Eva Augusta Vescelius was a prominent woman who contributed to the development of music therapy practice in the United States. From the turn of the twentieth century, she worked to establish the use of music for health, starting with her first public paper presentation in 1900. Vescelius was the first known person in the United States to collectively experiment on the effects of music and health, establish a music therapy practice, found the first music therapy association, and disseminate the first journal dedicated to music therapy.