Delphine Hanna

A side portrait photograph of Delphine Hanna, M.D.Delphine Hanna was born in Markesan, Wisconsin on December 2, 1854. She earned a degree in education from the Brockport State Normal School in 1874 and completed a medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1890. Hanna taught at Oberlin College from 1885 to 1920. She was hired to create a physical education program for women. She was director of the school's Women's Gymnasium, and of the school's course for training teachers of physical education. Under her direction, the school added tennis courts, a basketball court, and a skating rink. She established the first four-year program for women to earn a bachelor's degree in physical education, and in 1903 became the first woman to be a full professor of physical education in the United States. In the summer of 1905, she made a study trip to Germany and Sweden. In 1931, she was named in the first cohort of fellows of the American Physical Education Association. One of Hanna's students included educator Luther Halsey Gulick