Mary Edwards Walker (Library of Congress)

Life & Family
President Andrew Johnson signed bill that authorized Medal of Honor for Walker. President Carter restored Walker’s Medal of Honor on June 10, 1977.

Sources
While Walker published two books – Hit: Essays on Women’s Rights (1871) and Unmasked, or the Science of Immorality, To Gentlemen by a Woman Physician (1878) – , she never wrote about her experiences as a surgeon during the Civil War. In addition,  the Mary Edwards Walker Papers at Syracuse University contain her correspondence.  Several books about Walker have recently been published, including Dale L. Walker’s Mary Edwards Walker: Above and Beyond (2005), Sharon M. Harris’ Dr. Mary Walker: An American Radical, 1832-1919 (2009), and Bonnie Z. Goldsmith’s Dr. Mary Edwards Walker: Civil War Surgeon & Medal of Honor Recipient (2010).  Other important secondary sources include Elizabeth D. Leonard’s Yankee Women: Gender Battles in the Civil War (1994). In addition, see entries in Judith E. Harper’s Women During the Civil War: An Encyclopedia (2007) and Lynne E. Ford’s Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics (2008). You can also read Walker’s profile at the “National Library of Medicine.” In addition, this article from the New York Times on June 4, 1977  describes the efforts to restore her Medal of Honor.

Artifacts
Walker’s original Medal of Honor is apparently at the Oswego County Historical Society in New York.

Images
Several images are in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Collection , including one circa 1860-70 and one circa 1911. The Mary Edwards Walker Papers at Syracuse University also contain  several photographs.