Helen Allen Forbes, wife of medical professor and assistant/associate dean for education, Thomas Rogers Forbes, was a leader among medical faculty wives, organizing daily afternoon teas served by faculty wives to medical students; acting as a perennial sponsor and advisor for the annual Aesculapian Frolic, a benefit dance held by first year medical students; and serving as a sponsor for the Medical Dames or Medical Wives, an organization for wives of medical students. Yale Medical Dames appears to have been an early 1950s offshoot of Yale Dames, an organization for the wives of Yale graduate students. By 1960, the group was called the Medical Wives Association. During much of this period, most male medical students were married and there were only a handful of female students.
From the guide to the Helen Forbes collection on medical wives, 1947-1969, (Historical Library, Harvey Cushing / John Hay Whitney Medical Library)
