Dr. Margaret Long (October 28, 1873 - August 31, 1957) was a pioneering physician, medical philanthropist, suffragist, and travel writer whose life
embodied key advancements of twentieth-century feminism.Partner Anne Martin, Jean M. Gale, Elsie Seelye Pratt
Queer Places:
Smith College (Seven Sisters), 9 Elm St, Northampton, MA 01063
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
Johns Hopkins Medical School, 733 N Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States
2070 Colorado Blvd, Denver, CO 80207, USA
Hingham Cemetery, 12 South St, Hingham, MA 02043, United States
Dr. Margaret Long (October 28, 1873 - August 31, 1957) was a pioneering physician, medical philanthropist, suffragist, and travel writer whose life
embodied key advancements of twentieth-century feminism.
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 28, 1873, she was the daughter of Mary Woodward Glover and John Davis Long, a prominent attorney who served as Governor of Massachusetts and Secretary of the Navy under President McKinley. Long attended Derby Academy in Hingham, Massachusetts, before enrolling at Smith College, where she earned her degree in 1895. While at Smith, she formed close friendships with classmates Florence Sabin and Dorothy Reed Mendenhall. Long roomed with Reed, joining a lighthearted social organization dubbed the Anti-Matrimonial Alliance. Encouraged by Reed, Long completed preparatory coursework at MIT and enrolled at Johns Hopkins Medical School, graduating with her M.D. in 1903 after taking time to travel in Europe. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, Long and Reed served as nurses at the Brooklyn Naval Hospital, becoming the first women to work for a U.S. Naval Hospital.
After contracting tuberculosis—the same disease that claimed the lives of her sister and mother—Long moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1905 to seek recovery in its dry climate. In 1908, she constructed a Dutch Colonial Revival home at 2070 Colorado Boulevard, featuring extensive porch spaces to facilitate her open-air treatments. As her infection was arrested, Long established a medical practice in clinical pathology and bacteriology, serving on the staff of Denver County Hospital starting in 1909. In 1914, she co-founded and served as the first Medical Director of Sands House Sanatorium, an organization providing care to impoverished women and girls suffering from tuberculosis.
Beyond her medical career, Long was deeply invested in political and social activism. In 1918, she took a leave of absence from her medical practice to finance and assist the U.S. Senate campaign of suffragist Anne Martin in Nevada. Long served as the main financial donor, drove Martin across Nevada in her personal automobile to address voters, and helped manage campaign operations. The two women shared a lifelong relationship, engaging in activism through organizations such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, where Long served as secretary for the Denver branch starting in 1927. Their network intersected with other prominent female figures of the era; Martin and Long were addressed as a couple by social reformer Jane Addams and her partner Mary Rozet Smith, who also maintained connections with author Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields.
Following her retirement from medicine in the 1930s, Long pursued a passion for Western history and pioneer trail exploration. Accompanied by her brother Peirce and companion Anne Martin, she logged and mapped historic paths across desert landscapes, publishing works including The Shadow of the Arrow (1941), Automobile Logs of the Smoky Hill (1943), The Smoky Hill Trail (1953), The Oregon Trail (1954), and The Santa Fe Trail (1954). Her scholarly contributions earned her the Colorado State Historical Society’s first citation for distinguished historical service.
Long maintained several significant long-term personal relationships with women throughout her lifetime. In addition to her bond with Anne Martin, census records show she lived with Dr. Jean M. Gale, who was listed as her partner in 1930. In her later years, she shared her Denver home with companion Elsie Seelye Pratt. Long passed away in Denver on August 29, 1957, at the age of 83, leaving a substantial portion of her estate to Pratt and funding the publication of her father’s historical journals before being laid to rest in the family plot at Hingham Cemetery in Massachusetts.
References:
 To Believe In Women: What Lesbians Have Done For America - A History – A Compelling Landmark Account of 19th and 20th Century Rights by Lillian Faderman |
Other references:
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