Lucy Hobbs Taylor was an American school teacher and a dentist, known for being the first woman to graduate from dental school. She was originally denied admittance to the Eclectic Medical College in Cincinnati, Ohio due to her gender. Due to this, a professor in the college agreed to tutor her and encouraged her to practice dentistry. Once again, she applied to a dentistry school, this time Ohio College of Dentistry. Unfortunately, she was once again refused admittance due to her gender. From there, a college graduate agreed to tutor her, allowing her to continue her studies towards dentistry. In 1861, she decided to open her own practice instead of attempting to get into a college once again. After a year, Lucy Hobbs Taylor moved to Iowa and opened a dentistry practice. This allowed her to be accepted as a dentist without the diploma and become part of the Iowa State Dental Society. Being part of this society meant that she was also serving as the group's delegate to the American Dental Associate Convention, only 3 years after moving to Iowa. With great coincidence, that same year the Ohio College of Dentistry decided to waive the policy prohibiting women being admitted to the institution. Instantly, Taylor enrolled as a senior student thanks to her dentistry experience she had accumulated over the years. She graduated in 1866, becoming the first woman in the world to graduate from a dental college, and to receive a doctorate in dentistry.
Early life
Lucy Beaman Hobbs was born on March 14, 1833 in Constable, New York. She was seventh out of ten children total. When she was 12 she obtained a job as a seamstress to support her siblings. Hobbs subsequently attended school and eventually graduated from Franklin Academy in New York and began teaching for ten years in Michigan. In 1859, she moved to Cincinnati and applied to medical school at Eclectic Medical College. Hobbs was denied entrance because of her gender, but she was able to study privately under the supervision of a teacher from Eclectic. Subsequently, Hobbs applied to the Ohio College of Dentistry. When she was refused admission to dental school, she began a private program of study with a professor, Dr. Jonathan Taft, from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. Hobbs applied once more to the dentistry program, but was again rejected. As a response, she opened up her own practice, allowing her to practice dentistry without having to obtain a diploma.
Dental career
After studying dentistry, Lucy Hobbs started her own practice in Cincinnati in 1861. She soon moved to Bellevue and then McGregor, Iowa, where she spent three years. In 1865, she finally gained all professional recognition and was allowed to join the Iowa State Dental Society, and was sent as a delegate to the American Dental Association convention in Chicago. That November, she entered the Ohio College of Dental Surgery as a senior, where in February 1866, she earned her doctorate in dentistry, becoming the first woman in the world to graduate from a dental college, and to receive a doctorate in dentistry. She later wrote, "People were amazed when they learned that a young girl had so far forgotten her womanhood as to want to study dentistry." Hobbs next moved to Chicago where she met James M. Taylor whom she married in April 1867, becoming Lucy Hobbs Taylor. Taylor then convinced her husband to also enter dentistry. The two then moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where they had a very big and successful practice until James Taylor died in 1886. After her husband's death, Lucy Taylor ceased to be an active dentist, but became more active in politics, campaigning for greater women's rights, until her own death on October 3, 1910. In her time as a dentist, Lucy Hobbs Taylor opened up brand new doors to many women in the future, especially the medical field doors. She believed that her journey was complete by "making it possible for women to be recognized in the dental profession on equal terms with men."
Legacy
By 1900, almost one thousand women had followed Lucy Taylor into dentistry, an increase many attribute largely to her accomplishments. In 1983, the American Association of Women Dentists honored Taylor by establishing the Lucy Hobbs Taylor Award, which it now presents annually to AAWD members in recognition of professional excellence and achievements in advancing the role of women in dentistry.
