On this day in 1848, Dr. Harriot K. Hunt of Boston, one of the nation's first female physicians, made a visit to the Shaker community in Harvard. She found much to her liking. There were male and female healers, and they were highly skilled in the homeopathic medicine she herself practiced. They used herbal remedies, water cures, careful hygiene, and exercise with such success that Shakers were famed for their longevity. Equally unusual, Shaker communities accorded women a status equal to men — something that Harriot Hunt had struggled hard to achieve in her own life. Refused admission to Harvard Medical School, Hunt became an advocate for women's rights — their right to vote, to enter the professions, and especially their right to attend established medical colleges.