Elizabeth Blackwell

Blackwell, Elizabeth (1821-1910)

Elizabeth Blackwell was born on Feb. 3 1821,in Bristol New York. She was one of the nine children of Samuel Blackwell. Samuel Blackwell was a prosperous sugar refiner. Elizabeth Blackwell and her family moved to N.Y.C. When she was eleven. After her fathers business was destroyed by a fire. Her father died in 1838. Later Elizabeth, her mother and sisters opened a private school. But she was bored with teaching so she decided to pursue a career in medicine. In 1848 Geneva College in west central New York accepted her as a student. At the Philadelphia Hospital in Pennsylvania allowed her to practice medicine for the first time. At 1849 she was graduation at the head of her class. Dr. Blackwell journeyed to Paris. But Paris doctors proved as intolerant as their American colleagues. They would not permit her to study as a doctor. She was forced to enter a large maternity Hospital as a student midwife. There she contracted an infection that caused her to lose her eyesight in one eye. She went to London, where she was permitted to continue her studies. In 1850 she return to N.Y.C. Dr. Blackwell was not permitted to practice in any Hospital. She fought for he own and other woman’s right to learn and practice. In 1859 Dr. Blackwell brought her recognition in Britain. After Civil War she setteled in England on May 31,1910 she died at her home in Hastings, England.