Elizabeth - Blackwell

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Elizabeth - Blackwell

• First Lady of Medical Doctorates
• By Amelia Brown

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In the Beginning

• Born in England in 1821, Elizabeth Blackwell
  moved to America as a young child.
• She was educated decently and worked as a
  teacher.
• Finding this work unpleasant and uninspiring
  she
• desired another career!

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A new career?

• A sickly friend suggested she study to become a
  doctor because she thought that she would have
  been more comforted in her ill state with a
  female doctor
• -This interested Elizabeth and she decided to
  pursue it against all odds
• -What odds they were! She lacked the funds to pay
  for medical school, she needed a better basis of
  classical languages and scientific studies, and
  she required experience in the medical field.

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Another step on the way to medical school

• It so happened that all her needs were met in one
  man and his house
• She lived in a physician's household, where she
  received some medical training, the use of a
  medical library, and the opportunity to study
  Greek and Latin
• This was Elizabeths chance to conquer her goal,
  and there was only one last step
• Now she needed to secure a position in a medical
  school! Can she do it?

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Geneva Medical College

• After applying to many of the top institutions
  and colleges, she finally got one positive answer
  in a stack of negative ones
• This acceptance came from none other than the
  quaint Geneva Medical School in Geneva New York
• Geneva Medical College was one of the many
  small, short-lived medical schools that
  flourished in 19th-century America. Founded in
  1835 in a small town at the foot of Seneca Lake
  in western New York State, by 1847 it had seven
  faculty members, a student body of about 150, and
  a new college building. To graduate, students
  took two 16-week courses of lectures, submitted a
  thesis, and took an oral exam. Nearly all the
  students came from the surrounding counties.

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The New GirlThe New Girl

• In 1847 Elizabeth arrived at the Geneva medical
  School with a greeting neither impolite nor warm
• Upon reception, the school immediately opposed
  her application but later reconsidered and let
  the student body vote. The vote was unanimous in
  her favor! But all the young men who voted for
  her did it in mocking! ?
• -"I had not the slightest idea of the commotion
  created by my appearance as a medical student in
  the little town. Very slowly I perceived that a
  doctor's wife at the table avoided any
  communication with me, and that as I walked
  backwards and forwards to college the ladies
  stopped to stare at me, as at a curious animal. I
  afterwards found that I had so shocked Geneva
  propriety that the theory was fully established
  either that I was a bad woman, whose designs
  would gradually become evident, or that, being
  insane, an outbreak of insanity would soon be
  apparent."

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• The townspeople thought she was crazy and women
  were shocked and appalled that a lady would want
  to participate in surgeries or dissections not
  crocheting or primping
• Elizabeth was made fun of continually and was
  made to feel out of place
• She was advised to excuse herself from her
  anatomy class when reproduction was the topic
  since her presence might embarrass the male
  students or the professor!

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The Outcast is Accepted

• Elizabeths perseverance and strength carried
  her through and she finally was accepted by all
  and regarded as an eager and serious student and
  a perfect lady to boot!

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• "November 22.--A trying day, and I feel almost
  worn out, though it was encouraging too, and in
  some measure a triumph but 'tis a terrible
  ordeal! That dissection was just as much as I
  could bear. Some of the students blushed, some
  were hysterical, not one could keep in a smile
  ... My delicacy was certainly shocked, and yet
  the exhibition was in some sense ludicrous. I had
  to pinch my hand till the blood nearly came ...
  Dr. Webster, who had perhaps the most trying
  position, behaved admirably." (Diary, Nov. 22,
  1847)

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• During break between her sessions at the Geneva
  Medical School, she worked at The Blockley
  Almshouse in Philadelphia
• She was rejected here, socially, by all the male
  physicians, but continued to see many severely
  ill patients and treat their ailments which were
  usually forms of typhus
• With this experience behind her, she developed
  her thesis, which was published in the Buffalo
  Medical Journal

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Elizabeth Graduates first in her class
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Life after School.

• 1852 she published The Laws of Life, with Special
  Reference to the Physical Education of Girls, in
  1878, Counsel to parents on the Moral Education
  of Their Children, and in 1884, The Human
  Element in Sex among over 15 other pamphlets and
  books
• In1853 she opened a dispensary in NYC
• She founded the New York Infirmary for Women and
  Children in 1857
• To continue the tradition she started, she
  established the Womans Medical College of the
  New York Infirmary in 1868!

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A Medical Pioneer

• Elizabeth Blackwell was an incredible figure who
  fought her way to the top and followed through
  with her goal
• She has inspired the million of females in the
  medical field in the past, present, and future

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Bibliography
-Shearer, Benjamin F., Shearer, Barbara S.
Notable Women in the life Sciences. London
Greenwood Press, 1996. 31-36. -"Celebrating 150
Years of Women in Medicine The Legacy of
Elizabeth Blackwell." State University of New
York Upstate Medical University Alumni Journal.
19 November 20, 2003. -Ph.D., M.L.S., Eric v.
d. Luft. This is an online version of an exhibit
held at the National Library of Medicine,
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
National Library of Medicine. 18 November 2003
http//www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/blackwell/college_life.
html