Editing Alice Hamilton (section)

==Career==
===Early years at Chicago's Hull House===
In 1897 Hamilton accepted an offer to become a professor of pathology at the [[Feinberg School of Medicine|Woman's Medical School]] of [[Northwestern University]]. Soon after her move to Chicago, Illinois, Hamilton fulfilled a longtime ambition to become a member and resident of [[Hull House]], the [[settlement house]] founded by social reformer [[Jane Addams]] and [[Ellen Gates Starr]].<ref name=NLibMed/><ref name=Landmark/><ref>Sicherman, ''Alice Hamilton: A Life in Letters'', p. 111.</ref> While Hamilton taught and did research at the medical school during the day, she maintained an active life at Hull House, her full-time residence from 1897 to 1919.<ref name="Alice Hamilton ACS Landmark-X">{{cite web |url =http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/alicehamilton.html#designation-acknowledgments |title =Alice Hamilton and the Development of Occupational Medicine |publisher =American Chemical Society |work =National Historic Chemical Landmarks |access-date =May 2, 2017 |url-status =live |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20170829161049/https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/alicehamilton.html#designation-acknowledgments |archive-date =August 29, 2017 }}</ref>
On how Hull House had helped Hamilton to find her true self she said; It "''satisfied every longing, for companionship, for the excitement of new experiences, for constant intellectual stimulation, and for the sense of being caught up in a big movement which enlisted my enthusiastic loyalty.''"<ref>{{Cite news |last=GORNICK |first=VIVIAN |date=October 7, 1984 |title=Alice Hamilton's Factory Practice |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1984/10/07/alice-hamiltons-factory-practice/fddbe711-cc8f-459f-8138-1984e4deb244/ |newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref> Hamilton became Jane Addams' personal physician and volunteered her time at Hull House to teach English and art. She also directed the men's fencing and athletic clubs, operated a well-baby clinic, and visited the sick in their homes.<ref name=Weber34>Weber, p. 34.</ref><ref name=NWHM-exhibits>{{cite web| title =Alice Hamilton| publisher =National Women's History Museum| url =https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/hamilton.html| access-date =May 1, 2017| url-status =dead| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20161230141742/https://www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/hamilton.html| archive-date =December 30, 2016| df =dmy-all}}</ref> 
Other inhabitants of Hull House included Alice's sister Norah, and her friends [[Rachelle Yarros|Rachelle]] and [[Victor Yarros]].<ref name="Dangerous"/>
Although Hamilton moved away from Chicago in 1919 when she accepted a position as an assistant professor at [[Harvard Medical School]], she returned to Hull House and stayed for several months each spring until Jane Addams's death in 1935.<ref name="Alice Hamilton ACS Landmark-X"/>

Through her association and work at Hull House and living side by side with the poor residents of the community, Hamilton witnessed the effects that the dangerous trades had on workers' health through exposure to carbon monoxide and [[lead poisoning]]. As a result, she became increasingly interested in the problems the workers faced, especially occupational injuries and illnesses.<ref name=Jay148/><ref name="Trades">{{cite book|first=Alice|last=Hamilton|title=Exploring the Dangerous Trades: The Autobiography of Alice Hamilton|year=1943|publisher=Little, Brown, and Company|location=Boston|page=[https://archive.org/details/exploringdangero00hami/page/114 114]|isbn=0-930350-81-2|url=https://archive.org/details/exploringdangero00hami/page/114}}</ref> The experience also caused Hamilton to begin considering how to merge her interests in medical science and social reform to improve the health of American workers.<ref name=Jay148/>

When the Woman's Medical School closed in 1902, Hamilton took a position as bacteriologist with the Memorial Institute for Infectious Diseases, working with [[Ludvig Hektoen]].<ref name=Jay148/><ref name=NAW304/> During this time, she also formed a friendship with bacteriologist [[Ruth May Tunnicliff|Ruth Tunnicliffe]].<ref name="Morantz-Sanchez">{{cite book |last1=Morantz-Sanchez |first1=Ruth Markell |title=Sympathy & science : women physicians in American medicine |date=October 12, 2005 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0807848906 |page=[https://archive.org/details/sympathysciencew01mora/page/161 161] |edition=2nd |url=https://archive.org/details/sympathysciencew01mora |url-access=registration |access-date=September 25, 2018}}</ref> Hamilton investigated a typhoid epidemic in Chicago before focusing her research on the investigation of industrial diseases.<ref name=Jay148/><ref name=NAW304>Sicherman and Green, p. 304.</ref> Some of Hamilton's early research in this area included attempts to identify causes of typhoid and tuberculosis in the community surrounding Hull House.<ref name=CHFBio/> Her work on typhoid in 1902 led to the replacement of the chief sanitary inspector of the area by the [[Chicago Board of Health]].<ref name=DaleyCollection>{{cite web |title=Alice Hamilton Collection |url=http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/specialcoll/services/rjd/findingaids/AHamiltonf.html |website=Richard J. Daley Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago |access-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001170628/http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/specialcoll/services/rjd/findingaids/AHamiltonf.html |archive-date=October 1, 2015 }}</ref>

The study of industrial medicine (work-related illnesses) had become increasingly important because the [[Industrial Revolution]] of the late nineteenth century had led to new dangers in the workplace. In 1907 Hamilton began exploring existing literature from abroad and noticed that industrial medicine was not being studied as much in America. She set out to change the situation and published her first article on the topic in 1908.<ref name=MMWR1999>{{cite journal|title=Alice Hamilton, M.D.|journal=MMWR Weekly|date=June 11, 1999|volume=48|issue=22|page=462|url=https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/MM4822bx.HTM|access-date=October 16, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151216100927/http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/MM4822bx.htm|archive-date=December 16, 2015}}</ref>

===Medical investigator===
Hamilton began her long career in public health and workplace safety in 1910, when Illinois governor [[Charles S. Deneen]] appointed her as a medical investigator to the newly formed Illinois Commission on Occupational Diseases.<ref name="CHFBio"/><ref name="Alice Hamilton ACS Landmark-X"/><ref name="Stebner">{{cite book |last1=Stebner |first1=Eleanor J. |title=The women of Hull House : a study in spirituality, vocation, and friendship |date=1997 |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=New York |isbn=9780791434871 |pages=128–139 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jDuFeO9tlbkC&pg=PA137 |access-date=October 9, 2018}}</ref> Hamilton led the commission's investigations, which focused on industrial poisons such as lead and other toxins.<ref name=Jay148/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2014/04/28/alice-hamilton/|title=A Voice in the Wilderness: Alice Hamilton and the Illinois Survey {{!}} NIOSH Science Blog {{!}} Blogs {{!}} CDC|website=blogs.cdc.gov|date=April 28, 2014 |access-date=November 12, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161113033928/https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2014/04/28/alice-hamilton/|archive-date=November 13, 2016}}</ref> She also authored the "Illinois Survey," the commission's report that documented its findings of industrial processes that exposed workers to lead poisoning and other illnesses. She discovered over seventy industrial processes through which workers became exposed to lead poisoning. In addition, she uncovered professions, such as polishing cut glass and wrapping cigars in "tinfoil," that exhibited an increase expose to lead poisoning, contrary to the public's beliefs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alice Hamilton and the Development of Occupational Medicine |url=https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/alicehamilton.html |access-date=February 11, 2025 |website=American Chemical Society |language=en}}</ref> The commission's efforts resulted in the passage of the first workers' compensation laws in Illinois in 1911, in Indiana in 1915, and occupational disease laws in other states.<ref name=Jay148/> The new laws required employers to take safety precautions to protect workers.<ref name="windsor"/><ref name="CDCBio" />

By 1916 Hamilton had become America's foremost authority on lead poisoning.<ref name=NAW304/> For the next decade she investigated a range of issues for a variety of state and federal health committees. Hamilton focused her explorations on occupational toxic disorders, examining the effects of substances such as [[Aniline|aniline dyes]], [[carbon monoxide]], [[Mercury (element)|mercury]], [[tetraethyl lead]], [[radium]], [[benzene]], [[carbon disulfide]] and [[hydrogen sulfide]] gases. In 1925, at a Public Health Service conference on the use of lead in gasoline, she testified against the use of lead and warned of the danger it posed to people and the environment.<ref name="Why"/> Nevertheless, leaded gasoline was allowed.<ref name="Jacobson">{{cite book |last1=Jacobson |first1=Mark Z. |title=Atmospheric pollution : history, science, and regulation |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0521010446 |pages=75–80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bveEPjMxP3cC&pg=PA76}}</ref><ref name="Kovarik">{{cite journal |last1=Kovarik |first1=William |s2cid=44633845 |title=Ethyl-leaded gasoline: How a classic occupational disease became an international public health disaster |journal=International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health |date=2005 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=384–397 |doi=10.1179/oeh.2005.11.4.384 |pmid=16350473}}</ref> The [[EPA]] in 1988 estimated that over the previous 60 years, 68 million children suffered high toxic exposure to lead from leaded fuels.<ref name="Why">{{cite web |url=http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/11/why-lead-used-to-be-added-to-gasoline/ |title=Why lead used to be added to gasoline |date=November 15, 2011 |access-date=December 5, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003081233/http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/11/why-lead-used-to-be-added-to-gasoline/ |archive-date=October 3, 2017 }}</ref>

Her work on the manufacture of [[white lead]] and [[lead oxide]], as a special investigator for the [[U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics]], is considered a "landmark study."<ref name="CHFBio"/> Relying primarily on "shoe leather epidemiology" (her process of making personal visits to factories, conducting interviews with workers, and compiling details of diagnosed poisoning cases) and the emerging laboratory science of toxicology, Hamilton pioneered [[occupational epidemiology]] and [[industrial hygiene]]. She also created the specialized field of industrial medicine in the United States. Her findings were scientifically persuasive and influenced sweeping health reforms that changed laws and general practice to improve the health of workers.<ref name=Jay148/><ref name=Weber35>Weber, p. 35.</ref><ref name=CDCBio>{{cite web|title=Alice Hamilton Science Awards|url=https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/awards/hamilton/HamHist.html|website=Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|publisher=The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)|access-date=October 15, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921073843/http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/awards/hamilton/hamhist.html|archive-date=September 21, 2015}}</ref>

During World War I, the US Army tasked her with solving a mysterious ailment striking workers at a munitions plant in New Jersey. She led a team that included [[George Minot]], a professor at Harvard Medical School. She deduced that the workers were being sickened through contact with the explosive [[trinitrotoluene]] (TNT). She recommended that workers wear protective clothing to be removed and washed at the end of each shift, solving the problem.<ref>{{cite web|title=Alice Hamilton a pioneer in occupational health|url=https://tacomed.com/chapter-one-george-minot/alice-hamilton-a-pioneer-in-occupational-health/|website=Tacomed.com|access-date=June 13, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228171621/https://tacomed.com/chapter-one-george-minot/alice-hamilton-a-pioneer-in-occupational-health/|archive-date=December 28, 2017}}</ref>

Hamilton's best-known research included her studies on carbon monoxide poisoning among American steelworkers, [[mercury poisoning]] of hatters, and "[[Vibration white finger|a debilitating hand condition developed by workers using jackhammers]]."<ref name=NWHM-exhibits/> At the request of the U.S. Department of Labor, she also investigated industries involved in developing high explosives, "spastic anemia known as 'dead fingers'" among [[Bedford, Indiana]], limestone cutters, and the "unusually high incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis" among tombstone carvers working in the granite mills of [[Quincy, Massachusetts]], and [[Barre (city), Vermont|Barre, Vermont]].<ref name=Weber37>Weber, p. 37.</ref> Hamilton was also a member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Mortality from Tuberculosis in Dusty Trades, whose efforts "laid the groundwork for further studies and eventual widespread reform in the industry."<ref name=Weber37/>

===Women's rights and peace activist===
<!-- LOC Authorized form: International Congress of Women (1915: The Hague, Netherlands)  -->
During her years at Hull House, Hamilton was active in the [[women's rights]] and [[peace movement]]s.  She traveled with [[Jane Addams]] and [[Emily Greene Balch]] to the 1915 [[International Congress of Women]] in [[The Hague]],<ref name=Hague1915>{{cite web|first1=Kathryn Kish |last1=Sklar |first2= Kari |last2=Amidon|title=How Did Women Activists Promote Peace in Their 1915 Tour of Warring European Capitals?|url=http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/hague/intro.htm|website=Women and Social Movements in the United States|access-date=October 16, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140920082612/http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/hague/intro.htm|archive-date=September 20, 2014}}</ref> where they met [[Aletta Jacobs]], a Dutch pacifist, feminist, and suffragist.<ref name=Addams1915>{{cite book |first1=Jane|last1= Addams|first2= Emily |last2=Balch|first3=  Alice |last3=Hamilton |title=Women at The Hague : The International Congress of Women and Its Results / by Three Delegates to the Congress from the United States, Jane Addams, Emily G. Balch, Alice Hamilton |date=1915 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn= 9780524058886|url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000446799 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308185058/http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000446799 |archive-date=March 8, 2016 }}</ref><ref name=History>{{cite web|title=1915: International Congress of Women opens at The Hague|url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/international-congress-of-women-opens-at-the-hague|website=This Day in History|access-date=October 16, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924085008/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/international-congress-of-women-opens-at-the-hague|archive-date=September 24, 2015}}</ref> She also visited German-occupied Belgium.<ref name=NAW304/>

Hamilton returned to Europe with Addams in May 1919 to attend the second International Congress of Women at [[Zürich]], Switzerland.<ref name=NAW304/><ref name="Sklar53–55">{{cite book|first1=Kathryn Kish|last1= Sklar|first2= Anja|last2= Schüler| first3= Susan |last3=Strasser|title=Social Justice Feminists in the United States and Germany: A Dialogue in Documents, 1885–1933|date=1998|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca|isbn=9780801484698|pages=53–55|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4FUxisSKqRUC&pg=PA245|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529064100/https://books.google.com/books?id=4FUxisSKqRUC&pg=PA245|archive-date=May 29, 2016}}</ref> In addition, Hamilton, Addams, Jacobs, and American [[Quakers|Quaker]] Carolena M. Wood became involved in a humanitarian mission to Germany to distribute food aid and investigate reports of famine.<ref name=Sklar245-255>Sklar, Schüler, and Strasser, pp. 53–55.</ref>

===Assistant professor, Harvard Medical School===
[[File:Dr. Alice Hamilton.jpg|alt=Alice Hamilton during her first year at Harvard, 1919|thumb|Alice Hamilton during her first year at Harvard, 1919]]
In January 1919, Hamilton accepted a position as assistant professor in a newly formed Department of Industrial Medicine (and after 1925 the School of Public Health) at [[Harvard Medical School]], making her the first woman appointed to the [[Harvard University]] faculty in any field.<ref name="CHFBio"/><ref name=NAW304/> Her appointment was hailed by the ''[[New York Tribune]]'' with the headline: "A Woman on Harvard Faculty—The Last Citadel Has Fallen—The Sex Has Come Into Its Own".<ref name=NLibMed/>  She commented, "yes, I am the first woman on the Harvard faculty—but not the first one who should have been appointed!"<ref name=Fee>{{cite journal|first1=Elizabeth|last1= Fee| first2= Theodore M. |last2=Brown |title=Alice Hamilton: Settlement Physician, Occupational Health Pioneer |journal=American Journal of Public Health|date=November 2001|volume=91|issue=11|page=1767|doi=10.2105/AJPH.91.11.1767|pmc=1446873 |pmid=11684598}}</ref>

During her years at Harvard, from 1919 to her retirement in 1935, Hamilton never received a faculty promotion and held only a series of three-year appointments. At her request, the half-time appointments for which she taught one semester per year allowed her to continue her research and spend several months of each year at Hull House. Hamilton also faced discrimination as a woman. She was excluded from social activities, could not enter the Harvard Union, attend the Faculty Club, or receive a quota of football tickets. In addition, Hamilton was not allowed to march in the university's commencement ceremonies as the male faculty members did.<ref name=NLibMed/><ref name=Jay149>Jay, p. 149.</ref><ref>{{cite web | title =A National Chemical Landmark: Alice Hamilton and the Development of Occupational Medicine, September 21, 2002 | publisher =American Chemical Society | date =2002 | url =https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/alicehamilton/alice-hamilton-and-the-development-of-occupational-medicine-commemorative-booklet.pdf | access-date =May 2, 2017 | url-status =live | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20171029121523/https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/alicehamilton/alice-hamilton-and-the-development-of-occupational-medicine-commemorative-booklet.pdf | archive-date =October 29, 2017 }}</ref>

Hamilton became a successful fundraiser for Harvard as she continued to write and conduct research on the dangerous trades. In addition to publishing "landmark reports for the U.S. Department of Labor" on research related to workers in Arizona copper mines and stonecutters at Indiana's limestone quarries,<ref name=Jay149/> Hamilton also wrote ''Industrial Poisons in the United States'' (1925), the first American textbook on the subject, and another related textbook, ''Industrial Toxicology'' (1934).<ref name=Landmark/><ref name=NAW305>Sicherman and Green, p. 305.</ref> At a tetraethyl lead conference in [[Washington, D.C.]] in 1925, Hamilton was a prominent critic of adding [[tetraethyl lead]] to gasoline.<ref name="Rosner">{{cite journal |last1=Rosner |first1=David |last2=Markowitz |first2=Gerald |title=A 'Gift of God'?: The Public Health Controversy over Leaded Gasoline during the 1920s |journal=American Journal of Public Health |date=April 1985 |volume=75 |issue=4 |pages=344–352 |doi=10.2105/ajph.75.4.344 |pmid=2579591 |pmc=1646253}}</ref><ref name=Tetraethyl>{{cite journal|first=Alice |last=Hamilton |title=What Price Safety, Tetraethyl Lead Reveals a Flaw in Our Defenses|journal=The Survey Mid-Monthly|date=June 15, 1925|volume=54|pages=333–34}}</ref><ref name=Dauvergne>{{cite book|first=Peter |last=Dauvergne|title=The shadows of consumption : consequences for the global environment|date=2010|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge, Mass.|isbn=978-0262514927|page=74|edition=First MIT Press paperback|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5PEFBfoK9JIC&pg=PA74|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617164206/https://books.google.com/books?id=5PEFBfoK9JIC&pg=PA74|archive-date=June 17, 2016}}</ref>

Hamilton also remained an activist in social reform efforts.<ref name=NAW304/><ref name=Weber37/> Her specific interests in civil liberties, peace, birth control, and protective labor legislation for women caused some of her critics to consider her a "radical" and a "subversive."<ref name=Jay149/> From 1924 to 1930, she served as the only woman member of the [[League of Nations]] Health Committee.<ref name=Hilgenkamp>{{cite book|first=Kathryn |last=Hilgenkamp|title=Environmental Health|date=2011|publisher=Jones and Bartlett Learning|isbn=978-0763771089|page=327|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DuCNxKlDLogC&pg=PA327|access-date=October 16, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430082840/https://books.google.com/books?id=DuCNxKlDLogC&pg=PA327|archive-date=April 30, 2016}}</ref> She also visited the Soviet Union in 1924 and [[Nazi Germany]] in April 1933. Hamilton wrote "The Youth Who Are Hitler's Strength," which was published in ''The New York Times''. The article described [[Nazi]] exploitation of youth in the years between the two world wars.<ref name=NAW305/><ref name=Letters437>Sicherman, ''Alice Hamilton, A Life in Letters'', p. 437.</ref> She also criticized the Nazi education, especially its domestic training for girls.<ref name=Perry>{{cite book|first=Marvin |last=Perry|title=Sources of the Western Tradition |date=2003 |publisher=Wadsworth |location=Belmont, California |volume=II|edition=5th}}</ref>