What schools did Elizabeth Blackwell go to.?

Question: What schools did Elizabeth Blackwell go to!.!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to be successfully admitted to, and graduate from a medical school, and go on to become a doctor!. She pioneered in the education of women in medicine, which in her time was thought of solely as a man’s profession!.

Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England, on February 3rd, 1821!. From her childhood she developed a reputation for being quite stubborn, determined, and self-willed!. Her education was quite unusual!. Her father, Samuel Blackwell, believed that a girl’s education should not be limited to the usual music, embroidery, drawing, and French!. He educated Elizabeth, and her two older sisters Anna and Marion in other subjects, such as Latin, Greek and Mathematics, subjects usually only taught to boys!.

In 1832, Samuel Blackwell moved his family to America, due to the loss of his sugar refinery in England!. His business ventures in America did not fare as well as he had hoped, and he soon moved his family once more, this time from New York to Cincinnati!. He died soon after, leaving his family without financial resources!.

Elizabeth, along with Anna and Marion started a small day school in their home to help with family expenses!. Elizabeth worked hard at the school, but was quite restless and found the work unpleasant and unsatisfying!.

A dying friend confided in Elizabeth that she believed she would have been able to bear her suffering better if she had had a woman physician to provide treatment, instead of a male physician!. Her friend suggested that Elizabeth had the intelligence and courage to obtain a medical degree, and urged her strongly to do so!.

The suggestion took fast hold in Elizabeth’s mind!. Although when she was younger she had been repulsed by the idea of medicine, due to a teacher trying to interest the class in anatomy, she began inquiries into obtaining admission into a medical school, and obtaining a degree!. She encountered many obstacles which seemed quite formidable indeed, and that would have immediately discouraged any person!. However, the determination she had had from she was little helped greatly, and she determined to become a doctor!.

To earn money to aid in her venture, Elizabeth turned once again to teaching!. She arranged to live in a physician’s house, where she gained the preparation in science and classical languages she needed, also some prior medical experience, which many medical schools required!. The physicians in Philadelphia and New York, whose advice and help she sought seemed quite eager to discourage her in her venture!. Up to then, women had never been admitted to a medical school, and none had made an attempt to be admitted!. Many believed that doctoring the sick should be left to the men!. In a letter Elizabeth received from Dr!. Joseph Warrington, she was told; ‘”It is appropriate that man should be the physician, and women the nurse!” Although Dr!. Warrington was quite a liberal-minded physician, even he felt her plan could never be fulfilled!.

Elizabeth however did not let any of this discourage her in her endeavors!. She applied to many of the established medical schools, but failing to receive admission from any of them, applied to several smaller medical colleges!. She finally gained admittance from Geneva Medical College in Geneva, New York!.

Elizabeth arrived in Geneva on November 6th, 1847!. She is reported as having received a rather friendly reception, although there was most likely a slight undertone of surprise and consternation from students and faculty alike!. (It was later discovered by her, that the faculty had opposed her admission, but admitted that she was fully qualified!. They referred her application to the students, who took it as a joke, voted unanimously to admit her, and then thought no more about it!. Much to their surprise, and perhaps dismay, the “lady student” appeared in the lecture room a few weeks after the beginning of the term!.)

Elizabeth not only had to deal with the bewilderment any new student experiences, she was also looked upon as mad or immoral, because of her gender!. Townspeople avoided crossing paths with her, her boarding-house companions were disapproving!. Curious strangers often entered the rooms of the college where lectures were being held, to stare at her! She once wrote in her diary; “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 [of the boarding house she resided at] avoided any communication with me, and that as I walked backwards and forwards to college the ladies stopped to stare at me, as that 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!.”

At first, Elizabeth was asked by many of her professors to not attend certain anatomy lectures, which they thought embarrassing, and not fit for a woman!. Her reply was always that she wished to be treated simply as another student!. All parts of the human body, she argued, were holy within the sight of God; the pangs of disease were not biased!. Her argument won over her professors, and she was allowed to attend these lectures!. This, along with her seriousness, diligence, intelligence, determination, and perfect decorum won her the respect and acceptance of faculty, students, and townspeople alike!.

On January 23rd, 1849, Elizabeth graduated from the Geneva medical school, at the head of all her classes, becoming the first woman to graduate from a medical school and go on to become a doctor in the modern era!.

After graduation Elizabeth left for Paris and England, where she hoped to supplement her education in some of the great hospitals!. In France, she could only find admittance to La maternitè, a hospital where French girls were trained to be midwives!. She was disappointed, but considered the training in women’s and children’s diseases to be quite excellent!. In 1851, she returned to the United States to establish a practice!. She gave up on this, however, when patients were slow to come, and poured her time and energy instead into the promotion of hygiene and preventive medicine among both persons and professionals, also the promotion of medical education and opportunities for women physicians!.

In 1857, Elizabeth founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children!. Its purpose was to help the poor, and also to train and provide positions for women physicians and nurses!. Her medical staff at first consisted of her, and two of her protégées, a friend Maria Zakrzewska, and her younger sister Emily!. (This institution as a fact still exists, as the New York University Downtown Hospital!.) Elizabeth believed that women should receive their medical education alongside men!. She however founded the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary in 1868, since women trained in her infirmary were not able to gain admission to the male medical colleges!.

Elizabeth had always planned to return to England to make her career there, and did so in 1869, leaving the college under the directorship of Emily!. Once in England, she helped Florence Nightingale to organize the National Health Society!. She also founded the London School of Medicine for Women!. In 1875 she was appointed the professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Children, which had been founded by Elizabeth Garrett!. She continued to work here from 1875-1907, when a serious fall forced her to retire!.

On February 3rd, 1910, Elizabeth Blackwell died!. In her lifetime, she had accomplished what no other woman had done before, and what almost the whole world had thought impossible!. Against great odds, and much resistance, she had succeeded in becoming the world’s first woman to graduate from medical school, become a doctor, and help educate other women in the field of medicine!. Written on her tombstone are these words, along with a line from Elizabeth’s lecture on The Religion of Health, which was her favorite work:

“In loving memory of Elizabeth Blackwell, M!.D!. –born at Bristol, 3rd February, 1821, died at Hastings, 31st May, 1910!. The first woman of modern times to graduate in medicine (1849) and the first to be placed on the British Medical Register (1859)”

“It is only when we have learned to recognize that God’s law for the human body is sacred as - nay, is one with - God’s law for the human soul, that we shall begin to understand the religion of the heart!.”Www@QuestionHome@Com