Dr. Elizabeth Reifsnyder (1858-1922) a graduate of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania was appointed medical missionary to Shanghai by the Woman's Union Missionary Society in 1883. The following year she began dispensary work and by 1885 the first building of the Margaret Williams Hospital was completed. For the next thirty-one years Dr. Reifsnyder tirelessly worked as administration and physician at the hospital until she retired in 1916.

The Archives has information by and about her in Collection 379 - Records of the Woman's Union Missionary Society Some of the documents in box 4, folder 1 are hospital anniversary booklets and the first (1888) hospital report. In 1910 at the 25th anniversary of the hospital Dr. Reifsnyder stated that eight hundred thousand patients have been treated in the Hospital since it foundation. Last year there were 820 in-patients, and 56,700 out-patients...Recently a most interesting service was held in the waiting room of the Hospital, when our regular morning prayers were turned into a Baptismal service for one of our patients and her husband. The woman was not able to go to our Van Santvoord Chapel, so the pastor came here, and I was glad to have all present see these witnesses for our Saviour.