Isabel Barrows

(Katherine) Isabel Hayes Chapin Barrows (April 17, 1845 – October 24, 1913) was the first woman employed by the United States State Department. She worked as a stenographer for William H. Seward in 1868 while her husband, Samuel June Barrows, was ill. She later became the first woman to work for Congress as a stenographer. Barrows was also one of the first women to attend the University of Vienna to study ophthalmology, the first American woman in medical practice as an ophthalmologist, and the first woman to have a private practice in medicine in Washington, D.C. Provided by Wikipedia