WESTBROOK – Author of a book on Maine’s female physicians to speak at the Westbrook Historical Society.

Maine author Annette Dorey will speak at the Westbrook Historical Society next week about her new book, “Miss Dr. Lucy and Maine’s Pioneering Female Physicians, 1850’s-1920.” The event on Wednesday, Nov. 6, will provide a look at Dorey’s process and inspiration for writing the book, which highlights Maine women who struggled to break into the medical field.

For the book, Dorey completed more than 180 biographical profiles of Maine’s earliest female medical practitioners. She will address the difficulties women experienced in applying to medical schools, and how their decisions impacted their professional lives.

“It’s time to remember these women,” said Dorey, of Lewiston. “Their struggles and legacies have been lost or neglected all these years.”

Dorey said Wednesday that the inspiration for her research came from finding out about a few early female doctors who were, like Dorey, native of the Lewiston-Auburn region. “Nobody could think of early women physicians, only current ones, and I thought, ‘I’m on to something,’” she said. “I investigated and found that no one has written about Maine’s early female physicians.”

According to Dorey, “Miss Dr. Lucy” was one of the first female physicians she discovered. “I thought it was different to see a woman referred to as ‘Miss Dr. Lucy,’” she said. “After I was finished, there were five Dr. Lucy’s in the book, so I decided to use it in the title.”

The book covers women from Maine who found work outside of the state, as well as women from out of state who decided to follow careers in Maine.

Nine of the women Dorey researched would become assistant physicians at Maine’s two insane hospitals, and another 18 went on to similar work in other states, mainly Massachusetts and New York. Four of the doctors had careers exclusively in mental institutions.

The author will also talk about the role that some of these women played in suffrage organizations. According to the press release, the goal for many of the doctors was to see equal rights granted to American women, and not only in medicine.

Dorey’s career has taken her from the Midwest to the Southwest, Canada, and New England.

She is a former professor of education at the University of New Brunswick. She is a genealogist, a former director of the Androscoggin Historical Society, and the first director of education at Museum L-A.

Dorey previously wrote “Maine Mothers Who Murdered, 1875-1925: Doing Time in State Prison,” which focused on more than 30 mothers and the stories of their dilemmas, family-life and experience in Maine’s early correctional facilities.

A CLOSER LOOK

Annette Dorey will talk about her book, “Miss Dr. Lucy and Maine’s Pioneering Female Physicians, 1850’s-1920,” on Wednesday, Nov. 6, at 1:30 p.m., at the Westbrook Historical Society, located at the Westbrook Community Center, 426 Bridge St. Books will be available for purchase and signing. For more information call 854-5588.

Annette Dorey