Harriet Louise Hardy

Career

Hardy completed her residency at Philadelphia General Hospital—one of the few hospitals to accept women students at the time. She then went to work for Northfield School educating the female students on how to cope with such traumatic issues as rape, drownings, and student accidents. She also taught the girls anatomy and the effects of venereal disease. After five years at Northfield Academy, she began working in a field that would become a significant area of study for her throughout her career.

Her studies on beryllium began in 1945 when she started working for the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Medicine. She studied factories that produced fluorescent bulbs in Lynn, Salem, and Ipswich, Massachusetts. She discovered that many of the workers contracted berylliosis. Berylliosis is caused by the inhalation of dust or fumes containing beryllium. The disease presents itself with coughing, weight loss, shortness of breath, and scarring of the lungs. While beryllium was a main area of study for Dr. Hardy, throughout her career, she also studied anthrax, mercury poisoning, women's growth, and physical fitness.