Elizabeth Blackwell, English Physician and Social Reformer
Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821 - May 31, 1910) was an English physician. Her motivation to go into medicine came after her friend fell ill and suggested that if a female doctor had cared for her, she might not have suffered so much. Blackwell began to apply to medical schools, however, she endured a lot of prejudice due to her gender. She was rejected from all the medical schools she applied to except Geneva Medical College. In 1847 Blackwell became the first woman to attend medical school in the United States. Her thesis on typhoid fever published in the Buffalo Medical Journal right after she graduated from college in 1849. This article was the first medical article published by a female student from the United States. When the American Civil War broke out, the Blackwell sisters aided in nursing efforts. Blackwell sympathized heavily with the North due to her abolitionist roots, and even went so far as to say she would have left the country if the North had compromised on the subject of slavery. Elizabeth Blackwell played an important role in both the United States and the United Kingdom as a social and moral reformer. She thought courtship games were foolish early in her life, prized her independence, and never married. In 1907, Blackwell fell down a flight of stairs, and was left almost completely mentally and physically disabled. She died in 1910 at the age of 89.
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