[3] In 1850, Cobb, Ann M. Kendall, C. E. N. Kimball, Sarah Goodridge, and Rebecca W. Cleverly incorporated the organization for the purpose of promoting, among women, a knowledge of the human system, the laws of life and health, and the means of relieving sickness and suffering.
From the beginning, the Institute, as it was called, held weekly or fortnightly meetings, with lectures on physiology, hygiene, and sanitation, and many of the leading physicians and ministers of New England spoke before this body.
The duty of parenthood, the science of reproduction, the sacredness of the home were taught to thousands of young women, and an unbroken record of 60 years of earnest work was credited to the Ladies’ Physiological Institute.
[3] The historical correspondence created by the Ladies Physiological Institute were donated to the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliff College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts in November, 1976.
In 1848 Professor Charles P. Bronson announced a course of lectures for women "who should form themselves into a society for the promotion of useful knowledge among their own sex," offering to present such a group with his medical apparatus if they could raise $1000.