Page:Woman of the Century.djvu/202

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time the opposition to women students, which almost amounted to persecution, was manifested to tin- first class of lady students, among other things, by the rude treatment they received From the men ANNA MANNING COMFORT. students and even from some of the professors while attending the clinics in Bellevue Hospital. After graduation Miss Manning began the practice of her profession in Norwich, Conn., being the first woman graduate in medicine to practice in that State. By her strong personality and her professional success she soon won a large and important patronage in Norwich and eastern Connecticut. She there strongly espoused, in the press and otherwise, the cause of woman suffrage and of woman's equality with men in all moral, social and civil relations. In 1870 she removed to New York City, where she successfully practiced her profession, was appointed lecturer in the college from which she graduated, and was elected a member of the newly founded society of Sorosis. In New York Dr. Manning met the gentleman whom she married in 1871, Prof. G. F. Comfort, L.H.D., the distinished scholar in linguistics and art criticism, who came the founder and 'lean of the College of Fine Arts of the Syracuse University. In 1872 they removed to Syracuse, where Dean Comfort entered upon his work in the newly established university in that city. Dr. Comfort relinquished her medical practice for some years, till her children had grown beyond the need of a mother's constant cares. On resuming practice she confined her work to gynecology, which had before been her chief department, and in that field she has achieved success and distinction. In 1874 Dr. Comfort wrote "Woman's Education and Woman's Health," in reply to Dr. Clarke's "Sex in Education," in which he attacked the higher education of woman. In 1887 and 1801 she traveled extensively in Europe, where she visited many important hospitals and medical institutions. Her tastes and accomplishments are varied and versatile; she has marked histrionic powers, and could have achieved distinguished success as an artist, musician or actor, or on the lecture platform.


CONANT, Mrs. Frances Augusta, journalist and business woman, born in West Burlington, N. Y., 23rd December, 1842. Her parents were Curtis and Martha R. Hemingway. She was educated in the western part of the State and in Brooklyn, where she became the wife, in 1864, of Claudius W. Conant, of New York. In early girlhood she became a contributor to New York publications. Since 1982 Mrs. Conant has been a resident of Chicago, III. She usually passes the winters in traveling through the South. She was for several years a special correspondent of the "Living Church" and a contributor to the "Advance" and other religious publications of Chicago, as well as to some class journals, and, occasionally, short stories of hers appeared in leading New York and Philadelphia publications. During the New Orleans Exposition of 1884-'85 she was the only special woman correspondent in that city for a mechanical and scientific journal, ably representing the "Industrial World," of Chicago. She often writes as a collaborator with her husband, who is connected with the "American Field." and they frequently do editorial work interchangeably. Mrs. Conant is an earnest advocate of the cause of industrial education, and she was editor and business manager of the "Journal of Industrial Education" in the early days of its publication. Her reputation as a writer of short sketches of travel lea to an engagement as editor of the "American Traveler and Tourist." published in Chicago, which position she held for two years, until she became interested FRANCES AUGUSTA CONANT. in a commercial enterprise. Though rarely working in any associations, she has developed decided ability as a promoter and organizer. She was one of the founders of the Woman's National Press