Elizabeth Cisney Smith
Elizabeth Cisney Smith was an American physician. A large collection of her correspondence, notebooks, photographs and other papers at the Drexel [University College of Medicine] Legacy Center offers rich first-hand sources on women's medical education in the 1910s, and on women's medical careers in the first half of the twentieth century.
Early life and education
Elizabeth E. Cisney was born in Nossville, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William Henry Cisney and Margaret Kelly Cisney. She trained as a teacher at the State Normal School in California, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Woman's [Medical College of Pennsylvania] in 1911.Career
Smith practiced medicine mostly in rural Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio. She and her husband received their Ohio medical licenses in 1917. In the 1930s, she worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and briefly in North Dakota. During World War II, she worked in Middle River, Maryland, serving the families of aircraft workers at a bomber plant. She retired from medical work in 1946.In Ohio, Smith was founding president of a chapter of the Business and Professional Women's Club. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In retirement she lived in Reseda, California, and traveled for a year in Europe.