Bodley, Rachel L.

Bodley's main contribution to botany was Catalogue of Plants Contained in Herbarium of Joseph Clark, a report on an herbarium she personally organized and catalogued. She taught various subjects, primarily chemistry and medicine, the latter of which she developed toward a more science-focused method of study. Through her work The College Story, she compiled the first survey of the lives and successful careers of female medical students after graduating from medical college. She received numerous honors and maintained membership in many professional societies during her career.

Bodley was born December 7, 1831 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was the eldest daughter of the Presbyterian carpenter and pattern maker Anthony Prichard Bodley, of Scotch-Irish descent, and teacher Rebecca Wilson Bodley (née Talbott), of English Quaker descent. Bodley was named after her maternal grandmother, Rachel Littler Talbott; she was raised Presbyterian, as were her two older brothers and two younger sisters. She completed her primary education by age 12 at the private school her mother ran. In 1844 she entered the Wesleyan Female College in Cincinnati and graduated at age 18 in 1849. During her studies, she stood out for her work in the college's literary society.

She was selected as an assistant teacher at Wesleyan after her graduation and rose to the role of preceptress in the higher collegiate studies. Though she was lauded for her work at Wesleyan, she was not content with her achievements there and decided to pursue further education. In 1860, she begun studying advanced chemistry and physics at the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania, then the foremost institution of the applied sciences in the US. During this time, she also studied practical anatomy and physiology at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, which she would finish later in her career.

In 1862, Bodley returned to teaching as a professor of natural sciences at the Cincinnati Female Seminary. She made extensive effort in the organization and arrangement of an herbarium which had been donated to the Seminary by the heirs of Joseph Clark (1823-1858), a resident of Cincinnati. It was an extensive collection of local flora, and the guide to the collection which Bodley compiled, Catalogue of Plants Contained in Herbarium of Joseph Clark, printed in 1865, also served as a guide to plants for students and travelers in the Cincinnati area. Bodley assembled this work in her free time from 1862 to 1865. It was the first record of Ohio flora prepared by a woman and her most significant work in botany; her work was later congratulated by Asa Gray, the premier American botanist of the 18th century, as a "very satisfactory contribution to science."

In 1865, she left the Cincinnati Female Seminary to become the Chair of Chemistry and Toxicology at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, where she would spend the rest of her career. She was the first woman to hold the title Professor of Chemistry at a medical school, the first female chemist on the faculty, and the first faculty member appointed from outside Philadelphia. Bodley brought a science-focused approach to teaching her students in medicine, emphasizing the science of medicine rather than the art of medicine. Bodley stressed attention to detail and use of facts, logic, and solid arguments to her students rather than intuition, "womanliness", and emotion, the latter of which was common in medical instruction at the time. In 1871, she was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from her alma mater, Wesleyan Female College, along with two other women. This was the first time the College had bestowed a degree past the Bachelor of Arts conferred upon all graduates.

Bodley was elected Dean of the Faculty in January 1874, where she remained until her death. Bodley reformed the curriculum by implementing progressive policies that increased the length of instruction to 3 years and allowed for more demonstrations and practical instruction in classes. She oversaw the construction of a surgical amphitheater and a surgical hall, which greatly expanded opportunities in clinical training. The Women's Medical College presented Rachel Bodley with an honorary M.D. degree in 1876, conferring upon her the title of "Doctor". For the valedictorian address of 1881, Bodley presented "The College Story", the results of a survey into the post-graduation lives of the 244 living alumnae of the Women's Medical College. It was one of the first studies of female medical graduates in America, for which Bodley approached the topic in the terms of a scientific experiment, seeking to use "the same method, applied to the subject of the medical education of women." The survey found that, of the 189 women who responded, 88% were still practicing medicine, with only 8 women citing "domestic duties" as their reason for leaving the medical practice. This helped to refute the claims of opponents of female medical education, who maintaintained that women would simply give up the practice once they married. She presided over the graduation of Anandi Gopal Joshi, the second Hindu woman to obtain a degree in Western medicine (the first being Kadambini Ganguly). The event was witnessed by Pandita Ramabai and she was congratulated by Queen Victoria. Bodley later wrote an introduction to Pandita Ramabai's book The High-Caste Hindu Woman (1887).

Rachel Bodley died of heart failure in her Philadelphia home on June 15, 1888. Her memorial service was held at the Women's Medical College on October 13, 1888. She was buried at Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.