The story of Mayo Clinic begins on the Minnesota prairie following a devastating tornado in 1883. It also begins with the women who joined the growing practice as physicians, as laboratory researchers, as developers of radium theory and cancer treatments, and as innovators in virtually all aspects of patient care, education, and research. In tracing the perspectives of more than forty of these women, this book introduces a new perspective on the history of both Mayo Clinic and women in medicine.-- From publisher's description.

Part 1. Unlikely beginning -- 1. Disaster strikes, August 21, 1883 -- 2. Arriving in pioneer Rochester, 1851-1883 -- Part 2. Women and the early medical practice -- 3. Opening Saint Mary's Hospital, 1889-1897 -- 4. Building the practice, 1898-1906 -- Part 3. Steady expansion -- 5. Reaching around the globe, 1907-1913 -- 6. The needs of the patient come first, 1914-1919 -- 7. Extending the long arm of the physician, 1920-1926 -- Part 4. Challenges and changes -- 8. Meeting the expanding needs, 1922-1927 -- 9. Changing the guard, 1928-1943.