Elizabeth Blakewell: Biography & Facts

Elizabeth Blackwell was born into a big, rich, sophisticated family and had a good education from private schooling. A fire had destroyed her father, Samuel Blackwell’s greatest profitable sugar refinery.  Money troubles and the family’s financial liberal cultural and religious ideals drove them to immigrate to the United States in the summer of 1832. Samuel Blackwell became involved in revolutionary movements shortly after moving to New York.  

In 1835, the Blackwell family relocated to Jersey Town, New Jersey; in 1838, they moved to Cincinnati, Indiana. After Samuel’s death, their family fell into hardship; consequently, Elizabeth and her younger sisters founded a private high school. From 1845 to 1847, Elizabeth studied in Kentucky, Henderson, South Carolina, and the north. As a result, their dinnertime discussions frequently focused on issues such as women’s rights, slavery, and child labour. Hannah and Samuel’s attitudes toward child-rearing were reflected in these liberal discussions.  

Elizabeth Blackwell-Facts

• Elizabeth Blackwell was born into a reformist and active family.

From a young age, Blackwell was surrounded by instances of revolutionary boldness. Though working in the sugar production industry, which depended largely on forced labour in the early 1800s, Blackwell’s parents were adamantly anti-slavery. Once the family immigrated to the United States from England in 1835, the family got involved in the American political campaign.

• It was a sick friend who originally persuaded Blackwell to study medicine.

Around 1845, Blackwell stood by the side of the bed of a person suffering from ovarian cancer. Blackwell’s buddy lamented throughout their talk, “if I could’ve been examined by a female doctor, my biggest miseries might certainly have been saved.” This was a message with a purpose. “Why shouldn’t I pursue medicine?” she continued to implore Blackwell.

According to Kline, Blackwell protested the audacious proposal, stating that she felt “stunned” by it. Blackwell was a teacher in Kentucky at the time and stated that she “cannot really endure the look of a medical textbook.”She was “engaged in the spiritual and moral part of everyday life, never the physical,” she claimed.

After a few decades of that intriguing chat, she considered getting a medical degree.

• Elizabeth Blackwell’s sister went on to become a doctor as well.

Emily Blackwell was motivated by her sister to pursue a nursing career. After being denied by many colleges, especially her own mater, Elizabeth was ultimately accepted to Western Reserve College, which is now Case Western Reserve and also graduated as America’s third female doctor in 1854.

Throughout their own professions, the two daughters collaborated on several events. They established the New York Clinic for Women and Kids only three years later, and Emily graduated. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Emily and Elizabeth educated female nurses for Union troops, despite opposition from male military physicians.

Elizabeth Blackwell’s Contribution To Medicine

• Creating a New Hospital: Around 1853, she established The New York Hospital for poor women and children. She secured sufficient money from benefactors four years afterwards to build the United New York Institute for Impoverished Women as well as for children. Her sister, Emily, and another trained doctor, Marie Zakrzewska, assisted in the hospital’s administration. The clinic had a strong image and is now a teaching facility for nurses
• During the American Civil War and while visiting the United Kingdom in 1858, Blackwell began annual lecturing travel in the United Kingdom, wherein she encouraged other women to pursue professions in healthcare. She was the first woman ever admitted to the British Medical Register, allowing her to practice there
• When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Blackwell chose and educated nursing again for the United States side, even while advocating better hygienic treatment for injured troops. She wanted to establish a medical university for women and a professor of cleanliness, but the American Revolution and its consequences caused her to postpone her ambitions
• She opened a medical university for all women

Elizabeth Blackwell’s Greatest Achievement

Elizabeth Blackwell was the very first woman in America who acquired a degree in medicine, advocated for women’s involvement in the medical field, and eventually founded her own separate medical university for women.

Conclusion

Elizabeth Blackwell is a role model for everyone. First of all, she was the first female surgeon in England, the United States, and Spain. Secondly, despite having Ophthalmia, an eyesight ailment that rendered her blind in one vision in 1851, she continued to pursue her aim of becoming a medical doctor. 

Finally, despite being refused by several medical schools, she persisted, becoming the first woman surgeon in three nations in 1860. Elizabeth Blackwell is a hero to all because she possesses three characteristics: leadership ability, ambition, and dedication. To summarise, she is an incredible person and an inspiration to all.