opened up her own practice, allowing her to practice dentistry without having to obtain a diploma. Dental career After studying dentistry, she started her own practice in Cincinnati in 1861. She soon moved to Bellevue and then McGregor, Iowa, where she spent three years. In 1865, she finally gained professional recognition and was allowed to join the Iowa State Dental Society, and was sent as a delegate to the American Dental Association convention in Chicago. That November, she entered the Ohio College of Dental Surgery as a senior, where on February 21, 1866, she earned her doctorate in dentistry, becoming the first woman in the world to graduate from a dental college, and to receive a doctorate in dentistry. She later wrote, "People were amazed when they learned that a young girl had so far forgotten her womanhood as to want to study dentistry." Hobbs next moved to Chicago, where she met James M. Taylor, whom she married in April 1867. Taylor then convinced her husband to also enter dentistry. The two then moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where they had a large and successful practice until he died in 1886. After her husband's death, she ceased to be an active dentist, but became more active in politics, campaigning for greater women's rights, until her own death on October 3, 1910. In her time as a dentist, Lucy Hobbs Taylor opened up brand new doors to many women in the future, especially in the medical field. She believed that her journey was complete by "making it possible for women to be recognized in the dental profession on equal terms with men." Legacy By 1900, almost one thousand women had followed Lucy Taylor into dentistry, an increase many attribute largely to her accomplishments. In 1983, the American Association of Women Dentists honored Taylor by establishing the Lucy Hobbs Taylor Award, which it now presents annually to AAWD members in recognition of professional excellence and achievements in advancing the role of women in dentistry. See also Amalia Assur Rosalie Fougelberg Emma Gaudreau Casgrain References Further reading External links 1833 births 1910 deaths People from Franklin County, New York American dentists Women dentists 19th-century dentists 20th-century dentists Members of the Odd Fellows