Dr. Annie Lowrie Alexander
NC office of Archives and History, Raleigh, NC
Dr. Annie Lowrie Alexander was the first woman licensed in the south to practice medicine. Although she did not go to school here, she lived and practiced in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Alexander faced many challenges being a woman trying to practice medicine. She did however succeed. She graduated from the Medical College in Philadelphia in 1885 (Riggins). “After a year as intern at her alma mater, she became an assistant teacher of anatomy in the Woman’s Medical College of Baltimore, Md., while at the same time practicing medicine privately” (Dudley). After some time, she moved back to her home town of Charlotte, NC. It was in Charlotte that “she was elected in 1909 for the first of several terms as president of the Mecklenburg County Medical Society” (Riggins). The Mecklenburg County Medical Society is a nonprofit society made up of physicians. They have many different programs including Physicians Reach Out, Teen Health Connection, MedAssist of Mecklenburg, Hospitality House, and Bioethics Resource Group (EyeBenders). Annie served several terms as president of the Mecklenburg County Medical Society. In the mean time, “she also served on the boards of both Saint Peter’s Hospital and Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte” (Riggins). Dr. Alexander was very active in the Charlotte community supporting organizations such as Charlotte YMCA and the Florence Crittenton Maternity Home (Riggins). She “was a physician for Queens College for twenty-three years” (Goodpasture, 2007). It is also said that “during World War 1, she became a first lieutenant in the army and served as a surgeon at Charlotte’s Camp Greene” (Goodpasture, 2007). As previously stated, the process she went through to achieve all of this was a challenging one. Dr. Alexander faced many people who objected her and other women in medicine.