Among those who contributed so much to the early life of the college
and its success, the name of Alida C. Avery cannot afford to be
overlooked. She came in 1865 as the resident physician, was a strong
member of the Faculty, high in the confidence and trust of Dr. Raymond
and Miss Lyman and sharing with them the responsibility of that
important formative period. So close were the friendly and
confidential relations among these three "powers that be"--hardly ever
one appearing without the other--that some irreverent students dubbed
them "The Trinity."
[Illustration: DR. ALIDA C. AVERY
1865]
It was a good deal to organize and maintain such a department as hers
in the face of popular opinion at that time, and I think much of her
stiff professional etiquette resulted from the idea of upholding the
equality of women physicians with men in the same calling, and being
over sensitive to indifference and snubs. The early women pioneers in
medical work did not find it a bed of roses, but they persevered. When
the Boston Medical College for women was started in 1858, there was
not a single graduated woman physician in the country. In 1863 there
were two hundred and fifty.
Dr. Avery began her medical studies in 1857 at the Pennsylvania
Medical College, and finished them at the New England Medical College
in Boston, taking her degree from that institution. She seemed to
take, in the practice of her profession, an antagonistic attitude as
granted, and, indeed, she had much reason for doing so. None of us
would have dared to approach her professionally out of her office
hour, or to make the slightest personal wish as to treatment. She was
as inflexible to her peers as to the students in her uncompromising
adherence to discipline and hygienic regulations. Her seat at table
was next to Miss Mitchell, who asked at dinner one day what to do for
an inflamed eye. Without looking, the Doctor replied, "My office hour
is at half past two." "Oh, come now," said Miss Mitchell, "you don't
mean that you would make an old woman like me go way up to the fourth
floor to your office hour?" The answer came same as before. "My office
hour is at half past two," and that closed the incident.
To those who came to know her well she showed a lovable human side, a
big heart, capable of most generous affection. She upheld the cause of
woman as zealously even as Miss Mitchell, and their personal relations
were most friendly and pleasant. She was passionately fond of flowers
and an expert in their cultivation. Under her direction the Floral
Society was established and the flower garden laid out and carried on.
Three years after Miss Lyman's death the Doctor resigned to go to
practice her profession in Denver, later removing to California. With
her death last September, and that of Professor Knapp quite recently,
has gone the last one of that first Board of Faculty and Instruction,
over forty years ago.