Studio photograph, photographer unknown, reproduced as the frontispiece of Caroline Healey Dall, The Life of Dr. Anandabai Joshee (Roberts Brothers, Boston, 1888); scan by the Princeton Theological Seminary Library, hosted by the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/lifeofdranandaba00dall_0) · Frontispiece photographic plate 'Full-length Portrait of Dr. Joshee in her Mahratta Dress' in Caroline Healey Dall, The Life of Dr. Anandabai Joshee (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1888), from the Princeton Theological Seminary Library scan on the Internet Archive (page image 6 of the scan). The book's own list of illustrations names the plate; the plate carries no printed caption or lettering. It reproduces a studio photograph of her taken during her American years; the photographer is not named in the book. The file is the plate cropped from the library's 1547 x 2639 pixel page scan (1410 x 2006 pixels) and then reduced to 843 x 1200 pixels; no upscaling. · Public domain (the plate was published in the United States in 1888, before 1931; photographer not named in the book)

physician · 19th Century

Anandibai Joshi

1865–1887

Known For

medicalhistorical

Wikidata

Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.

Trait Constellation

Key Achievements

Indian woman from a high-caste Hindu family who graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in March 1886 with a thesis on obstetrics among Hindu women; the college's archive describes her as the first high-caste Hindu woman to receive a medical degree.

After arguing publicly at Serampore in 1883 that India needed Hindu women doctors, she travelled alone to Philadelphia, matriculated that October, and in 1886 was engaged to take charge of the female ward at the Albert Edward Hospital in Kolhapur and teach a class of girls.

She sailed home in October 1886 and died of tuberculosis at Poona on 26 February 1887 before practising; her letters, printed by Caroline Dall in 1888 and studied by Meera Kosambi, are the main record of her own account of studying medicine abroad.

Moments That Reveal Them

In February 1883, at Serampore College, she gave a public address without notes explaining why she was going to America alone and why India needed Hindu women doctors, ending 'I volunteer to qualify myself for one'; a printed copy circulated in Bombay and a post-office director sent congratulations and a gift of 100 rupees.

This is consistent with a person who framed her own plan as a public purpose and was willing to argue for it in front of a sceptical audience. Impact Motivation

She was gravely ill with diphtheria in February 1884 in her first winter in Philadelphia and again weakened in her final year, yet she completed her five terms and received the degree in March 1886.

This is consistent with sustained effort through illness and an unfamiliar climate, helped by the dean and hostess families who cared for her. Persistence

Turning Points

In September 1883 she reached Philadelphia, was received by the college's dean, Rachel Bodley, and matriculated at the Woman's Medical College on 3 October 1883, having sold her marriage jewellery to pay for the passage.

This is consistent with a decision to commit fully to a plan that cut her off from the ordinary course of her community, taken with the support of a network of patrons. Risk Tolerance