Elizabeth Blackwell was a British-born physician, notable as the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, as well as the first woman on the UK Medical Register.
Background
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in a house on Dickson Street in Bristol, England, to Samuel Blackwell, a sugar refiner and his wife Hannah (Lane) Blackwell. She was third of the nine siblings. Her childhood was a happy one as her father had liberal views on childrearing and believed that every child should be given opportunity for development of his or her talent.
In 1832, the family relocated to New York City, in the United States where Samuel joined Samuel Hanson Cox's congregation, and become rather active in reform circles and supported the abolition of slavery. A fire in his sugar refinery destroyed it and Samuel decided to shift to Cincinnati, but he died soon after in 1838 leaving a widow, nine children and great deal of debt.
Education
In 1847, Elizabeth left for Philadelphia and New York, to explore the opportunities for medical study. In Philadelphia, she boarded with Dr. William Elder, and studied anatomy privately but her applications were rejected.
In 1847, Blackwell was accepted as a medical student by Geneva Medical College, New York quite accidentally as students thought it was a joke when they were asked to vote on her admission.
When Dr. James Webster, the anatomy professor asked her to absent herself during lectures on reproduction, her response made Webster to admit her to the lecture and the subject was no longer considered vulgar.
In January 1849, Elizabeth became the first woman to achieve a medical degree in the United States. When the dean, Dr. Charles Lee, conferred her degree, he stood up and bowed to her.
In 1842 Blackwell accepted a teaching position in Henderson, Ky., but local racial attitudes offended her strong abolitionist convictions, and she resigned at the end of the year. On her return to Cincinnati a friend who had undergone treatment for a gynecological disorder told Blackwell that if she could have been treated by a woman doctor she would have been spared an embarrassing ordeal, and she urged Elizabeth to study medicine.
The following year Blackwell moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where she taught school and studied medicine in her spare time. Her next move, in 1846, was to a girls' school in Charleston, South Carolina, where she had more time to devote to her medical studies. After colledge she entered La Maternité Hospital for further study and practical experience. While working with the children, she contracted purulent conjunctivitis, which left her blind in one eye. Handicapped by partial blindness, Dr. Blackwell gave up her ambition to become a surgeon and began practice at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London.
In 1851 Elizabeth returned to New York, where she applied for several positions as a physician, but was rejected because of her sex. She established private practice in a rented room, where her sister Emily, who had also pursued a medical career, soon joined her. Their modest dispensary later became the New York Infirmary and College for Women, operated by and for women. Dr. Blackwell also continued to fight for the admission of women to medical schools. During the Civil War she organized a unit of women nurses for field service.
In 1869 Dr. Blackwell set up practice in London and continued her efforts to open the medical profession to women. Her articles and her autobiography (1895) attracted widespread attention. From 1875 to 1907 she was professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Women. She died at her home in Hastings.
Achievements
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree from an American medical school, and also the first woman on the British medical register. She was a pioneer in promoting the education of women in medicine in the United States, and a social and moral reformer in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Elizabeth was ardently anti-abortion and pro-woman, choosing to enter the field of medicine partly because she was disgusted that the term “female physician” was applied to abortionists.
Elizabeth campaigned against the Contagious Diseases Acts and her 1878 essay, ‘Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of their Children’, was unequivocal on prostitution and marriage, arguing against the Contagious Diseases Acts.
Quotations:
"None of us can know what we are capable of until we are tested."
"For what is done or learned by one class of women becomes, by virtue of their common womanhood, the property of all women."
"If society will not admit of woman's free development, then society must be remodeled."
"I do not wish to give (women) a first place, still less a second one- but the complete freedom to take their true place, whatever it may be."
"The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me."
"It is not easy to be a pioneer but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world."
"A blank wall of social and professional antagonism faces the woman physician that forms a situation of singular and painful loneliness, leaving her without support, respect or professional counsel."
Personality
Blackwell had a very strong personality, and was often quite acerbic in her critique of others, especially of other women.
Connections
Elizabeth Blackwell never married for she prized her independence and rejected many suitors. In 1856, she adopted Katherine "Kitty" Barry, an orphan and raised her as a half-servant, half-daughter.
