Elizabeth Blackwell Research Paper

Elizabeth Blackwell “The first American women to go to a medical school was admitted as a joke… The students at Geneva Medical School thought it was a joke when Elizabeth Blackwell wanted to attend in 1847, so they decided to accept her. She graduated in 1849, started her own practice, and opened and infirmary for the poor”-Unknown. Elizabeth’s nationality is British and her citizenship was British and American. Samuel Blackwell and Hannah (Lane) Blackwell gave birth to Elizabeth in a house, on February 1821, on a street called Dickson in Bristol, Gloucestershire England. Elizabeth was the third child they had. Later, the family moved to the United States. She came to New York with her family when she was eleven. They entered New York Harbor …show more content…
She worked in London and Paris. She later focused on midwifery at La Maternite. While working on a procedure on a child, she got a disease on her left her blind on her left eye. Because of her blindness, she couldn't practice surgery anymore. In the mid 1850s, she opened a clinic called Dispensary for Poor Women and Children. She got help from her sister, Emily, and a friend, Marie Zakrzewska, who was a surgeon and a physician. She went back to New York in 1851 and thought she would get hate by being a woman physician. Hospitals blocked her from their wards and male doctors ignored her. Patients barely went to see her. In 1857, her younger sister, Emily, opened a hospital in New York City. That hospital, called New York Infirmary For Women And Children, was staffed with only women and it mostly served the poor. after establishing the New York Infirmary, she adopted Katherine (Kitty) Barry at, whose Irish, from the House of Refuge on Randall’s Island. Emily later expanded the hospital which included a medical school for women. Elizabeth, under the auspices of Abraham Lincoln, helped establish the U.S. sanitary commission in 1861. In the late 1860s, she opened a medical school for women. After opening up that school, she decided to go back to England. She went back to england in 1869 and spent the rest of her life working to open up a medical profession for women. Katherine followed Elizabeth during 1874-1875 looking for a house. Alfred Sachs, a Jewish man from Virginia, was very close to Elizabeth and Katherine. In 1876, he was a suitor for 26 year old Katherine. Elizabeth was very close to Florence Nightingale, and both discussed about opening and running a hospital together. Florence wanted Elizabeth focus on training nurses. Elizabeth and Alfred were close and he became more and more interested in her. But Katherine was in love was Alfred and was very jealous of Elizabeth. Elizabeth