Dr. Alida Cornelia Avery (June 11, 1833 – September 22, 1908) was a pioneering physician, educator, suffragist, and temperance advocate who broke barriers for women in
medicine and higher education across the United States.Partner Eugene De Forest
Queer Places:
Vassar College (Seven Sisters), 124 Raymond Ave, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604
55 N 5th St, San Jose, CA 95112, USA
Sherburne Quarter Cemetery, NY-12B, Sherburne, NY 13460, United States
Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, 1370 El Camino Real, Colma, California 94014 United States
Dr. Alida Cornelia Avery (June 11, 1833 – September 22, 1908) was a pioneering physician, educator, suffragist, and temperance advocate who broke barriers for women in
medicine and higher education across the United States.
Born in Sherburne, New York, on June 11, 1833, Alida Cornelia Avery was one of eight children born to Deacon William Avery and Hannah Dixon Avery. She began teaching at local schools at age sixteen. In the spring of 1857, at age twenty-three, she commenced her medical studies. She attended the Pennsylvania Medical College of Philadelphia (Philadelphia Woman's Medical College) for a year in 1858 before transferring to the New England Female Medical College in Boston, where she earned her medical diploma.
In 1865, Dr. Avery joined the founding faculty of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, serving as the Professor of Physiology & Hygiene and the college’s Resident Physician. From 1866 to 1874, she also held the role of Secretary of the Faculty.
During her decade-long tenure, her rigorous health oversight yielded an extraordinary record: according to her obituary in The Sherburne News (October 3, 1908), not a single student died while she served as campus physician. Dr. Avery was also known on campus as an outspoken critic of restrictive female clothing like corsets, actively encouraging students to adopt functional, comfortable attire.
Dr. Avery resigned from Vassar in February 1874 and relocated west to Denver, Colorado. There, she built a lucrative private medical practice—reportedly earning an impressive $10,000 per year—and served as the Superintendent of Hygiene for the State of Colorado.
While in Denver, she famously hosted astronomer Maria Mitchell and a delegation of five Vassar students who traveled west for the historic solar eclipse expedition of July 1878.
In 1887, Dr. Avery retired from active medical practice and moved to San Jose, California. Over the following two decades, she devoted her energy to social reform, becoming a prominent voice in: The Women's Enfranchisement Movement (Women's Suffrage), The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), The Unitarian Church.
She moved to San Francisco in 1901, but following the devastating 1906 San Francisco earthquake, she returned to San Jose.
Dr. Avery passed away at her home in San Jose on September 22, 1908, at the age of 75.
Her ashes are inurned in the Old Columbarium at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California, alongside her friend and protégé, drama teacher Albert Eugene de Forest (a.k.a. Eugene De Forest / Mary J. Bradley).
Her name is also inscribed on the Avery family monument in her hometown of Sherburne, New York.
References:
 Public Faces, Secret Lives by Wendy L. Rouse |
Other references:
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