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_R._Sabin & https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/rr/feature/biographical-overview
Photo: “Rocky Mountain Panorama” - On a windy day back in September 2017, I drove through Rocky Mountain National Park and saw this beautiful sight. I do not know this park well, so if anyone is from there, please let me know if you recognize any of the mountains and their names! Thanks! Clovis Culture, Tséstho’e (Cheyenne), hinono’eino’ biito’owu’ (Arapaho), & Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) Ancestral Homeland. Nikon D7100 and my Nikon 16-85 lens.