Caroline B. Winslow

Caroline Brown Winslow (November 19, 1822 – December 7, 1896) was an American physician, and the fifth woman in the United States to graduate in medicine.

Early life Caroline Brown was born in Appledore, Kent, England, on November 19, 1822, the daughter of Samuel Brown (d. 1857). The family moved to the United States in 1826.

In 1850, she studied human anatomy under Rachel Brooks Gleason, M. D., at Glen Haven, New York and in December 1851, entered the Eclectic Medical College, in Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating in June 1853. She was the first woman to graduate from that college and the fifth woman in the United States to graduate with a degree in medicine.

She was president for fourteen years of the Moral Education Society of Washington. She edited the Alpha, the journal of that society, for thirteen years. She was a woman-suffragist and an advocate of higher education for all.

Personal life

Caroline Brown married Austin Crosby Winslow, an artisan, on July 15, 1865, when Winslow was 43 years old.

Winslow was the lifelong friend of Susan Ann Edson. They probably met at Eclectic Medical College, which both attended. During the Civil War they worked as nurses, as they were not allowed to act as doctors. After the war, Winslow and Edson moved to Washington, D.C., together and established their own practices. Together they wrote a missive to the Congress, The Right of Women to Vote. Winslow adopted her niece, Mary Brown McPherson Janney (1853–1928), after the death of her sister.