In 1909, she became the first woman to graduate from the University of Maryland Dental Department.
The Health Sciences and Human Services Library is celebrating Women’s History Month by featuring women of UMB on its blog and in The Elm.
Georgiana Palmer Monks came from a small town in Tioga County, Pa.; she was a graduate of Lock Haven State Normal School and taught in Chatham Valley before becoming a dentist.
She came from a family of dentists; her brother, Dr. Frederick Monks, had preceded his sister in graduating from the University of Maryland Dental Department in 1908. Another brother, Dr. Charles E. Monks, graduated from the Baltimore Medical College Dental Department in 1901; he served as Georgiana’s preceptor in dental school. Yet another brother, Dr. Leon D. Monks, was a practicing dentist in New Haven, Conn.
At graduation, Georgiana Monks received the University Gold Medal Award, given to the graduate with the highest grade at final examination as well as first honorable mention for the Best Non-Cohesive Gold Filling. Monks was the only woman to graduate from the Dental Department in 1909. She was called “Grandma” in the Terra Mariae yearbook, perhaps because she was “the nicest girl.”
After graduation, Monks practiced dentistry with her brother, Frederick, in Connecticut. Later, her sister, Dr. Jesse G. Monks, a prize-winning graduate of Ohio College of Dental Surgery in 1919, would join her in a dental practice in New Haven. The sisters worked and lived together until Georgiana Monks retired in 1942. She passed away on Nov. 21, 1959.