A small skirmish in the battle of the sexes: T. B. Welch and women in dentistry

Abstract

In the late 1900s, Thomas B. Welch, editor of <i>Items of Interest</i>, used the pages of his journal to oppose the posit ion of W. R. Spencer on the place of women in dentistry. Considering the furor aroused when women attempted to open the denial profession 10 those who were commonly called young ladies in the latter part of the 19th century, one might suppose that the death of the first woman dental graduate would have occasioned extended note. Such, however, was not the case; when Lucy Hobbs Taylor died in Lawrence. Kan. on Oct 3, 1910, only the November issue of <i>Denial Cosmos</i> seems to have marked the event. This oversight on the part of the professional journals may be explained by the fact that even when the struggle for women's acceptance was at its height in the late 1860s, many in the profession—certainly its more imposing members—were on the ladies' side. The rhetorical cannonades were formidable at times, but women's place in dentistry seemed assured. The major outlines of the story have been told by Bremncr.¹ However. 20 years after the initial conflict, a small skirmish in that battle of the sexes was fought in the pages controlled by Thomas B. Welch.