1. Elizabeth Blackwell First American Female Physician June 20, 2007

2.  No financial disclosures.

3. Learning Goals 1. Recognize that Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman physician in the United States of America

4. “Medicine is so broad a field, so closely interwoven with general interests, dealing as it does with all ages, sexes and classes, and yet of so personal a character in it’s individual appreciations, that it must be regarded as one of those great departments of work in which the cooperation of men and women is needed to fulfill all its requirements.” -Elizabeth Blackwell

5. Her childhood and early life

6. Her medical education Geneva Medical College, founded in 1835 New York State (Geneva Historical Society)

7. Major Accomplishments  January 11, 1849-First woman to earn a medical degree in the United States  1857-Founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children  1861-Trained nurses for the American Civil War. A contemporary of Florence Nightingale.  1868-Founded a Women’s Medical College at the New York Infirmary to train Women doctors.  1874-75-Helped open the Women’s Medical College in London, England.

8. Major Accomplishments, cont’d  1875-taught at the London School of Medicine for Women.  1859-First female physician and doctor in the UK Medical Register.  Inspired Elizabeth Garrett Anderson to become Britain’s first woman doctor.  Active in the anti-slavery movement  1895-Published Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women.

9.  Elizabeth Blackwell died on May 31, 1910, six days after suffering a stroke, at the age of 89.

10.  Women physicians everywhere owe a debt of gratitude to Elizabeth Blackwell for opening up the field and practice of medicine to women.

11. “I think we are really happy in this medical movement. We must have acted at the right time, for how seldom it is, that those who are privileged to initiate an important reform see such wonderful results from the effort during their lifetime.” -Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D. Elizabeth Blackwell, aged 38. Pencil drawing by Comptesse de Charnacee Glasgow University Archives

12. 1. Boyd, Julia. The Excellent Doctor Blackwell: The Life of the First Female Physician, Sutton Publishing, Thrupp, England, 2005. References

13.  I would like to thank Patty Boyle for the help in producing this presentation.