Vetnews | Augustus 2025 18 « BACK TO CONTENTS WOMEN VETERINARIANS The first women to receive Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degrees in the United States were Mignon Nicholson (1876-1906) from McKillip Veterinary College in 1903, followed by two more women one month apart in 1910, Elinor McGrath (1878-1963) from Chicago Veterinary College and Florence Kimball (1885-1947) from Cornell University. Mignon Nicholson (1876-1906) An online search for “Who was the first female veterinarian in the United States?” generates top results that are a bit misleading. No, it wasn’t Dr. Florence Kimbell. Nor was it Dr. Elinor McGrath. While both of these 1910 vet school grads helped pave the way for other women in a male-dominated field, the search should have favoured a woman who graduated seven years earlier: Dr. Mignon Nicholson. Dr. Howard Erickson, Kansas State University: “If you go worldwide, there were some earlier than her, but she was the first in the U.S…. Unfortunately…nobody really knew much about Mignon Nicholson.” When Dr. Erickson, a professor emeritus with Kansas State University’s veterinary college, was asked once to give a speech about pioneering women in veterinary medicine, he found Mignon Nicholson’s story elusive enough that he asked a couple of librarians for help. Together, they were able to pull together a rough picture of the 1903 graduate’s life. Dr. Howard Erickson, Kansas State University: “Her childhood, as far as we know, was in Ravenswood. It’s a part of Long Island in… New York City. And all I know is she took care of the dogs and cats in the community. She read about dogs and cats, and she read about human medicine and surgery... She also married at a young age, as well, from what we know. And her first husband was a travelling salesman, so she was home alone.” It’s unclear what brought an end to the marriage, but by the time she was in her early 20s, she had moved to Chicago. Defying the odds – and likely surprising administrators when she applied -- Nicholson was accepted into McKillip Veterinary College in 1900. Dr. Howard Erickson, Kansas State University: “It was one of the largest private veterinary colleges of that day. It had some 1200 graduates, I think, at that time. McKillip was probably one of the more progressive schools.” The now-defunct Chicago college was co-founded in 1892 by a local horse farrier, Matthew McKillip, who also had a veterinary practice. Although not owned by his descendants and now in a different location, his veterinary practice still exists today. Besides admitting a woman, McKillip Veterinary College also had, four years earlier, admitted Thomas Madison Doram, believed to be the third African American to earn a professional veterinary degree in the U.S. Erickson said there can be challenges in determining these “firsts” in veterinary medicine due to a failure to preserve journals and other documents from more than 40 now-defunct vet schools. In 2011, a University of Missouri veterinary school librarian showed that no indexed records could be found for 18 of these schools, which the author described as a loss of essential information in the history of veterinary medicine. Although most of McKillip College’s journals have been lost to history, a handful did survive, including several at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, but they aren’t from the years when Nicholson was a student. Erickson did find evidence in a Chicago city directory that Nicholson ran a small animal practice during her first year at McKillip, probably from her home. She added pet boarding during her second year. Dr. Howard Erickson, Kansas State University: “The horse was the primary species that was studied at the time, although they did study dogs and cats and small animals. But it was unusual for someone to establish a small animal hospital.” The early women veterinarians were pioneers who paved the way for other women who studied veterinary medicine in later years. Article
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