On This Day in Herstory, November 11th 1865, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, an American abolitionist, prohibitionist, prisoner of war, doctor, and the first US Army female surgeon, was the first woman awarded the Medal of Honor. To date, she is the only woman to have been given the military decoration; 1 woman and 3,521 men have received this award.
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was born November 26th 1832 in Oswego, New York; she and her siblings were raised in a very progressive manner for the time. She was very well educated, and from a young age she would read her father’s medical texts; this interest lead to her enrollment and graduation from Syracuse Medical College, she was the only woman in her class. She married a fellow medical student, Albert Miller, just before she turned 23. Her wedding defied tradition, she wore a short skirt with trousers underneath, would not include the word “obey” in her vows, and she retained her last name. The couple set up a medical practice in Rome, New York, but had little success, as female doctors were not trusted at the time. She and Miller later divorced due to his infidelity.
In 1861 with the start of the American Civil War, Walker volunteered as a nurse, working as the Patent Office Hospital in Washington, D.C.; she then began to work in the battlefields, in tent hospitals. In fall 1863 she was appointed assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland. Unfortunately, not too long after, in April 1864 she was captured and imprisoned by the Confederate Army; and was released in August of that year. Shortly after her release she received a contract as an “acting assistant surgeon,” and began supervision a hospital for women prisoners and then an orphanage. She retired from her government service in June 1865, and on November 11th of that year she was awarded the Medal of Honor for Meritorious, in recognition of her courageous war efforts. Today, 153 years later, Walker remains the only female Medal of Honor recipient.
After the Civil War, Walker lectured on issues such as dress reforms and women’s suffrage. She became infamous for her objections to a traditional female wardrobe. She wrote in 1871, “The greatest sorrows from which women suffer to-day are those physical, moral, and mental ones, that are caused by their unhygienic manner of dressing!” She strongly disagreed with long skirts and petticoats, not just for their discomfort and the wearer’s limited mobility, but also for their collection and spreading of dust and dirt. By 1861 her regular ensemble was trousers with suspenders under a knee-length dress with a tight waist and a full skirt. She believed that women’s clothes should “protect the person, and allow freedom of motion and circulation, and not make the wearer a slave to it.” In February 1870 Walker was arrested in New Orleans and mocked by the police because she was dressed “like a man.” The arresting officer twisted her arm and asked her is she had ever had sex with a man. She was released from custody when she was recognized at Police Court.
Regrettably, in 1917 the U.S. government changed the criteria for the Medal of Honor and withdrew Walker’s medal, though she continued to wear it. She died two years later on February 21st 1919. 60 years after her death in 1977, Walker’s Medal of Honor was posthumously restored.
On This Day in Herstory, November 11th 1886, Alice Huyler Ramsey, the first woman to drive across the United States from coast to coast, was born in New Barbadoes Township, New Jersey.
Alice, born Alice Taylor Huyer, was the daughter of John Edwin Huyler, a lumber dealer, and Ada Mumford Farr. From 1903 to 1905 she attended Vassar College. In January 1906, she married John R. Ramsey, a congressman 24 years her senior, in Hackensack, New Jersey. Together the couple had two children. In 1908 John bought Alice a new Maxwell Runabout. That summer she drover more than 6,000 miles around the New England area. In September 1908, the same year she receiver her car, she drove one of the three Maxwells that were entered in that year’s American Automobile Association’s (AAA) Montauk Point endurance race. She was one of only two women to participate in the event. It was at the event that it was first proposed that Alice attempt a transcontinental journey by car, a fete never before accomplished by a woman. It was arranged that she would have the backing of Maxwell-Briscoe, who supplied her with a 1909 tour car and as many parts as she needed. This drive was originally organised as a publicity stunt for Maxwell-Briscoe, who marketed their cars specifically at women; who at the time were not often encouraged to drive.
On June 9th 1909, at only 22 years old, Alice set off on a 3,800 mile car journey; she was accompanied by two of her sisters-in-law and one of her friends, none of whom knew how to drive. The women started from Hell Gate in Manhattan, New York, in a green, four-cylinder, 30-horsepower Maxwell DA. The trip took 59 days, and on August 7th they arrived in San Francisco, California to much fanfare, though the arrived about three weeks later than had originally been planned. The women navigated the entire journey themselves using a few maps, but mostly using telephone poles, following the poles with more wires with the hope it would lead to a town. Only 152 miles of the 3,800 mile trip was on paved road, which lead to several problems. Over the course of the trip Alice had to change 11 tires, clean all the spark plugs several times, repair a broken brake pedal, and sleep in the car whenever it got too stuck in the mud. Additionally, on their journey the women crossed the trail of a manhunt looking for a murderer in Nebraska, got bed bugs, and at one point found themselves driving in the middle of a Native American hunting party.
Alice loved the adventure so much that between 1909 and 1975 she drove across the country over 30 times. In 1960 she was named the “Woman Motorist of the Century” by AAA, and in 1961 she wrote and published the story of her first trip, Veil, Duster, and Tire Iron. Alice went on to lead a very full life, when her husband died in 1933 she lived with Anna Graham Harris in New Jersey and later California until Anna’s death in 1953. Alice then lived with Elizabeth Elliott from 1968 until September 10th 1983, when Alice Huyler Ramsey died in Covina, California. On October 17th 2000, Alice became the first woman inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.
