Hunt was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1805, the daughter of Joab Hunt and Kezia Wentworth Hunt. She and her sister, Sarah Hunt, opened a private school in their home after the death of their father in 1827. After Sarah fell ill, Harriot began studying medicine under Elizabeth Mott and Richard Dixon Mott in 1833. Harriot benefited greatly through clinical observation while working with Elizabeth Mott. In 1835 she opened her own consulting room, without a medical diploma. As the first woman to apply to Harvard Medical School Harriot was denied entrance in 1847 as well as in 1850, shortly after Elizabeth Blackwell's graduation from Geneva in 1849. Despite not being accepted to Harvard, Harriot continued to practice medicine. She became so widely know that in 1853 she received an honorable MD from the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia. She worked practicing and as an advocate for the right for women to learn and practice medicine. Much of her career is described in her memoirs, Glances and Glimpses; Or, Fifty Years' Social, Including Twenty Years' Professional Life (Boston: J.P. Jewett and Company, 1856). Her office was at 32 Green Street.
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