Elizabeth Blackwell was born on February 3,1821 in Counterslip Bristol, England to become the fourth of the nine Blackwell children. Her nickname was Bess, but her father called her "Little Shy." While she was growing up, two of her brothers and six of her sisters died. Eight of her cousins shared the same fate. Elizabeth vowed to become a doctor to babies and women.
Her father Samuel Blackwell was a rich sugar merchant at the time. He usually wore a pure white suit to work to match the fine sugar he produced, but he wore a black suit at church. He and his wife Hanna encouraged equalness between their boys and girls and unlike most girls of Europe, Elizabeth had an education to match any boy’s.
One night, when Elizabeth was eleven, a raging fire destroyed her father’s business. By that time the family was so poor, Samuel decided they would go to America and start over. After all, America is supposed to be the land of golden opportunities. As she looked out over the vast ocean while holding her sister’s hands, she was thinking about what the future would bring in America. When the family reached New York, Mr. Blackwell tried to start a new sugar business, but he could not bear selling sugar made by slaves! "Black slaves deserve to be free! How can I carry on a business that is formed upon human misery?" But it was the only business he knew. In 1837, the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Not long after, Samuel Blackwell died.
After her father passed away, Elizabeth at the age of 16, had to go to work. Her mother, her siblings, and she had to keep the family alive so they opened a small elementary school for black children.
When she was 24, she decided to visit her dying friend Mary. Mary told Elizabeth "the worst part of my illness is that I am being treated by a rough unfeeling man." Elizabeth agreed. Then her friend said, "You are young and strong, you should become a doctor." "It’s impossible!" she thought. But she knew this was what she was going to do.
After several rejections from medical schools, she finally was excepted, (largely as a joke), by Geneva Medical College. People in town thought she was an indecent woman and did not speak to her. After seeing her working so hard the other students told her it was all a joke and asked her to leave. But Elizabeth Blackwell did not leave! She was going to be a working doctor. By studying with grim determination, she eventually graduated with high honors on January 23, 1849.
After her triumphant graduation from medical school, Elizabeth went to Paris to learn more about medicine. When she returned in 1851, she had many ideas about how to get cured easier. First, she opened an institution to help other women become doctors. Next, she opened a store where women and children could buy medicine. Next, she and her sister Emily begged their rich friends to give them money for an infirmary for children and women. Elizabeth and Emily’s dream came true in 1857, when the New York Infirmary For Women and Children opened its doors. It was the first true hospital for women, run by women doctors, anywhere in the world. In 1868, the infirmary opened a medical college for women. After that Elizabeth received a letter from Europe asking her to "come to her homeland and do for the women of Europe what you have done in America."
She left the infirmary to her sister Emily, and returned to England in 1869. There she served for another forty years as a "Champion for Women’s Rights"
Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman doctor in the United States of America in 1889. She also opened a medical college for women. During the Civil War she organized a unit of woman nurses for field service. Another reason she is remembered is that she organized a National Health Society. Most importantly she fought for the admission of women to medical colleges.
Elizabeth Blackwell died on May 3, 1910. She died at the old age of eighty-nine. She opened a world of opportunities for women. She always fought for what was right her whole life. In 1949 the Blackwell medal was established. It is given to women that have outstanding achievements in the practice of medicine. She will always be remembered as a great woman.
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Last edited 2/9/2005 12:00:00 AM
Elizabeth Blackwell, born in Britain, was the first woman awarded the M.D. degree. Many nineteeth-century physicians, including a few women, practiced without a degree, but Elizabeth Blackwell wished to attain full professional status. She was rejected by all the major medical schools in the nation because of her sex. Her application to Geneva Medical School (now Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York) was referred to the student body. They accepted with great hilarity in the belief that it was a spoof perpetrated by a rival school.
Working with quiet determination, she turned aside the hostility of the professors, students, and townspeople. She earned her medical degree in 1849. Blackwell completed her medical education in Europe, but faced additional difficulties in setting up her practice when she returned to New York. Barred from city hospitals, she founded her own infirmary. Eventually she founded a Women's Medical College to train other women physicians.
Blackwell's educational standards were higher than the all-male medical schools. Her courses emphasized the importance of proper sanitation and hygiene to prevent diseases. She later returned to Britain and spent the rest of her life there, working to expand medical opportunities for women as she had in America
