Vetnews | Augustus 2025 20 « BACK TO CONTENTS Florence Kimball “Florence Kimball, D.V.M. 1910, who became the first American woman ever to earn a doctorate in veterinary medicine. Seven of the first 11 women to become licensed veterinarians in this country were Cornell University graduates. While Kimball is a badge of pride for CornellVet, it is marred by the fact that up until 1970, only a small number of seats were made available to female applicants. Mary Smith, D.V.M. ’72, professor in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, recalls her application process to the college. ‘After fifty-eight men had been selected, four women were summoned to the Hagan Room,’ Smith says. ‘We were told, ‘Two of you we will accept and two we will reject,’ and one at a time we were called out for an interview.’ In Europe, Marie Kapsevitch [Kapczewitsch] (b. 1855) from Loknistoe, Chernigov, Ukraine graduated from the Ecole Nationale Veterinaire d’Alfort in France in 1897 and Aleen Cust, MRCVS (1868-1937) completed degree requirements in 1900 at the New Veterinary College at Edinburgh, Scotland. In Australia, Isabelle Bruce Reid (1883-1945) finished 4 years of study at the Melbourne Veterinary College in 1902. v Marie Kapsevitch [Kapczewitsch] Marie Kapsevitch, born on September 2, 1855, in Loknistoë ( Chernihiv province ), then in the Russian Empire (and today in Ukraine ), and died in1917during the Russian Revolution, was the first student and the first woman to graduate from the National Veterinary School of Alfort. She is the first woman to graduate in veterinary medicine in France and probably the first in Europe. Biography Born into a wealthy Russian family from Ukraine, Marie Kapsevitch was born in 1855 in Loknistoë. Passionate about greyhounds, she moved to Paris in the 1890s to take some courses at the National Veterinary School of Alfort, in order to learn how to care for her animals herself. In 1893, she obtained permission to officially enter as a student. Four years later, theJuly 23, 1897, she graduated, mentioned as”(Unclassified), Miss Kapcevitch (Marie), from Loknistoë (Russia)” at the end of the list of students accepted [ 4 ] . Several newspapers relayed the news, presenting Marie Kapsevitch as “ the first person of her sex”to have completed such studie, and emphasizing that she was”a kind person, very liberal and loved by all her classmates”. She was probably the first European to graduate in veterinary medicine. At the beginning of the 20th century , she bought the Ker Arvor villa in Pornichet , in the Sainte-Marguerite district [ 9 ] . In a study with walls covered in pitch pine woodwork, she embroidered tapestries depicting Russian rural scenes. Her habit of going to the beach after bathing and then entrusting it to her maid to bathe naked in the sea caused a stir. In April 1913, she became a member of the Veterinary Society of Calvados, Manche and Orne. Returning to Russia, she was shot during the Russian Revolution in 1917. Her businessman, Mr. Le Bédeff, inherited her villa in Pornichet. v Article
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