BLACKWELL, Miss Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Blackwell, who was born in Bristol, England, on February 3, 1821, became one of the first women physicians in the United States. She persisted in applying to various medical schools as her applications were rejected because she was a woman. Geneva College accepted her application though the administration thought it was a "joke" that a woman applied in 1847.

She advocated for herself to be treated as an equal to her male colleagues when participating in the Reproductive Anatomy class, which made the male students uncomfortable. Furthermore, by her attentive and thorough note-taking skills, Miss Blackwell proved she was able to understand the information being presented in her courses.

During her Spring and Summer breaks from medical school, Elizabeth observed how the poorest of the poor and the insane were treated at the Blockney Almshouse in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Unfortunately, the male physicians wanted nothing to do with her because she was a woman.

Miss Blackwell wrote her thesis, "Ship Fever," (Typhus) based upon the Irish Immigrants who were severely ill on the ships coming from Ireland to America. It was published in the Buffalo Medical Journal in February 1849, and Miss Blackwell graduated with her medical degree a few months later.

Elizabeth developed the first hospital dedicated to women, The New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, in 1853. This endeavor was supported by donations and successful fundraising, after Elizabeth was denied the opportunity to rent office space for her medical practice due to her gender. Her sister, Emily Blackwell, the third woman physician in the United States, worked alongside Elizabeth.  They were accompanied in their work by female medical students and two female nurses.

In 1855, she adopted a seven year old girl, Katherine, known as "Kitty," from the Randall's Island Orphanage. Elizabeth felt that her "little orphan" Kitty lifted her spirits after she had felt lonely and isolated living in New York. Kitty was also Elizabeth's secretary as she conducted the detailed correspondence with her mother that became part of the Elizabeth Blackwell Papers.

Miss Blackwell's dream to open a Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary became a reality in 1868, as the New York State Legislature granted her a charter to do so. Miss Blackwell believed firmly that it was one thing to open a poor college with charity, but more important to open a great college for women medical students that would provide professional skills, hospital practice, and the introduction of hygiene. At the college, female medical students engaged in a progressive succession of studies, the first of its kind for medical training for women.

Miss Blackwell retired from her medical practice. She spent the rest of her later years in Hastings, England, as a consultant and advocate for women in medicine.

Elizabeth died on May 31, 1910.

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