Lucy Hobbs Taylor

Lucy Hobbs Taylor (March 14, 1833 - October 3, 1910) was the first American female dentist.

Early life
Lucy Hobbs was born on March 14, 1833 in Constable, New York. She entered the working world by teaching school for ten years in Michigan. In 1859, she moved to Cincinnati, intending to become a dentist. When she was refused admission to dental school, she began a private program of study with a professor from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery.

Dental career
After studying dentistry, Lucy Hobbs 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 all professional recognition when she was allowed to join the Iowa State Dental Society. That November, she entered the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, where she soon earned her doctorate in dentistry, becoming the first woman in the US to do so.

Hobbs next moved to Chicago where she met James M. Taylor whom she married in April 1867, becoming Lucy Taylor. Taylor then convinced her husband to also enter dentistry. The two then moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where they practiced jointly until James Taylor died in 1886. After her husband's death, Lucy Taylor 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.

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.