By Unknown photographer (National Library of Medicine) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

• DOCTOR
  
• FIRST woman to receive a medical degree in the United States
• Emphasized preventive medicine and good hygiene before it was common practice
• Inspired to become a doctor when a terminally ill friend said she would have sought treatment earlier if there were a woman doctor she could have seen​
• ​Became partially blind during her work in a French hospital
• Returned to the United States, but even though she was fully qualified no hospitals would hire a woman, nor would any landlords let her rent space to open her own practice
• Opened up her home as a doctor's office, treating women and children
• Also opened a clinic in the slums of New York to treat those who could not afford medical care
• Garnered enough financial support to found the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children (still in operation and renamed Lower Manhattan Hospital), the FIRST hospital to have only women on staff
• Trained nurses during the Civil War
• Her sister Emily also became a doctor, and together they founded the Women's Medical College, which stayed open for 31 years
• Leaving the hospital to her sister, Elizabeth returned to England to open the London School of Medicine for Women
• Openly criticized Victorian stereotypes, advocating for sex education, and encouraging women to seek medical assistance without fear of being "indecent"
• Supported women's suffrage and education
• National Women Physicians Day is an annual holiday that occurs on February 3, in honor of her birthday

No Joke

Of the several schools she applied to, only one, Geneva Medical College, accepted her -- but only because everyone thought her application was a practical joke. When she arrived on the first day of classes, the dean reluctantly allowed her to stay, although she was often forced to remain outside the classroom when subject matter was deemed inappropriate for her feminine sensibilities (male anatomy, for example)​. Despite these challenges, she graduated first in her class.

Bibliography: Taddeo, Julie A. "Blackwell, Elizabeth." The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Vol. 1, Oxford University Press, 2008, 232.
Yount, Lisa. A to Z of Women in Science and Math. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1999. Print.

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