Helen Morton

Helen Morton (September 27, 1834 – March 22, 1916) was an American obstetrician, one of the early generation of women physicians practicing in Boston in the nineteenth century. Early life and education Morton was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the daughter of Edwin Morton and Betsy Torrey Harlow Morton. Both of her parents were also born in Plymouth. She was descended from Puritan leader George Morton, and through that connection was related to many prominent New Englanders. She attended Antioch College and the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, then completed her medical degree at the New England Female Medical College in 1862. She had further training in obstetrics in Paris. Career Morton spent two years as director of an obstetric hospital in Paris in the 1860s. She was awarded a medal by the French government in 1864. She returned to Boston and was an attending physician at the New England Hospital for Women and Children, in charge of maternity services, for at least twenty years. She was close colleagues with Maria Zakrzewska, Ednah D. Cheney, Susan Dimock, and Lucy E. Sewall, among other women physicians working in Boston in her time. Morton was a member of the American Forestry Association, and a supporter of the Boston Music School Settlement. She donated several subscriptions of periodicals, including American Journal of Archaeology and Forestry and Irrigation, to the Plymouth Public Library. She was also active in the Boston Young Women's Christian Association, and a subscribing member of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union.