Kilgore, Carrie

Kilgore, Carrie (b. Caroline Sylvester Burnham) (1838–1909) teacher, lawyer; born in Craftsbury, Vt. She taught school in Vermont and Wisconsin, then studied medicine in New York and Boston (1863–65). In Philadelphia, she introduced gymnastics into the schools and promoted women's rights. She read law under Damon Kilgore—whom she married in 1876—and began to work for women's suffrage. Initially denied admission to the bar, she finally was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania law school and became its first woman graduate (1883). She carried on a practice for many years and in 1908 rode in the first balloon ascension of the Philadelphia Aeronautical Recreation Society.