Elizabeth
Blackwell,
was born in Bristol, England in 1821. She received
her medical degree in 1849 from the Geneva Medical School of Geneva
College. She moved to the United States of America where she became
the first female woman doctor in the country. She and her sister
Emily founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children
in New York City in 1853.
The hospital that the Blackwell sisters established had an entirely female medical staff. Later (1868) a medical college for women was established at the site. In 1898, the hospital became affiliated with Cornell University Medical College. In 1869 Elizabeth returned to London. There she established the National Health Society of London of the London School of Medicine for Women. She became a professor of gynecology toward the end of her career. Among her writings are The Physical Education of Girls (1852) and Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women (1895). Blackwell died in London in 1910.
References
Asimov, I. (1964). Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology: The Living Stores of More than 1000 Great Scientists from the Age of Greece to the Space Age Chronologically Arranged. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday.
Daintith, J. Mitchell, S., Tootill, E. (1981). A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists. New York: Facts on File.
Debus, A.G. (1968). World Who's Who in Science: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Scientists from Antiquity to the Present. Chicago: Marquis.