Mary Edwards Walker: Above and Beyond (American Heroes)

Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919) defied the conventions of her era. Born and raised on a farm in Oswego, New York, Walker became one of a handful of female physicians in the nation-and became a passionate believer in the rights of women. Despite the derision of her contemporaries, Walker championed freedom of dress. She wore slacks-or "bloomers" as they were popularly known-rather than the corsets and voluminous ground-dragging petticoats and dresses she believed were unhygenic and injurious to health. She lectured and campaigned for woman's suffrage and for prohibition, and against tobacco, traditional male-dominated marriage vows, and any issue involving the sublimation of her sex.From the outset of the Civil War, Walker volunteered her services as a physician.