Dolley, Sarah Adamson (1829–1909)

American physician. Name variations: Sarah Read Adamson Dolley; Sarah R.A. Dolley. Born Sarah Read Adamson, Mar 11, 1829, in Schuylkill Meeting, Chester Co., Pennsylvania; died Dec 27, 1909, in Rochester, NY; dau. of Mary (Corson) Adamson and Charles Adamson; apprenticed with uncle, Dr. Hiram Corson; graduate of Central Medical College in NY, 1851, the 3rd woman in US to earn a medical degree; m. Lester Clinton Dolley (professor of anatomy and surgery), June 9, 1852 (died 1872); children: 2, including physician Charles Sumner Dolley.

The 1st woman intern at a hospital, began internship at Blockley Hospital in Philadelphia (1851); practiced medicine with husband for 20 years in Rochester, NY; successfully pushed NY state legislation to require a female staff physician at women's institutions; completed postgraduate training in Paris, France (1869–70); after husband's death (1872), taught at Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (1873–74); studied in Paris at Hôpital des Enfants Malades (1875), as well as in Prague and Vienna; served as 1st president of Provident Dispensary Association in Rochester, NY, a dispensary for needy women and children (1886–94); helped found Practitioner's Society, the 1st incorporated society of women physicians (1887), which was renamed Blackwell Medical Society (1906) and fused with 4 medical associations to form Women's Medical Society of New York State (1907).