This is a transcription of the Emily (Allen) Bruce, M.D. biography from New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life, The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895, page 225.
Emily (Allen) Bruce, M.D.
BOTH paternal and maternal grandsires of Emily Allen Bruce, Rev. Ebenezer Allen and Capt. James Nute, were among the early settlers of Wolfeborough, N. H. Here she was born and received her early education, becoming proficient in French and Latin, as well as the higher English branches. While yet very young, through the influence of her elder brother, then a student in Harvard Theological school, she was appointed teacher in the Dudley school, Roxbury, where she taught until her marriage with George E. Bruce in 1866. Five prosperous and happy years followed, during which two beautiful boys came to perfect the home. Two years later Mrs. Bruce was childless and a widow; and the great Boston fire of 1872 had destroyed her husband’s flourishing business. Happiness being denied her, she resolved to be useful, to fill her life with intense activity. To this end she received into her family a number of young people of literary and artistic tastes, and made for them a veritable home; took up the study of the German language, drawing, and painting, pursuing these studies with undiminished zeal until 1881, when, feeling that still greater usefulness was possible to her, she resolved to study medicine, and the same year entered Boston University School of Medicine, from which she graduated with honors in June, 1884. A month later found her in Paris, where, in hospitals, clinics, and medical lecture rooms, two most busy and fruitful years were passed. Soon after her return home Dr. Bruce settled in Boston and has since devoted herself with unabated enthusiasm to her large and ever increasing practice. Possessing by nature the instincts of the scholar and philanthropist, she has from early life identified herself with scientific, literary, and charitable associations; is at present member of the Educational and Industrial Union, Associated Charities of Boston, New England Woman’s Club, National Society of Electrotherapeutists, Societi Française d’Electrotherapie, and various other medical and non-medical organizations.