Edith Hinkley Quimby Papers, 1940-1979

Edith Hinkley Quimby was born July 10, 1891, in Rockford, Illinois. As a child she moved with her family to Boise, Idaho, where she completed high school. She graduated from Whitman College in 1912 with a degree in physics and mathematics. She taught science in the high school at Nyssa, Oregon for two years before entering the University of California in 1914. In 1915 she married Shirley Leon Quimby, who was also a graduate student in physics. In collaboration with Dr. Gioacchino Failla, chief physicist at the Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases in New York City, she began studying in 1919 the therapeutic use of X-rays and radium. Her principal concern was how to measure the penetration of radiation and determine the precise dosage for a patient with the fewest side effects. Dr. Quimby remained an associate of Dr. Failla, first at Memorial Hospital and then at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, for the next forty years as a researcher, scientist and teacher. Dr. Quimby's work in establishing the properties of radium earned her the Janeway medal of the American Radium Society in 1940, the first time the award had gone to a woman. After World War II, forseeing the growing use of radioactive isotopes, she devoted much of her time to protecting those handling the dangerous substances from harmful exposure. As professor emeritus, after 1960, she continued as a special lecturer, took an active part in directing the radiological laboratory, wrote scientific papers and was associated with the National Council on Radiological Protection and Measurement. Dr. Quimby died in 1982.