Elizabeth Blackwell?

Question

I would like you to answer the following questions about Elizabeth Blackwell.
a)What is this woman’s claim to fame?
b)How did she get into medical school?
c)In what part of the US did she do a lot of her work?

Answer 1

Known for:
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to graduate from medical school (M.D.) and a pioneer in educating women in medicine.

Elizabeth Blackwell was rejected by all the leading schools to which she applied, and almost all the other schools as well. When her application arrived at Geneva Medical College at Geneva, New York, the administration asked the students to decide whether to admit her or not. The students, reportedly believing it to be only a practical joke, endorsed her admission.

When they discovered that she was serious, both students and townspeople were horrified. She had few allies and was an outcast in Geneva. At first, she was even kept from classroom medical demonstrations, as inappropriate for a woman. Most students, however, became friendly, impressed by her ability and persistence.

Elizabeth Blackwell graduated first in her class in January, 1849, becoming thereby the first woman to graduate from medical school, the first woman doctor of medicine in the modern era.

She decided to pursue further study, and, after becoming a naturalized United States citizen, she left for England.

After a brief stay in England, Elizabeth Blackwell entered training at the midwives course at La Maternite in Paris. While there, she suffered a serious eye infection which left her blind in one eye, and she abandoned her plan to become a surgeon.

From Paris she returned to England, and worked at St. Bartholomew's Hospital with Dr. James Paget. It was on this trip that she met and became friends with Florence Nightingale.

In 1851 Elizabeth Blackwell returned to New York, where hospitals and dispensaries uniformly refused her association. She was even refused lodging and office space by landlords when she sought to set up a private practice, and she had to purchase a house in which to begin her practice.

She began to see women and children in her home. As she developed her practice, she also wrote lectures on health, which she published in 1852 as The Laws of Life; with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls.

In 1853, Elizabeth Blackwell opened a dispensary in the slums of New York City. Later, she was joined at the dispensary by her sister Emily Blackwell, newly graduated with a medical degree, and by Dr. Marie E. Zakrzewska, an immigrant from Poland whom Elizabeth had encouraged in her medical education. A number of leading male physicians supported their clinic by acting as consulting physicians.

Having decided to avoid marriage, Elizabeth Blackwell nevertheless sought a family, and in 1854 adopted an orphan, Katharine Barry, known as Kitty. They remained companions into Elizabeth's old age.

In 1857, the Blackwell sisters and Dr. Zakrzewska incorporated the dispensary as the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. Zakrzewska left after two years for Boston, but not before Elizabeth Blackwell went on a year-long lecture tour of Great Britain. While there, she became the first woman to have her name on the British medical register (January 1859). These lectures, and personal example, inspired several women to take up medicine as a profession.

Answer 2

Blackwell was the daughter of a prosperous sugar refiner in Bristol who had the means to educate both his sons and daughters. The Blackwell family moved to New York to establish a new refinery where Blackwell received improvised medical education from Samuel Dickenson of Charlestown Medical College. Blackwell applied to medical colleges but was turned down by them all. She made a second spell of applications including one to Geneva Medical College, New York, who thinking her application to be a hoax, accepted in a droll manner. Despite the obstacles and prejudices set against her, Blackwell graduated at the top of her class.

Blackwell was excluded from practicing at major hospitals and so founded her own organization, The New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, an institution staffed entirely by women. In 1869, Blackwell moved to London, where, together with Florence Nightingale, she founded The London School of Medicine for Women.

Blackwell is credited with writing the first sex education guide, The Moral Education of the Young, a publication, which caused more disquiet in Victorian Britain than the idea of a lady doctor.

Answer 3

Elizabeth Blackwell helped convince President Lincoln to start the Sanitary Commission, which sent bandages and other medical supplies to union troops during the civil war.

Answer 4

what did Elizabeth Blackwell discover

Answer 5

And the same question pops up again

Answer 6

Did she show other woman can also do stuff