In January 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell made history as the first officially accredited female physician in the United States, blazing a new trail for women in medicine worldwide. The first of its kind, Blackwell encountered several challenges early in his medical career. However, she persevered and gained a reputation as a role model for aspiring female doctors in the United States and her home country of the United Kingdom. Blackwell’s birthday, February 3, is commemorated as National Medical Women’s Day, in recognition of her contributions to advancing the education of women in medicine.
Elizabeth Blackwell bio
Elizabeth Blackwell was born on February 3, 1821, in Bristol, England, to Hannah and Samuel Blackwell. His parents took a liberal attitude in his upbringing in terms of education, religion and social ideologies. Equal educational opportunities were given to boys and girls in the family. She had private teachers and other requirements designed to allow unlimited development of her abilities. However, she was shown to be slightly socially isolated from her peers. In 1832, the Blackwells immigrated to the United States and settled in New York. Six years later, they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.
Brothers and sisters
Elizabeth Blackwell was brought up in a large household. She had two older siblings, Anna and Marian, and six younger ones, Samuel, Henry, Emily, Sarah Ellen, John and George. His family struggled financially early in his adult life, and in an effort to supplement his income, Blackwell and his older sisters Anna and Marian established a school known as Cincinnati Academy.
Blackwell converted to Episcopalianism in December 1838, she then switched to Transcendentalism after the arrival of William Henry Channing, charismatic minister of the Unitarian Church in 1839. His conversion to the Unitarian Church provoked a furious reaction from the Cincinnati’s conservative community and hence the academy’s student population. reduced which culminated in the closing of the school in 1842.
Education
Elizabeth Blackwell’s conversion to the Unitarian Church also sparked her desire for personal intellectual development. While working as a teacher to pay her bills, she embarked on an aggressive quest for knowledge through the study of art, attending lectures, and participating in religious services of all sects.
She began saving for school medical expenses while working as a teacher in Asheville, North Carolina and later in Charleston, South Carolina. She first considered the possibility of studying medicine by correspondence, but without a positive response. Blackwell eventually moved to Philadelphia in 1847 with a desire to gain admission to one of the city’s medical schools. However, she met strong resistance at every corner and advised him to camouflage himself to study medicine or to move to Paris for his studies, which she rejected.
She was finally accepted into Geneva Medical College (now Hobart College) in October 1847, after her application was unanimously adopted by the school’s 150 students. However, Blackwell’s difficulties persisted even after admission to medical school. Her attempts to gain clinical experience during summer vacation in Philadelphia were rejected as she was rejected at several institutions in the area. When she was finally accepted into the Blockley Almshouse, she faced some resistance from several young doctors who refused to help her care for her patients. Despite the bottlenecks, she was able to complete her studies and earn a medical degree.
On January 23, 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell was awarded her medical degree and her degree was well reported by the local press. She moved to Europe in April 1849 where she pursued studies in obstetrics and paediatrics. She first enrolled at La Maternité, a maternity hospital in Paris, France, on the assumption that she would be considered a midwife-in-training and not a doctor. Her stay at the facility ended in November 1849 after she accidentally contracted an eye infection that ultimately cost her the use of one eye.
After a long period of treatment and recovery, Blackwell checked into St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London in 1850, where she also met with some resistance. She eventually returned to New York the following year with the hope of starting her own practice. However, she only had a few patients in her first year of private practice, due to the mistaken assumption that stereotypical female doctors were abortionists. Blackwell also published several publications and lectured even as his medical career began to blossom.
Achievements
In 1858, Elizabeth Blackwell established a dispensary – the New York Infirmary, for indigent women and children, alongside her sister Emily Blackwell, also a medical graduate, and Marie Zakrzewska, a young female doctor from Poland. This facility was the first of its kind, as it had women serving on its board of directors and as attending physicians.
On 1 January 1859, Blackwell became the first female doctor to be entered on the British Medical Register under a provision in the Medicine Act 1858 allowing doctors with foreign qualifications to practice in Britain before 1858.
The London School of Medicine for Women was founded in 1874 by Elizabeth Blackwell and Sophia Jex-Blake. Blackwell later lost much of her influence within the institution to Jex-Blake and was elected as a lecturer in midwifery, a position she left in 1877.
In addition to his pioneering medical career, Blackwell was also an excellent author and social reform activist. She became interested in a number of reform movements which all centered on the goal of “evangelical moral perfection”. A staunch conservative, she was strongly opposed to licensing, prostitution, and the use of contraceptives.
Dead
Elizabeth Blackwell remained active even as an octogenarian although her activities were greatly restricted by old age. She fell from a flight of stairs in 1907 while vacationing in Kilmun, Scotland, which left her nearly mentally and physically disabled. She died three years later, on May 31, 1910, at her home in Hastings, Sussex, after suffering a partial stroke. His ashes were laid in the cemetery of St Munn’s Parish Church in Kilmun.
Other interesting facts about Elizabeth Blackwell
The Elizabeth Blackwell Medal is awarded annually by the American Medical Women’s Association to a female physician who has made great strides in advancing the cause of women in medicine. The award was established in 1949, a century after Blackwell graduated from medical school.
Blackwell’s younger sister, Emily Blackwell, is also the third woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. Like her older sister, Emily Blackwell was rejected by several medical schools before finally being accepted into the Medical College of Cleveland, Ohio (now Case Western Reserve School of Medicine). She graduated in 1854. Among other collaborations, the Blackwell sisters founded the Women’s Medical College in New York in 1868.
In 1856, Elizabeth Blackwell adopted an Irish Katherine “Kitty” Barry, an orphan born in 1848, originally from the House of Refuge in New York. Barry’s education was well secured although she was not given the freedom to pursue her own interests. She escorted Blackwell on her many travels and remained with her until her death. Barry moved to Kilmun in Argyllshire, Scotland following Blackwell’s death in 1910. She then settled with the surviving Blackwells and also took the surname ‘Blackwell’.