In 1953, when this photograph was distributed, the Medical Society of the State of New York had just named Mary Jane Ross (1877-1964), a physician and expert on gastric glands, the state's outstanding General Practitioner of the Year, the first woman to be so honored by the society. Born in Canada, Ross had immigrated to the United States in 1889 and earned an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1907. She was instrumental in establishing New York's Well Baby Stations in 1919, and a clinic to educate mothers on post-natal and infant care, and is credited with helping to reduce the infant mortality rate. She worked in her clinic free of charge until it was taken over by city of Binghamton, N.Y., in 1933 and she became the supervising physician.
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