About

Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians introduces over 300 of the many extraordinary women who have studied, practiced, and transformed medicine. Women have always been healers, yet when medicine became established as a formal profession in Europe and America, women were shut out. They waged a long battle to gain access to medical education and hospital training. Since then, women have overcome prejudices and discrimination to serve communities, make scientific advances, take on leadership roles, and redefine the profession.

The original project featured a physical display in the Rotunda Gallery of the National Library of Medicine October 14, 2003–November 19, 2005, and companion online exhibition launched in October 2003. The credits and a message from the Ad Hoc Advisory Group for the 2003 project can be found here.

In 2024, the NLM modernized the original online exhibition from 2003. The updated website is responsive and accessible, features a new design, and includes related digital resources.