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Born in Noel, Nova Scotia, Dr. Annie (Hennigar) Sanford (1873-1950) was one of the first female doctors in Atlantic Canada. She was the only female graduate from Dalhousie University medical school in 1906 at age 33. The first woman doctor graduated twelve years earlier in 1894. Born on to a farm, Dr. Annie raised money for herself to attend Dalhousie University by becoming a school teacher in Noel. She taught in the same school that she attended as a pupil. The school was built in 1876 and had two classrooms. She and other teachers in the area obtained a teaching license by going to the Court House on Gore Hill and taking an oral examination. After graduating from Dalhousie University she devoted herself for forty-four years to the practice of medicine in rural Nova Scotia. Dr. Annie worked initially in the nearby community of Cheverie for thirteen years until 1919. Then she returned to Noel and practiced for thirty-one years. Dr. Annie reflected on her life as a rural doctor:My ‘house and buggy days’ were full to overflowing with hardships, thrills, dangers, determination and profit. In looking back, I would not have missed that period for a cool million. Amputations, fractures, dislocations, tonsillectomies, extraction of teeth, etc., all came my way and I was simply put on the spot as there was no one else to do it. Along with practicing medicine, Dr. Annie also was involved in the arts: she made pottery, hooked rugs, quilts, and painted. Dr. Annie was a member of the American Physician’s Art Association. She received an award from the Association for the last scene she painting entitled “Courage”. The painting was of herself practicing as a doctor. The scene documents an occasion when Dr. Annie was trying reach an isolated house to deliver a baby. On her way, she and her horse met two black bears along the road. Her horse bolted and her black bag spilled out of the wagon. She had to take her horse down the hill and cover his head with a blanket. She waited for the bears to leave and then walked her horse up the hill with the blanket over his head until they passed the location where the bears appeared. Dr. Annie tried to repaint the horse but died a few days after she started at age 77.