Alice Hamilton

Alice Hamilton (born February 27, 1869, New York, New York, U.S.—died September 22, 1970, Hadlyme, Connecticut) was an American pathologist, known for her research on industrial diseases.

Hamilton received her medical degree from the University of Michigan (1893) and continued her studies at Johns Hopkins University and in Germany. From 1897 to 1919 she was a resident of Hull House in Chicago. She became the first female faculty member at Harvard Medical School (1919–35) and did studies for the state of Illinois, the federal government, and the League of Nations. By actively publicizing the danger to workers’ health of industrial toxic substances such as lead and mercury, she contributed to the passage of workers’ compensation laws and to the development of safer working conditions. Her writings include Industrial Toxicology (1934; 4th ed., 1983) and an autobiography, Exploring the Dangerous Trades (1943).