Mary Elizabeth Garrett - Final Bequest to the University
It was Mary Elizabeth Garrett’s wish that her philanthropy might continue after her death. While she left the greatest part of her estate to M. Carey Thomas, and this without any “trust, reservation or restriction whatsoever,” she did so with the expectation that Thomas would continue their work for the advancement of women and women’s education. In the Fourth Article of her last will and testament, Garrett affirms this:
The said M. Carey Thomas and myself have been closely associated in our work for the higher education of women and I am confident that an appropriate and wise use will be made by her of my gift to her.
The language of Garrett’s will also makes evident her hope that the women of Johns Hopkins would always enjoy the advantages of the School of Medicine on the same terms as men. The conditions to an eventual bequest to the university (in the event that Thomas should predecease her) make this clear. Garrett requires that the University execute an agreement covenanting
[t]o maintain the Medical School of the University every year pursuant to the terms of [her] gift heretofore made to the said University for the benefit of said Medical School […].
To admit women to the Medical School of the University in all its departments on the same terms precisely as are or shall be applicable at the same time to men […]
that women shall be eligible as professors and teachers of every grade in all departments of the Medical School and that all such opportunities, privileges, prizes, dignities and honors shall not only be open to women as aforesaid on equal terms but that every effort shall be made by the Trustees administering the trust to ensure that the proportion of the same to be enjoyed by women shall at no time be less than that which would fall to their share if due regard were paid to the relative numbers of men and women studying in the Medical School at any given time and to the maintenance of a high standard of scholarship […]
that every effort shall be made by the Trustees administering the said school to ensure that the proportion of the professors chairs and of other teaching posts held by women shall at no time be less than the proportions that would fall to them or to their share, due regard being had to the relative numbers of men and women studying in the Medical School at any given time and to the maintenance of a high standard of scholarship. […].
Mary Elizabeth Garrett's Will, Article XI.
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Mary Elizabeth Garrett's Will, Article XI, Page 2, Page 3, ,Page 4
Mary Elizabeth Garrett's legacy is manifest in the following rosters...The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Female Graduates 1897- Present
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Female Professors Appointed from 1917 - Present
