Dr. Charlotte Baker
- Sandee Wilhoit
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 23 hours ago
Dr. Charlotte Johnson Baker, San Diego’s First Female Physician
By Sandee Wilhoit, Museum Historian • Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation
August 19, 2026
Charlotte was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on March 30, 1855. She graduated from Newburyport High School in 1872 and then spent a year teaching gymnastics before enrolling in Vassar College, where she graduated in 1877. Charlotte additionally obtained a Master of Arts from Vassar for her special studies in optics and ophthalmology; she then entered medical school at the University of Michigan. Charlotte obtained her Doctor of Medicine in 1881, which was followed by her residency in obstetrics in a women’s prison. This residency was the beginning of Charlotte’s lifelong interest in prison reform and delinquency in girls.
After completing medical school, Charlotte married Dr. Fred Baker, also a doctor from Newburyport. They were wed on March 30, 1882, and moved to Akron, Ohio, where they both practiced medicine. The Bakers then moved west to Socorro, New Mexico, where their two children, Mary Caroline (Molly) and Robert Henry, were born.
In 1888, the family moved to California, settling in Roseville in the Point Loma area. Charlotte said getting to work could take them from 20 minutes to 5 hours, depending on how the tide was running, as their medical office was in downtown San Diego and they had to sail across the bay! The doctors both worked from 11 to 3 on Sundays, and after hours so people wouldn’t miss work due to a medical appointment. By her records, Charlotte delivered 1,000 babies and never lost a mother. She became the first woman president of the SD County Medical Society in 1898, a feat that was not repeated until 1987. During her tenure, Dr. Baker promoted pasteurization and wrote extensively about the germ theory of disease. With her husband, Charlotte was instrumental in establishing the Scripps Biological Lab in San Diego, which was the forerunner of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
Medicine was not Dr. Baker’s only passion. She was a noted suffragist and activist for women’s rights. She labored tirelessly for shorter work weeks, against child labor, for adequate childcare for working mothers, and to eliminate prostitution. Dr. Baker was President of the Women’s Christian Temperance Movement, co-founder of the YWCA, served on the City Civil Service Commission, and led the efforts to build the Balboa Park Children’s Home.
However, probably one of Charlotte’s most gratifying efforts was when, serving as president of the Equal Suffrage Association, she spearheaded the suffrage campaign to get the women’s suffrage amendment (the 6th) on the California ballot. Through an intense campaign, which included parades with floats, claiming that “taxation without representation was tyranny now as it was in 1773, whistlestop tours all over SD County, and a “week of denial,” in which women did without candy, sodas, theaters, ribbons, laces, and “everything that wasn’t a necessity, the amendment passed! California granted women the right to vote in 1911. Women were not guaranteed suffrage nationally until 1920. Charlotte Baker was the first woman in San Diego to register to vote.
She continued working for the advancement of women as the legislative chairman of the League of Social Workers, member of the Anti-Tuberculosis Society, member of the Children’s Home Association, member of Associated Charities, and member of the Joint Commission for Welfare of Working Women and Girls. Charlotte Baker was inducted into the San Diego Women’s Hall of Fame in 2009.
Charlotte Baker passed away on October 31, 1937, from heart disease at the age of 82.
Sandee is the Museum Historian for the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation. She can be reached at swilhoit@cox.net
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