Jennie Smillie Robertson
Source: Wikipedia: Jennie Smillie Robertson
Science • Historical Archive • 🇨🇦 Canada • 0 views

Jennie Smillie Robertson 🇨🇦

Jennie Smillie (Known as "Jane Smillie Robertson")
Pioneering Medical Doctor, First Female Surgeon in Canadian History
Born 10 February 1878 🇨🇦 Hensall, Canada
Passed Away 26 February 1981 Toronto, Canada
Lifespan 103 years old
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Notice / Correction
"When doors were closed to women in hospital operating rooms, we had no choice but to build our own hospital."

Archival Overview

Groundbreaking Canadian physician who overcame institutional prejudice to become Canada's first female surgeon, co-founding Women's College Hospital.

Biographical Record

Jane "Jennie" Smillie Robertson was a courageous pioneer in Canadian surgery. After earning her medical degree from the Ontario Medical College for Women and the University of Toronto in 1909, she sought surgical training but was turned away by every Canadian hospital because no male surgeon would instruct a woman.

Undeterred, Robertson traveled to Philadelphia to complete surgical residency at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Returning to Toronto, she performed operations on kitchen tables when hospitals denied her operating privileges, before co-founding Women's College Hospital in 1911, serving as its chief of gynecology for decades.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
Toronto, Canada
GPS: 43.6961, -79.3900
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