{{Short description|American lawyer and suffragist (1838–1909)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2021}} {{Infobox person | name = Caroline Burnham Kilgore | image = Caroline Burnham Kilgore.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Caroline Burnham | birth_date = {{birth date|1838|1|20|mf=y}} | birth_place = Craftsbury, Vermont, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1909|6|29|1838|1|20|mf=y}} | death_place = Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, U.S. | alma_mater = Hygeio-Therapeutic College (MD)<br> University of Pennsylvania Law School (JD) | other_names = | occupation = Attorney | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | signature = Signature of Caroline Burnham Kilgore (1838–1909).png }}
'''Caroline Burnham Kilgore''' (January 20, 1838 – June 29, 1909) was the first woman to graduate from: (A) a medical school and be granted an M.D. (in 1865) in New York State and (B) from University of Pennsylvania Law School and be admitted to the orphan's court bar (in 1881) in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.<ref name="philadelphiabar1">{{cite web |date=2000 |title=Legends of the Bar |url=http://www.philadelphiabar.org/page/AboutLegends?appNum=4 |access-date=2015-03-22 |website=Philadelphia Bar Association}}</ref> She became the first woman lawyer in Pennsylvania.<ref name="occupationsforwomen">{{cite book |last1=Willard |first1=Frances Elizabeth |url=https://archive.org/details/occupationsforwo00will |title=Occupations for Women: A Book of Practical Suggestions for the Material Advancement, the Mental and Physical Development, and the Moral and Spiritual Uplift of Women |last2=Winslow |first2=Helen Maria |last3=White |first3=Sallie Elizabeth Joy |publisher=Success Company |year=1897 |location=New York |page=373 |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Early life== Caroline "Carrie" Burnham was born in Craftsbury, Vermont, in 1838. Her father, James Burnham, was a woolen manufacturer while her mother Eliza Arnold Burnham was a former teacher.<ref name="SalokarVolcansek1996" /> She was orphaned at the age of 11.<ref name="Bell1992">{{cite book|author=Robert R. Bell|title=The Philadelphia Lawyer: A History, 1735–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l83gE118lCsC&pg=PA164|year=1992|publisher=Susquehanna University Press|isbn=978-0-945636-26-7|pages=164–}}</ref> She attended the Craftsbury Common District School from the ages of 4 to 12.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Bushnell |first=Mark |title=Biographical Sketch of Carolyn Burnham Kilgore |url=https://documents.alexanderstreet.com/d/1010922233 |access-date=2024-01-07 |website=Online Biographical Dictionary of the Woman Suffrage Movement in the United States}}</ref>
She supported herself as a domestic worker and, starting in 1853, as a schoolteacher.<ref name="Bell1992"/> While working as a teacher, Kilgore continued her education at Craftsbury Academy and Newbury Seminary.<ref name="SalokarVolcansek1996" />
== Medical career == Kilgore moved to Wisconsin and taught grammar school and high school at Sun Prairie, Madison, and Evansville, where she was preceptor at the Evansville Seminary and Normal School. She moved to New York City in 1863 and enrolled in medical school at the Hygeio-Therapeutic College. She completed her M.D. in 1865,<ref name="SalokarVolcansek1996" /> becoming the first woman to receive a doctorate in medicine in New York State.<ref name=":0" /> She was a member of the first class of women admitted to clinical study at Bellevue Hospital. After several months studying and working as a physician's assistant in Boston, she moved to Philadelphia in September 1865. She purchased a finishing school and ran it for four years before switching to a legal career in 1869.<ref name=":0" />
== Law career == The University of Pennsylvania Law School rejected Kilgore's application in 1871.<ref name="SalokarVolcansek1996">{{cite book|author1=Rebecca Mae Salokar|author2=Mary L. Volcansek|title=Women in Law: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gr0iKT-8RewC&pg=PA123|date=1 January 1996|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-29410-5|pages=123–}}</ref> She attempted to buy individual tickets to attend lectures. Sometime later, she sent her husband to purchase the lecture passes, but the Board of Trustees informed her that even if she attended every required lecture and passed all of the examinations, they would not guarantee that she would earn a diploma. After studying privately, Kilgore asked to take the bar exam in 1873 and 1874, but was refused.<ref name="SalokarVolcansek1996" /> The dean of the law school stated in a letter that he would resign if the day came when Black people or women gained admittance.<ref name="occupationsforwomen" />
After ten years of lobbying, Kilgore finally became the first woman admitted to the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1881, graduating in 1883.<ref name="upenn1">{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/women/chron3.html |title=1880–1900: Timeline of Women at Penn, University of Pennsylvania University Archives |publisher=Archives.upenn.edu |date= |access-date=2015-03-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090306012216/http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/women/chron3.html |archive-date=2009-03-06 |url-status=dead }}</ref> She obtained immediate admission to the Orphan’s Court of Philadelphia, but she had to engage in yet another lobbying campaign to gain admittance to practice before the Pennsylvania courts of common pleas in 1884, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1885, and the U.S. Supreme Court in 1890.<ref name="SalokarVolcansek1996"/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bushnell |first=Mark |date=2024-01-07 |title=Then Again: Vermonter Carrie Burnham Kilgore |url=http://vtdigger.org/2024/01/07/then-again-vermonter-carrie-burnham-kilgore/ |access-date=2024-01-07 |website=VTDigger |language=en-US}}</ref>
Active in the women's suffrage movement, Kilgore sought to vote at city and county elections in 1871.<ref name="StantonAnthony2000">{{cite book|author1=Elizabeth Cady Stanton|author2=Susan B. Anthony|title=The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: Against an aristocracy of sex, 1866 to 1873|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kjq1rbyN_IQC&pg=PA637|year=2000|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-2318-7|pages=637–}}</ref> She was ruled against and appealed to the full state supreme court, which affirmed the ruling against her.<ref name="StantonAnthony2000"/> She published a pamphlet with her argument before the state supreme court, titled ''Woman Suffrage. The Argument of Carrie S. Burnham'', which included the opinion of the man who originally ruled against her, George Sharswood.<ref name="StantonAnthony2000"/> Kilgore served on the advisory committee and as a vice president of the National Woman Suffrage Association and spoke at national suffrage conventions.<ref name=":0" />
== Personal life and death == Carrie Burnham and Damon Kilgore (1827–1888) married in 1876. The couple had two daughters, Carrie and Fanny.<ref name=":0" /> She died in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, on June 29, 1909, and was buried at Craftsbury Common Cemetery in Craftsbury, Vermont.
==Legacy== During the University of Pennsylvania's Homecoming Weekend of October 1965, the Trustees dedicated Kilgore House, one of the four houses in the Robert C. Hill Residence Hall, in her honor.<ref name="upenn1"/>
In 2024, a historical marker honoring her was unveiled at 1301 Baltimore Pike, Springfield, Pennsylvania.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.delcotimes.com/2024/09/29/historical-marker-honoring-trailblazing-female-attorney-unveiled-on-baltimore-pike/|title=Historical marker honoring trailblazing female attorney unveiled on Baltimore Pike|date=September 29, 2024}}</ref>
Kilgore is listed as one of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Legends of the Bar.<ref name="philadelphiabar1" />
==See also== *List of first women lawyers and judges in Pennsylvania
== External links == The [https://archives.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/repositories/7/resources/10712 George A. Hoadley Family Papers] held at [https://www.swarthmore.edu/friends-historical-library Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College]
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilgore, Caroline Burnham}} Category:1838 births Category:1909 deaths Category:American lawyers Category:Suffragists from Pennsylvania Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni Category:People from Craftsbury, Vermont Category:19th-century American women lawyers Category:19th-century American lawyers Category:Lawyers from Philadelphia Category:Educators from Vermont Category:19th-century American women medical doctors Category:19th-century American medical doctors Category:National Woman Suffrage Association activists Category:Schoolteachers from Vermont Category:American women human rights activists