Philadelphia’s 2026 “52 Weeks of Firsts” program presents weekly public events celebrating inventions, institutions, and cultural developments that began in the city. The series is organized by the Philadelphia Historic District 250th Committee for the Semiquincentennial celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary.
Each Saturday gathering is free and includes storytelling, exhibits, performances, giveaways, and activities designed for children and adults. Organizers report that attendance at the events has ranged between roughly 200 and 300 visitors each Saturday morning.
One event in March centers on a medical institution founded in Philadelphia that opened new paths for women in the profession. A Firstival scheduled for March 14, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., will take place at Drexel University’s Health Sciences Building, 60 N. 36th St. The program focuses on the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first medical school in the world to grant M.D. degrees to women. The college was founded in 1850 as the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, seventy-four years after the United States was founded.
More than a century and a half later, following institutional changes and mergers, the school’s legacy became part of Drexel University in 2002. Its history now continues through three Drexel academic units:
- College of Medicine
- College of Nursing and Health Professions
- Dana and David Dornsife School of Public Health
Because of that lineage, Drexel has provided opportunities for women to earn medical degrees longer than any other university in the world. Charles Cairns, dean of Drexel University College of Medicine and a senior vice president at the university, explained that before the college was founded, women had little opportunity to participate in professional medicine and were excluded from the field.
Origins Of The College
The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania was established by Quaker reformers who were active in social justice causes during the nineteenth century.
Key figures in its founding included:
- Bartholomew Fussell, MD (1794–1871), a founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society
- William J. Mullen (1805–1882), a jeweler trained in dentistry who became the institution’s first president
- Joseph S. Longshore, MD (1809–1879), a graduate of the first medical school in America who served as secretary and one of six male founding faculty members
The college’s original home was a building at 627 Arch St., Philadelphia, which no longer exists.
When the institution opened, women had only recently begun entering higher education. Several developments preceded the founding of the college:
- 1840, Catherine Brewer became the first woman to receive a bachelor’s degree in the United States, graduating from Wesleyan College
- 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree, graduating from Geneva Medical School
- 1848, the New England Female Medical College opened to train women in medicine but did not begin granting medical degrees until after WMCP had already started awarding them
Margaret Graham, director of the Legacy Center Archives & Special Collections at Drexel’s College of Medicine, explained that the history of women entering medicine connects with ideas tied to the nation’s founding, including liberty, equality, and justice.
The First Graduating Physicians
The college’s inaugural graduating class completed its studies in 1851. Eight women received medical degrees that year, forming the first all-female graduating class of physicians in the world.
Two members of that class were:
- Anna Longshore-Potts, MD
- Hannah E. Myers Longshore, MD
Hannah Longshore later returned to the institution as a demonstrator of anatomy, becoming the first woman to hold a faculty position at a medical college in the United States. She also opened a private medical practice in Philadelphia, becoming the first woman physician in the city to do so. Longshore treated hundreds of families each year, supported reproductive health care, and advocated for the abolition of slavery. Male physicians and pharmacists sometimes refused to fill prescriptions she wrote for patients.
An 1851 photograph shows Hannah E. Myers Longshore with her daughter Lucretia Mott Longshore Blankenburg, who later became a suffragist and First Lady of Philadelphia. She was named for abolitionist and suffragist Lucretia Mott. Hannah Longshore, her daughter Lucretia, and Hannah’s sister Jane V. Myers, MD, who graduated from Penn Medical College in 1854, later received recognition through a Pennsylvania Historical Marker outside their home in Bala Cynwyd.
Another graduate of the first class, Ann Preston, MD, later became a leading figure in the college’s history. After postgraduate study and teaching at the institution, she became dean in 1866, the first woman to serve as dean of a medical school anywhere in the world.
Before becoming dean, Preston created partnerships with area hospitals so students could receive clinical training. She also founded the Woman’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 1861, financed by an all-women board of governors that she organized. At the college she also helped establish the first state-chartered nursing school in the United States.
International Graduates And Pioneering Physicians
Women traveled from many countries to attend WMCP because medical training was unavailable in their home regions. Many graduates returned home and opened clinics or medical practices.
Among the graduates were:
- Rebecca Cole, MD 1867, the first Black graduate of WMCP, the first Black woman physician in Philadelphia, and the second in the United States
- Charlotte Yhlen, MD 1873, the first Swedish woman to graduate from a medical school and the first female physician to practice in Sweden
- Jennie Kidd Trout, MD 1875, the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada
- Kei Okami, MD 1889, the first Japanese woman with a Western medical degree
- Susan La Flesche Picotte, MD 1889, the first Native American to earn an M.D.
- Sabat M. Islambouli, MD 1890, the first Syrian woman with a Western medical degree
- Honoria Acosta-Sison, MD 1909, the first Filipina woman physician
Honoria Acosta-Sison previously studied at Drexel when the institution was known as the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry, attending between 1904 and 1905 in the Junior Domestic Science and Arts program.
A historic photograph from 1885 shows three WMCP students who later became among the first women in their home countries to receive Western medical degrees:
- Anandibai Joshee, MD 1886, from India
- Kei Okami, MD 1889, from Japan
- Sabat Islambooly, MD 1890, from Syria
Hostility Toward Women Medical Students
Women pursuing medical education in the nineteenth century often encountered hostility. Early WMCP students sometimes could not attend clinics and were excluded from medical societies.
One widely reported incident occurred in 1869 at Pennsylvania Hospital, which opened in 1751 as the first hospital in America. Female students from WMCP had permission to attend a clinical lecture there.
A report published in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in November 1869 described the event as an outrage. Male medical students gathered to mock the women as they entered the lecture and continued insulting them as they left the hospital and walked into the street.
The incident later became known as the Jeering Episode. WMCP graduate Anna Broomall, class of 1871, described the event in a 1926 interview, recalling that chaos broke out when the women arrived at the clinic.
Medical Contributions By Graduates
Graduates of the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania continued to work in medicine and research despite professional barriers. Many alumnae introduced new practices, advanced medical knowledge, and held leadership roles within major medical organizations.
- Catherine Macfarlane, MD 1899
- Introduced uterine cancer screening in Philadelphia during the 1930s
- One of the earliest programs of this type in the United States
- Became the first woman fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1932, an organization founded in 1787
- Taught at WMCP for decades
- Alma Morani, MD 1931
- The first woman plastic surgeon in the United States
- Established Philadelphia’s first hand surgery clinic in 1948
Institutional Changes
For more than fifty years WMCP remained the only medical college in the United States dedicated exclusively to women.
In 1970, one hundred twenty years after its founding, the institution began admitting men and adopted the name Medical College of Pennsylvania.
Later developments included:
- 1993, Allegheny Health System acquired Hahnemann University
- 1998, Allegheny Health System acquired the Medical College of Pennsylvania
- The institutions were combined into MCP Hahnemann University School of Medicine, described as the largest private medical school in the country
- 2002, Drexel University assumed management and created the College of Medicine, the College of Nursing and Health Professions, and the Dornsife School of Public Health
Hahnemann University opened in 1848 as the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania, located in the same building at 627 Arch St. The school’s homeopathy focus declined during the 1930s and ended entirely in 1959. Hahnemann admitted its first female students in 1941.
Exhibits During National Anniversaries
The institution participated in exhibitions connected with previous national celebrations.
At the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Fairmount Park, more than 200 buildings displayed American achievements. A Women’s Building, funded by the Women’s Centennial Committee, presented accomplishments connected with women.
WMCP received $500, equivalent to more than $15,000 today, to create an exhibit titled “Materia Medica.” The display included more than 150 specimens related to healing substances used in medicine. The exhibit was supervised by Clara Marshall, MD 1875, who had been appointed professor of materia medica and therapeutics in 1876. Ten years later she became dean and held the position for 31 years.
At the 1926 Sesquicentennial International Exposition, the college displayed:
- A large map showing where alumnae practiced medicine
- Photographs of students, faculty, and alumni working in medical practices and in WMCP’s hospital and maternity ward
- Historical items including the key to the institution’s first building
The school also appeared in programming during the 1976 Bicentennial.
Archival Collections And Exhibits
The history of the college is preserved at the Legacy Center Archives & Special Collections at Drexel’s College of Medicine.
For the 250th anniversary celebration, the center is providing research materials, photographs, artifacts, and historical information to organizations and Drexel departments.
The March 14 Firstival will include:
- A free community health fair
- Storytelling through Historic Philadelphia’s Once Upon A Nation program
- The unveiling of a new Health Sciences History Gallery inside the Health Sciences Building
A photograph associated with the gallery shows Daniela Lopez, a graduating psychology major, viewing the exhibit on the second floor. Funding for the gallery came from donations from Samantha Pozner, MD, MCP ’97, and Susan Benes, MD, MCP ’75.
Women In Modern Medical Education
Enrollment data from U.S. medical schools shows the number of women entering the field has increased in recent years.
- 2019, women accounted for 50.5% of U.S. medical school students, the first year women outnumbered men
- 2023–2024, women accounted for 54.6% of students
- At Drexel University, the College of Medicine Class of 2029 is 59% women
“52 Weeks Of Firsts” Program Events
Each week in the 2026 program focuses on a development connected with Philadelphia.
Completed events include:
- Week 1 — Successful balloon flight in America, 1793
- Week 2 — The Mummers Parade, the nation’s first folk parade, 1901
- Week 3 — Volunteer fire company, 1736
- Week 4 — Professional basketball league, 1898
- Week 5 — Public Girl Scout cookie sale, 1932
- Week 6 — African Methodist Episcopal congregation, 1794
- Week 7 — Abolitionist society in America, 1775
- Week 8 — Authentic Chinese gate built in America, 1984
- Week 9 — Public protest against slavery in America, 1688
- Week 10 — Flower Show, 1829
The First Philadelphia Flower Show
The Philadelphia Flower Show began in 1829 at Masonic Hall on Chestnut Street.
Visitors at the first exhibition saw plants from several regions:
- Magnolias from America
- A rubber tree from India
- Bird of paradise flowers from South Africa
- Peonies from China
- A coffee tree from Arabia
The annual event now takes place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Arch Street. A Firstival connected with the show took place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, 1201 Market St.
Each event includes a five-foot foam sculpture shaped like the number “1.” Artists decorate the sculptures to match the theme.
Examples include:
- Sean Martorana, whose sculpture for the flower show displayed bright flowers painted with metallic and iridescent paint and included a butterfly motif referencing the show’s butterfly station
- Alana Sxmone, whose sculpture for the WMCP program depicts an 1850s woman physician in black and white on one side and a modern physician in color on the other, illustrating differences in medical tools across time
Upcoming Firstival Locations And Topics
Scheduled events after the WMCP celebration include:
- March 21 — Matchbook (1892), Science History Institute, 315 Chestnut St.
- March 28 — First Medical School In America (1765), Perelman School of Medicine, 3400 Civic Center Blvd.
- April 4 — Stadium In America (1895), Franklin Field, 235 S. 33rd St.
- April 11 — Circus Performance In America (1793), Philadelphia School of Circus Arts, 6452 Greene St.
- April 18 — Botanical Garden (1728), Bartram’s Garden, 5400 Lindbergh Blvd.
- April 25 — Postmaster (1737), Franklin Court, 322 Market St.
- May 2 — American-Made Piano And Sousaphone (1775 And 1893), Ensemble Arts Philly, 300 S. Broad St.
- May 9 — Mother’s Day (1908), Historic St. George’s Museum & Archives, 326 New St.
- May 16 — Hospital In America (1751), Pennsylvania Hospital, 800 Spruce St.
- May 23 — World’s Fair On American Soil (1876), Please Touch Museum, 4231 Avenue of the Republic
- May 30 — Steamboat For Passengers And Freight (1787), Independence Seaport Museum, 211 S. Christopher Columbus Blvd.
- June 6 — American Flag (1777), Betsy Ross House, 239 Arch St.
- June 13 — U.S. Army (1775), Museum of the American Revolution, 101 S. 3rd St.
- June 20 — Annual Reminder Demonstration (1965), Philly Pride Visitor Center, Lombard St. and S. 12th St.
- June 27 — Paper Maker In America (1690), Rittenhouse Town, 6034 Wissahickon Ave.
- July 4 — Bank Of The United States (1791), First Bank of the United States, 120 S. 3rd St.
- July 11 — Organized Baseball Team (1831), Location TBD
- July 18 — Ice Cream Soda (Oct. 1874), Franklin Fountain, 116 Market St.
- July 25 — American Art School (1805), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 118–128 N. Broad St.
- Aug. 1 — Scientific Society Of Natural History (1812), Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
- Aug. 8 — Zoo In America (1874), Philadelphia Zoo, 3400 W. Girard Ave.
- Aug. 15 — U.S. Mint (1793), Location TBD
- Aug. 22 — Selfie (1839), Love Park, 1501 John F Kennedy Blvd.
- Aug. 29 — Slinky (1943), Philadelphia Art Museum, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
- Sept. 5 — Signing Of The Constitution (1787), National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St.
- Sept. 12 — Continental Congress (1774), Carpenters’ Hall, 320 Chestnut St.
- Sept. 19 — Naming Of The United States (1776), Independence Hall
- Sept. 26 — Ronald McDonald House (1974), Ronald McDonald House, 3925 Chestnut St.
- Oct. 3 — Penitentiary In America (1829), Eastern State Penitentiary, 2027 Fairmount Ave.
- Oct. 10 — The First Peoples, Penn Museum, 3260 South St.
- Oct. 17 — U.S. Navy And Marine Corps (1775), Arch Street Meeting House, 320 Arch St.
- Oct. 24 — Public Showing Of A Motion Picture (1870), Philadelphia Film Society, 1412 Chestnut St.
- Oct. 31 — Modern Detective Story Written (1841), Edgar Allan Poe House, 532 N. 7th St.
- Nov. 7 — Thanksgiving Day Parade In America (1920), Benjamin Franklin Parkway
- Nov. 14 — University In America (1740), Houston Hall, University of Pennsylvania, 3417 Spruce St.
- Nov. 21 — Children’s Hospital In America (1855), Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Main Building, 3401 Civic Center Blvd.
- Nov. 28 — Pencil With An Attached Eraser (1858), National Liberty Museum, 321 Chestnut St.
- Dec. 5 — Weather Bureau (1870), The Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th St.
- Dec. 12 — Electronic Computer (1945), University of Pennsylvania, 3451 Walnut St.
- Dec. 19 — Public Lending Library In America (1731), The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1314 Locust St.
- Dec. 26 — Philadelphia Food Firsts — Cheesesteaks (1930s), Water Ice (1932), Bubble Gum (1928), Reading Terminal Market, 1136 Arch St.
