Clara Marshall

Clara Marshall (May 8, 1847 – March 13, 1931) was an American physician, educator, and author. She was dean of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania from 1888 to 1917. Early life and education Clara Marshall was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the daughter of prominent Quakers Mary and Pennock Marshall. She initially worked as a schoolteacher, and at age 24 she enrolled in the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Her instructors included Rachel Bodley (chemistry), Ann Preston (physiology), Emeline Horton Cleveland (obstetrics), and Mary Scarlett-Dixon (anatomy). She graduated with a degree in medicine in 1875, and due to her exceptional skill was immediately made a demonstrator of materia medica and therapeutics. Some members of the college board disputed Marshall's appointment due to her lack of experience, but she was able to overcome their objections. To further her knowledge of the subject, she attended lectures at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1876, becoming the first woman to do so. After this she was made a professor of materia medica and therapeutics at the Woman's Medical College, a title she would retain until 1905. Career In 1882 Marshall was the first woman to join the faculty of Blockley Medical College, as a demonstrator in obstetrics. In her 1897 book The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania: An Historical Outline, she praised chairman John Huggard for offering her the opportunity, writing: "To this gentleman, more than to any other, belongs the honor of extending more fully to women the clinical advantages of this great hospital." In 1886 she became an attending physician at the Girls' Department of the Philadelphia House of Refuge.