Remember

Sisters in STEAM

By Historian and Archivist FRAN DESIMONE BECQUE, New York Alpha

From our earliest days, Pi Beta Phi has stood for the development of educated, impassioned women. Regardless of their educational or professional pursuits, members are inspired by the value of Personal and Intellectual Growth to strive toward their full potential.

A prime example of such intellectual, inspiring women comes from Kansas Alpha, Pi Beta Phi’s oldest continuous chapter. Kansas Alpha was installed on April 1, 1873, and among the chapter’s first initiates were two sisters, ALICE MORGAN GOSS and CARRIE GOSS HASKELL .

Together, these women—sisters twice over—forged a path in medicine, a career field which, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was overrepresented by men and unattainable for most women.

Carrie was the first to follow the career path to medicine, initially attending St. Louis Medical College after graduation in 1875, but later graduating from the Hahnemann Homeopathic College of Chicago in 1878. Alice followed her natural inclination toward a career in the arts; she was known for having a beautiful soprano voice while singing the Pi Phi songs at Kansas Alpha and went on to teach music lessons and lead a church choir.

After Carrie completed her medical studies, the sisters moved to California where their father owned a broom factory. The May 1885 issue of The Arrow—the first issue of the magazine—reported, “Dr. Carrie Goss has built up a good practice at her home in California.”

Archives show less cheerful news included in the February 8, 1888, edition of the Santa Cruz Star newspaper. “Miss Alice Goss is obliged to leave Santa Cruz for an indefinite time, owing to the very serious illness of her sister, Dr. Carrie Goss. It is with reluctance that she relinquished her pupils in music ...” Alice had been summoned to Sacramento the previous October for the same reason and may have made several trips to care for her ailing sister in the ensuing months.

Perhaps helping Carrie through her illness was a factor in Alice changing her course professionally. She enrolled in Hahnemann College of the Pacific in San Francisco shortly after Carrie recovered and went on to graduate from the same institution’s Chicago campus—her sister’s alma mater—in 1890. She began her own practice in San Francisco, specializing in the diseases of women and children.

Throughout their lives, the two women remained steadfast both in their work and love for their sisterhood. They made multiple return visits to Lawrence throughout their lives, including attending a 1912 reunion for the classes of 1873-1877. Alice joined the members of a quartet she sang with 37 years prior, performing the same song that was featured during their graduation festivities years earlier.

These loyal Pi Phis and dedicated physicians lived their lives boldly and with conviction. After their deaths in 1935 and 1936, with Carrie passing first, each had practiced medicine for more than 40 years. Their example as women in the sciences—women in STEAM—is one of the earliest demonstrations of the power of women pursuing these fields.