Elizabeth Wright Hubbard 1896 - 1967

Elizabeth Wright Hubbard 1896 - 1967 was the first woman President of the American Institute of Homeopathy, a member of the American Federation of Homeopathy and International Hahnemannian Association president 1945-46. President of the Anthroposophical Society in America.

Elizabeth Wright Hubbard was the homeopath of the rich and famous. As well as Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Wright Hubbard was also the homeopath of Paul Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric, Lily Pons, James Hawley Stephenson,

Elizabeth Wright Hubbard was ’born into homeopathy’, attended at birth and throughout her childhood by Byron G Clark (Wright Hubbard recovered from tubercular cervical adenitis, malaria and measles in her childhood), and by Rudolf Rabe as a intern (when she recovered from scarlet fever).

Hubbard was concerned to treat illness with emphasis on therapeutics, and annoyed by cases where patients had been passed around various doctors and told there was ‘nothing wrong with them’ based on the results of diagnostic procedures and laboratory tests, when they were still patently suffering symptomatically, a typical modern day situation.

Hubbard joined homeopath Alice H Bassett in her practice in Boston where the supply of homeopaths fell short of the demand from patients, the Wesselhoefts, and the Houghtons were ‘submerged in work’.

In 1930 Hubbard married Benjamin A Hubbard, a Faculty member at Columbia University and had five children. She continued to work throughout her married life.

Elizabeth Wright Hubbard was one of the foremost homoeopaths of the United States, and in the world.

She learned her Homeopathy from Pierre Schmidt of Geneva (and Emil Schlegel of Tubingen), Switzerland, who had been taught by Eugene Alonso Austin and Frederica E. Gladwin, two of James Tyler Kent’s most illustrious pupils.

She venerated this great tradition which had formed her, and magnificently served it in her practice and teaching. Her extensive writings are a precious storehouse of homeopathic knowledge; they will guide and inspire future generations of homeopathic physicians as they do those of our day.

Elizabeth Wright Hubbard qualified in medicine in 1921 at Columbia University School of Physicians and Surgeons and interned at Bellevue Hospital, New York.

From there she went on to study homeopathy for two years under Pierre Schmidt of Geneva, returning to the United States to pursue a career that brought her international acclaim and affection.

She was the first woman to be elected President of the American Institute of Homeopathy. She also filled an important and influential role over many years as Editor of the ’Homoeopathic Recorder’ and subsequently as Editor of the ‘Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy’. She died in 1967.

Elizabeth Wright Hubbard worked at the Massachusetts Memorial Hospital, the New England Hospital for Women and Children and the Woodside Sanitarium for Nervous and Mental Diseases, and she practiced pure Hahnemannian homeopathy.

Elizabeth Wright Hubbard wrote A Brief Study Course in Homoeopathy and Homoeopathy as Art and Science: Selected Writings, books that are extremely valued by modern day homeopaths.

With thanks to Dana Ullman 25.4.08:

Elizabeth Wright Hubbard was the person who turned Edward Christopher Whitmont on to homeopathy. Edward Christopher Whitmont told me that he contacted her shortly after he arrived in New York from Vienna. Edward Christopher Whitmont was a real appreciator of Rudolf Steiner, as was Wright Hubbard, but he was surprised that she was a classical homeopath rather than a practitioner of Anthroposophical medicine.

Edward Christopher Whitmont initially thought that he would convince her to become an Anthroposoph, but as he told me, she convinced him to become a classical homeopath.

Dana Ullman