Dr. Alice Hamilton, whose pioneering work in industrial medicine contributed to the passage of early workman's compensation laws, is honored on this stamp design in the Great Americans series. During the 1910s and early 1920s, Hamilton's work in the field of industrial medicine exposed many occupational hazards.
She campaigned for ventilation, antitoxic rinses, and other workplace safeguards against industrial poisons. Her pioneering work Industrial Toxicology (1934) is still regarded as a primary text for medical students. A strong advocate for protective legislation for working women, Hamilton argued against the dangers of poisons used in industries employing women, such as lead and solvents in the pottery trade, printing, and type founding. Included in Hamilton's many causes were child labor laws, woman's suffrage, and international relations.
In 1915, she was a delegate to the International Congress of Women at the Hague, which tried and failed to prevent the start of World War I. In 1928, Hamilton was one of two physicians appointed to a U.S. delegation to the League of National Health Commission. The recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards, Hamilton was named New England's "Woman of the Year" in medicine by the American Medical Women's Association in 1956. Long into retirement, she continued to lecture for workers' health and remained active in politics. She died in 1970.