The New Student's Reference Work/Blackwell, Elizabeth

Black′well, Elizabeth, the first woman who received a medical diploma in the United States, was born in England in 1821, and with her family emigrated in 1832 to the United States. She taught for some years at Cincinnati, helping to support a large family of brothers and sisters. After much difficulty she was admitted to the Medical School at Geneva, N. Y., from which she graduated with honors in 1849. She next visited Europe in furtherance of her studies, and was admitted into hospitals in Paris and in London. In 1851 she returned to the United States and began a successful practice in New York, where she has mostly resided. In 1859, with her sister, she opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. In 1869 she delivered a course of medical lectures in England. She has written several popular books on the laws of health, especially for girls, besides a volume entitled Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women (1905.) On all questions of social reform and the status of woman she has always taken an active part.