Fonds 26 - Augusta Stowe-Gullen fonds

Ann Augusta Stowe-Gullen (1857-1943) was a medical doctor, a lecturer and a suffragette. She was born in Mt. Pleasant, Ontario, the daughter of John Stowe and Emily Howard Jennings. She married Dr. John Benjamin Gullen in 1883. She died in Toronto in 1943.

Stowe-Gullen was educated at the Toronto School of Medicine, then at the Faculty of Medicine at Victoria University, Toronto, where she became an M.D. in 1883—the first woman to graduate from a Canadian medical school. Immediately after graduating she was appointed Demonstrator in Anatomy at the Woman’s Medical College in Toronto (from 1894 onwards known as the Ontario Medical College for Women). In 1890 she was appointed Lecturer on Diseases of Children, subsequently Professor of Diseases of Children. She also served among the original staff members of Toronto Western Hospital (founded in 1896). Her husband, Dr. John B. Gullen, was one of the twelve physicians who founded the Toronto Western Hospital in December 1895, and Stowe-Gullen was the first woman appointed to the TWH medical staff. She helped to organize, and later served as President of the TWH Women's Board (later the (Women's) Auxiliary).

Stowe-Gullen was a member of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Ontario Social Service Council, the University Women's Club, the Women's Art Association, and the Women's Canadian Club. She was also active in the suffrage, temperance and other social movements. From 1893 to 1907 she was a member of the Toronto Women's Suffrage Club founded by her mother Emily Stowe, and when the Club evolved into the Canadian Suffrage Association in 1907 Stowe-Gullen was elected honourary President. She served as the first woman member of the Toronto Public School Board (1892-1896) and in 1910 was appointed to the Senate of the University of Toronto where she represented women in the medical profession until 1924. She was among the founders of the National Council of Women in 1893, (Vice-President) of the National Council of Women, and succeeded her mother as President of the Dominion Women’s Enfranchisement Association in 1903. In 1935 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire.