Women and Children First: The Remarkable Life of Dr. Susan Dimock

In an age when women were expected to remain in the “domestic sphere,” and when both higher education and professional careers were considered too “manly” for females to pursue, Susan Dimock proved a delightful exception to the rule. Born in the slave-holding South, she moved to Massachusetts in the wake of the Civil War, excelled at scientific study, and was taken in as a student by the staff of the New England Hospital for Women and Children. With the aid of the hospital’s founder, Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, Susan went on to become a healthcare pioneer—earning her medical degree in Zurich, becoming one of Boston’s preeminent surgeons, and developing the first professional nursing school in the nation at NEHWC.
Join author and photographer Susan Wilson for a fascinating look into Susan Dimock’s remarkable, but tragically short, life and into the institution that bears her name to this day: the Dimock Center in Roxbury.
Susan Wilson is author of a multiple books on Boston history, including Garden of Memories: A Guide to Historic Forest Hills, Boston Sites and Insights, The Literary Trail of Greater Boston, and Heaven, By Hotel Standards: The History of the Omni Parker House.
This event is co-sponsored by the Jamaica Plain Historial Society and the Boston Women's Heritage Trail and is hosted by the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club.