Mary Forrester Hobart (1851 – March 21, 1940) was an American physician who practiced in Boston, Massachusetts from 1884 until her retirement in 1915[1].

[2] Her career had parallels with that of her great-great-grandmother, Martha Ballard;[2] but Mary Hobart sought out the medical profession by her own ambition as an early entrant.

[2][3] By the time Hobart graduated from the Women's Medical College, her cousin Lucy Lambard Fessenden gathered her great-great-grandmother, Martha Ballard's, historical diary for her great aunts to give to Mary.

[2] Though Mary is known to be a pioneer in medicine, her great-great-grandmother, Martha Ballard, is a late 18th-century housewife whose diary is the main source for the book, A Midwife’s Tale[3].

Women were allowed to enter the Massachusetts Medical Society on June 10, 1884, the same year Hobart received Martha Ballard's historical diary.