1810  1815  1820  1825  1830 1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995
    Jan. 7, 1821: Ephraim Ballard dies. Martha Moore and Ephraim Ballard leave a large extended family, many of whom stay in Maine. Descendants can still be found in the area today.                   

1861: Sarah and Hannah Lambard inherit their grandmother's diary.

1862: Clara Barton, grandniece of Martha Ballard, carries on the healing tradition by bringing medical supplies to Civil War soldiers and founding the American Red Cross.

  1870: James North quotes passages from Martha Ballard in his History of Augusta.    1884: Mary Hobart graduates from The Women's Medical College of The New York Infirmary and inherits her great-great grandmother Martha Ballard's diary.           1904: Charles Everton Nash abridges Martha Ballard's diary for his history of Augusta                1930: Dr. Mary Hobart donates Martha's original diary to the Maine State Library.                           1982: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's book Good Wives is published. Laurel Ulrich "discovers" Martha Ballard's diary.  

1990: A Midwife's Tale is published. Producer Laurie Kahn-Leavitt contacts Laurel Ulrich about making a film of the diary.
1991: A Midwife'sTale wins the Pulitzer Prize.
1992: A transcription of Martha Ballard's diary, by Robert & Cynthia McCausland, is published.

 1997: The film A Midwife's Tale is released.
   1819: Rene-Theophile-Hyacinth Laennec, a French physician, invents the stethoscope, averting the need for a physician to place his ear on the breast of a female patient.  1822: John Stearns espouses the use of ergot to induce labor, a practice the New York physician learned from a German midwife.  1828: A British physician suggests the moniker "obstetrician" to describe male specialists in childbirth, replacing such traditional terms as "man-midwife."          

1847: Ether and chloroform are use in childbirth in America for the first time.

 

1850: The Female Medical College of Philadelphia opens.

    1865: Joseph Lister develops antiseptic surgery.    1879: Louis Pasteur identifies streptococcus as the cause of puerperal fever. Jun. 10, 1884: The Massachusetts Medical Society admits women.                          

1935: Researchers discover the antibiotic properties of sulphonamides.

1939: Penicillin isolated as an antibiotic. 

                                

1814: The Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812, but not before British troops sack Washington on August 24.

1815: Andrew Jackson defeats a larger British force at New Orleans, two weeks after the peace treaty was signed.

1816: James Monroe is elected fifth U.S. president, beginning the "Era of Good Feeling."

1818: Abigail Adams dies.

1819: The Panic of 1819 strikes the U.S. economy.

1822: The first textile mills are built in Lowell, Massachusetts.

1823: The Monroe Doctrine is incorporated into U.S. foreign policy.

 1825: John Quincy Adams is elected sixth U.S. President.