mittee, Mrs. May Wright Sewall of Indianapolis, who
made several trips abroad in the interest of the Congress. To her
great executive capacity and untiring efforts for three years, with
those added of its secretary, Mrs. Rachel Foster Avery of
Philadelphia, and the splendid co-operation of the committee of
Chicago women--Miss Frances E. Willard. Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson,
Dr. Julia Holmes Smith, Mrs. Lydia Avery Coonley, Mrs. Elizabeth
Boynton Harbert and Mrs. William Thayer Brown--is due the fact that
this Congress was the most conspicuous success of any held during the
Exposition, with the exception of the Parliament of Religions. It
convened May 15, 1893, and continued one week, during which eighty-one
meetings were held in the different rooms of the Art Palace.
Twenty-seven countries and 126 organizations were represented by 528
delegates. According to official estimate the total attendance
exceeded 150,000.[247]

EDUCATION: The law colleges never have been closed to women. Union
College of Law was the first in the United States to graduate a woman,
Mrs. Ada H. Kepley, in 1870.

Some of the medical schools are still bitterly opposed to admitting
women. All the homeopathic colleges are open to them with the
exception of the Chicago Homeopathic. At Harvey Medical College about
half the students are women, and several of the full professorships
are filled by them. Hahnemann College admits them but has no woman
professor or instructor. In 1899 Dr. Julia Holmes Smith was elected
dean of the National Medical College (Homeopathic) with no dissenting
vote, and in 1900 she was re-elected. She is the only woman dean of a
medical institution composed of both sexes. Women are received in the
College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is the medical department of
the State University. Rush College, one of the largest of the
allopathic institutions, has just been opened to them. All of the
colleges named above are in Chicago. Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson was
the first woman admitted to the American Medical Association.

The theological schools generally are closed to women. They are
admitted to the full courses of the Garrett Biblical Institute of the
Northwestern University. Lombard University gives them the full
privileges of its Divinity School (Universalist). In 1898 the Chicago
Union Theological Seminary (Congregationalist) opened its doors to
them. They may also enter the theological department of Chicago
University, bu