Alice Hamilton and the development of occupational medicine

C O N T E N T S

Alice Hamilton: a long productive life

Hull-House

Hazards of the workplace
Industrial toxicology

Social activist

Landmark designation
Further reading and acknowledgements

Alice Hamilton and the Development of Occupational Medicine

"It was also my experience at Hull-House that aroused my interest in industrial diseases. Living in a working-class quarter, coming in contact with laborers and their wives, I could not fail to hear tales of dangers that workingmen faced, of cases of carbon-monoxide gassing in the great steel mills, of painters disabled by palsy, of pneumonia and rheumatism among the men in the stockyards.

Alice Hamilton, Exploring the Dangerous Trades: The Autobiography of Alice Hamilton (1943)

Alice Hamilton: Pioneer
Alice Hamilton helped make the American workplace less dangerous. Her investigations into industrial poisons, first for the state of Illinois and later for the U.S. Department of Labor, underscored the dangerous working conditions in early twentieth-century America. In her quest to uncover industrial toxins, Hamilton — who dressed modestly, wore her hair in a bun, and spoke in a quiet voice — roamed the more dangerous parts of urban America, descended mines, and finagled her way into factories reluctant to admit her. As a pioneer in the field of industrial toxicology, Hamilton became a leading expert in chemical health and safety.

The American Chemical Society designated the work of Alice Hamilton as a National Historic Chemical Landmark at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum in Chicago, Illinois, on September 21, 2002.