Lucy Hobbs Taylor was the first woman to graduate from dental school. Born in 1833, Taylor attended the Franklin Academy in New York. She taught for ten years in Michigan, and in 1859 moved to Cincinnati where she applied to Eclectic Medical College. She was denied based on her gender, although she studied privately under the supervision of a teacher from the school. She then applied to the Ohio College of Dentistry, where again, she was refused admission because of her gender. Again, she studied under a private program with a professor from the school. She applied to the dentistry program again, and was again rejected, so she opened her own practice in Cincinnati in 1861. When the Ohio College of Dentistry decided to accept women, she matriculated as a senior in 1865 because of her experience and graduated in 1866, becoming the first woman in the world to earn a doctorate in dentistry.