Abstract
Among the early influences on the profession of occupational therapy were the founding schools and those who helped create them. The Midwest was energized by Elizabeth Upham Davis, who was instrumental in establishing the occupational therapy education program at Milwaukee-Downer College in 1918. This paper relates Mrs. Davis’s efforts on behalf of occupational therapy both in the development of the program at Milwaukee-Downer and on a national level during the early years of the profession.