Born: 1853, United States (assumed)
Died: 1943
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Mary Abby Felton Stiles
The following is republished with permission from the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
Mary Whitmarsh (1853-1943) was a pioneering pharmacist who owned and operated a drug store on Geneva Avenue for over 20 years, earning acclaim as a chemist and druggist.
Mary Whitmarsh owned and operated a drug store on Geneva Avenue for over twenty years after having earned a diploma from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy at a time when it was rare for women to study pharmacy. A 1902 news article in the Boston Post described her as a “cultured woman and a true type of the mature American woman of refinement.” Her obituary, which was published in The Boston Globe in 1943, stated that she was known throughout New England as both a druggist and chemist. She lived in Dorchester for forty years and died at the age of ninety in Athol, Massachusetts.