Mary F. Thomas
Mary Frame Thomas | |
|---|---|
Photograph of Dr. Mary F. Thomas, unknown date | |
| Born | Mary Frame Meyers October 28, 1816 Montgomery County, Maryland, US |
| Died | August 19, 1888 (aged 71) Richmond, Indiana, US |
| Education | Penn's Medical College for Women (1851-1852; graduated 1854), Western Reserve Medical College (1852-1853) |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Known for | Woman's rights advocate, physician |
| Spouse | Dr. Owen Thomas (m. July 1839) |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Hannah Longshore (sister) |
Mary Frame Thomas (née Myers; 1816–1888) was a pioneer American woman physician, abolitionist, and temperance and women's rights leader who advocated for women, as well as those in need. Born into a Quaker family, she grew up in Ohio and spent most of her life in Indiana. Thomas was an active member of the women's suffrage movement and a founding member of the Woman's Rights Association of Indiana (established in 1852 and renamed the Indiana Woman's Suffrage Association in 1869), serving as a vice president and president of the Indiana organization.
In 1859, she became the first woman to present a petition before the Indiana General Assembly, calling for passage of laws to provide property rights for married women and a women's suffrage amendment to the Indiana Constitution. At the national level she served a one-year term as president of the American Woman Suffrage Association. In the mid-1850s, she was a coeditor of Mary Birdsall's national woman's rights magazine, The Lily, and later an associate editor of the Mayflower with Lizzie Bunnel and a contributor to Woman's Journal.