Thirty-four-year-old Romania Pratt, as we said earlier, blazed the way – and what a trailblazer she was!  Professors soon were pointing to her outstanding work as a model for other students to imitate.

The pioneering female physician also was the first woman allowed to intern at prestigious Bellevue Hospital.  And the next semester, she transferred to the highly-rated Woman’s Medical College of Philadelphia where she met Ellis Shipp.

Ellis, a wife of Mormon polygamist Milford Shipp, also had left Utah in search of medical training.  The decision didn’t require the sale of a beloved piano, as in Romania’s case, but it still was fraught with difficulties.