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Elizabeth - Blackwell

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Elizabeth - Blackwell First Lady of Medical Doctorates By Amelia Brown In the Beginning Born in England in 1821, Elizabeth Blackwell moved to America as a young child. – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Elizabeth - Blackwell


1
Elizabeth - Blackwell
  • First Lady of Medical Doctorates
  • By Amelia Brown

2
In the Beginning
  • Born in England in 1821, Elizabeth Blackwell
    moved to America as a young child.
  • She was educated decently and worked as a
    teacher.
  • Finding this work unpleasant and uninspiring
    she
  • desired another career!

3
A new career?
  • A sickly friend suggested she study to become a
    doctor because she thought that she would have
    been more comforted in her ill state with a
    female doctor
  • -This interested Elizabeth and she decided to
    pursue it against all odds
  • -What odds they were! She lacked the funds to pay
    for medical school, she needed a better basis of
    classical languages and scientific studies, and
    she required experience in the medical field.

4
Another step on the way to medical school
  • It so happened that all her needs were met in one
    man and his house
  • She lived in a physician's household, where she
    received some medical training, the use of a
    medical library, and the opportunity to study
    Greek and Latin
  • This was Elizabeths chance to conquer her goal,
    and there was only one last step
  • Now she needed to secure a position in a medical
    school! Can she do it?

5
Geneva Medical College
  • After applying to many of the top institutions
    and colleges, she finally got one positive answer
    in a stack of negative ones
  • This acceptance came from none other than the
    quaint Geneva Medical School in Geneva New York
  • Geneva Medical College was one of the many
    small, short-lived medical schools that
    flourished in 19th-century America. Founded in
    1835 in a small town at the foot of Seneca Lake
    in western New York State, by 1847 it had seven
    faculty members, a student body of about 150, and
    a new college building. To graduate, students
    took two 16-week courses of lectures, submitted a
    thesis, and took an oral exam. Nearly all the
    students came from the surrounding counties.

6
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7
The New GirlThe New Girl
  • In 1847 Elizabeth arrived at the Geneva medical
    School with a greeting neither impolite nor warm
  • Upon reception, the school immediately opposed
    her application but later reconsidered and let
    the student body vote. The vote was unanimous in
    her favor! But all the young men who voted for
    her did it in mocking! ?
  • -"I had not the slightest idea of the commotion
    created by my appearance as a medical student in
    the little town. Very slowly I perceived that a
    doctor's wife at the table avoided any
    communication with me, and that as I walked
    backwards and forwards to college the ladies
    stopped to stare at me, as at a curious animal. I
    afterwards found that I had so shocked Geneva
    propriety that the theory was fully established
    either that I was a bad woman, whose designs
    would gradually become evident, or that, being
    insane, an outbreak of insanity would soon be
    apparent."

8
  • The townspeople thought she was crazy and women
    were shocked and appalled that a lady would want
    to participate in surgeries or dissections not
    crocheting or primping
  • Elizabeth was made fun of continually and was
    made to feel out of place
  • She was advised to excuse herself from her
    anatomy class when reproduction was the topic
    since her presence might embarrass the male
    students or the professor!

9
The Outcast is Accepted
  • Elizabeths perseverance and strength carried
    her through and she finally was accepted by all
    and regarded as an eager and serious student and
    a perfect lady to boot!

10
  • "November 22.--A trying day, and I feel almost
    worn out, though it was encouraging too, and in
    some measure a triumph but 'tis a terrible
    ordeal! That dissection was just as much as I
    could bear. Some of the students blushed, some
    were hysterical, not one could keep in a smile
    ... My delicacy was certainly shocked, and yet
    the exhibition was in some sense ludicrous. I had
    to pinch my hand till the blood nearly came ...
    Dr. Webster, who had perhaps the most trying
    position, behaved admirably." (Diary, Nov. 22,
    1847)

11
  • During break between her sessions at the Geneva
    Medical School, she worked at The Blockley
    Almshouse in Philadelphia
  • She was rejected here, socially, by all the male
    physicians, but continued to see many severely
    ill patients and treat their ailments which were
    usually forms of typhus
  • With this experience behind her, she developed
    her thesis, which was published in the Buffalo
    Medical Journal

12
Elizabeth Graduates first in her class
13
Life after School.
  • 1852 she published The Laws of Life, with Special
    Reference to the Physical Education of Girls, in
    1878, Counsel to parents on the Moral Education
    of Their Children, and in 1884, The Human
    Element in Sex among over 15 other pamphlets and
    books
  • In1853 she opened a dispensary in NYC
  • She founded the New York Infirmary for Women and
    Children in 1857
  • To continue the tradition she started, she
    established the Womans Medical College of the
    New York Infirmary in 1868!

14
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15
A Medical Pioneer
  • Elizabeth Blackwell was an incredible figure who
    fought her way to the top and followed through
    with her goal
  • She has inspired the million of females in the
    medical field in the past, present, and future

16
Bibliography
-Shearer, Benjamin F., Shearer, Barbara S.
Notable Women in the life Sciences. London
Greenwood Press, 1996. 31-36. -"Celebrating 150
Years of Women in Medicine The Legacy of
Elizabeth Blackwell." State University of New
York Upstate Medical University Alumni Journal.
19 November 20, 2003. -Ph.D., M.L.S., Eric v.
d. Luft. This is an online version of an exhibit
held at the National Library of Medicine,
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.
National Library of Medicine. 18 November 2003
http//www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/blackwell/college_life.
html
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