Sarah H. Brayton gradutated from the Medical College for Women in New York City in 1875 and became a professor of materia medica and therapeutics at the college in 1876. In 1883, she went into private practice and moved to Evanston. She was affiliated with the Illinois State Medical Society, the Chicago Medical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Public Health Association. In 1891 she was appointed a delegate by the Auxiliary Congress of the World’s Columbian Exposition, and to the Seventh International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, held in London, England. In 1893 she was elected Chairman of the Woman’s Committee of the International Congress of Public Health, held in conjunction with the Columbian Exposition. Brayton was a member of the Fortnightly Club in Chicago and the Lyceum Club in London, England. A biography for her notes that she “favors woman suffrage.”
Significance
In Evanston, Brayton was instrumental in securing a hospital for the community and for the establishment of the Illinois Industrial School for Girls in Evanston, as well as the Grove Home for Convalescents. She was a member and secretary of the Evanston Hospital staff. She was among the physicians on staff when the Evanston Hospital opened for service, March 27, 1893 (at the time known as the Evanston Emergency Hospital). Dr. Brayton served on the Buildings and Grounds Committee that located a more adequate and larger location for the hospital. Dr. Brayton “Procured proper furnishing of the building without cost to the association.”