WOMEN MEDICAL PIONEERS: MAY FARINHOLT JONES

Dr. May Farinholt Jones was the first woman physician at the Mississippi State College for Women (formerly the Industrial Institute and College), the first woman ever admitted to the Mississippi State Medical Association and the first woman to take the state board medical examination in Mississippi, according to Women in Medicine: A Bibliography.

A native of Virginia, Jones studied medicine and graduated in 1897 from the Medical College of Baltimore.

An entry in the Medical Woman’s Journal said Jones served as house physician at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore, Md. and later became resident physician of the Industrial Institute and College of Columbus. During her 10 years at Columbus, her summers were spent in foreign travel and study, and she once was a student at Johns Hopkins under Sir William Osler.

In 1912, Jones became physician at the State Teachers College at Hattiesburg. Six years later, she entered public health work at Camp Shelby, followed by work at the Mississippi State Sanatorium for Tuberculosis.

Upon retirement, she returned to Virginia and lived in West Point until her death in 1940.

Jones published a book, “Keep Well Stories for Little Folks,” which was used in the primary schools of several states.

The traveling exhibition “Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians” was developed by the Exhibition Program of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine in collaboration with the American Library Association Public Programs Office. The exhibition has been made possible by the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health. The American Medical Women’s Association provided additional support.

—      Patrice Sawyer Guilfoyle

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