Traditional customs, such as women adopting their husbands names, and the change in gender identification of names, complicate the search for these early female medical students. Sanford earned two medical degrees in 1905. Curiously, many of the students mentioned previously are not in their respective class photographs at all, even though their names appear on the lists of graduates. The lack of photographic evidence could be one reason for the confusion. Many of the class members do not appear in the photos.
Questions arise around the lack of women in photographs.
We may never definitively know who was first or when the first female graduated from a Louisville medical school, but rechecking and comparing information found in various sources may tell us more about these pioneers in the medical profession and grant them their proper place in history.