Rachel Nicol (physician)

Rachel Jane "Jennie" Nicol (1845—1881) was a founder of Pi Beta Phi and a physician. In 1867, she co-founded I.C. Sorosis at Monmouth College in Illinois, the first secret collegiate society for women patterned after men’s fraternities, which later adopted the Greek name Pi Beta Phi (ΠΒΦ).[1] Pi Beta Phi is now an international organization with over 300,000 members. At a time when there were only a few hundred women physicians in the United States[2] she received the M.D. degree in 1879.

For the swimmer, see Rachel Nicol (swimmer).
Rachel Jane Nicol
Born1845
Died1881
Other namesRachel "Jennie" Nicol
Alma materMonmouth College
OccupationPhysician
Known forCo-founder of national women’s fraternity (aka sorority)

Biography

The only daughter among five children born to an Illinois farming couple, Nicol graduated from Monmouth College (Illinois) in 1868. She continued her education at Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania and graduated with an M.D. degree in 1879. She then interned at New England Hospital in Boston.[3]

In 1880, she sailed to Switzerland and enrolled in the University of Zurich, where she "attended two lectures daily and the remainder of the time devoting to the clinics and the hospitals; am also having practice work in the pathological laboratory…"[4] There she died an untimely death from meningitis and/or complications of pneumonia.[5][6]

In her honor, Pi Beta Phi, the sorority she helped found, built and supplied the Jennie Nicol Memorial Health Center that operated in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, from 1922 until 1965.[7][8]

gollark: I may be referred to as car/cdr if desired.
gollark: The problem with spaces is that you can’t actually see them. So you can’t be sure they’re correct. Also they aren’t actually there anyway - they are the absence of code. “Anti-code” if you will. Too many developers format their code “to make it more maintainable” (like that’s actually a thing), but they’re really just filling the document with spaces. And it’s impossible to know how spaces will effect your code, because if you can’t see them, then you can’t read them. Real code wizards know to just write one long line and pack it in tight. What’s that you say? You wrote 600 lines of code today? Well I wrote one, and it took all week, but it’s the best. And when I hand this project over to you next month I’ll have solved world peace in just 14 lines and you will be so lucky to have my code on your screen <ninja chop>.
gollark: Remove the call stack and do trampolining or something?
gollark: Yes, I think this is possible.
gollark: (ethically)

References
  1. Clarke-Helmick, Elizabeth Allen (1915) "The History of Pi Beta Phi Fraternity" Page 19 published by Pi Beta Phi Fraternity. Retrieved October 18, 2015
  2. Newcomer, Mabel (1959). A Century of Higher Education for American Women. New York: Zenger Publishing Company. ISBN 9780892010028.
  3. Becque, Fran (November 11, 2012). "Doctors Who Wore Badges: Fraternity Women in Medicine 1867–1902". Focus on Fraternity History & More. http://www.franbecque.com/. Retrieved October 18, 2015. External link in |publisher= (help)
  4. Jamison, Matthew H. (2012). Recollections of Pioneer and Army Life. HardPress. pp. 28–29. ISBN 9781290401364.
  5. Abram, Ruth J. (1985). Send Us a Lady Physician: Women Doctors in America, 1835–1920. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 136. ISBN 9780393302783.
  6. Medical and Surgical Reporter. 45. Philadelphia. 1881. p. 28.
  7. "Jennie Nicol Memorial Health Center" (PDF). The University Of Tennessee Knoxville. http://www.lib.utk.edu/. Retrieved October 18, 2015. External link in |publisher= (help)
  8. "Rachel Jane "Jennie" Nicol". Warren County Virtual Museum. http://warrencountyvirtualmuseum.com/. Retrieved October 18, 2015. External link in |publisher= (help)
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