Emily Blackwell

1826-1910

Emily went to Geneva Medical College in Geneva, New York to study medicine. Her older sister Elizabeth had graduated from there. The school was not ready to accept any more women students. She tried to apply to many other medical colleges. It took her six years to be accepted to a medical college. In 1852 Emily was accepted by Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois. Although she finished her first year the college would not take her back for her second year. Doctors in Illinois did not want a woman doctor. So she finished her training in 1854 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. After she graduated with the highest honors, she went to Europe for two years to study in England, France and Germany.

In 1856 Emily her sister and Dr. Marie Zakrzewska opened one of their own hospital for women and children and also staffed by all women. Emily also did surgery because her sister's eye sight was affected by an eye infection. In 1868 Emily and her ran the hospital together. Then in 1869 her sister Elizabeth Blackwell moved back to England and left the hospital in Emily Blackwell's hands. The hospital that Elizabeth left in Emily's hands still exists till this very moment as the Beth Israel Medical Center.

Finally Dr. Emily Blackwell retired at the turn of the century and spent the next ten years at her summer home in Maine. She died in 1910, a few months after her sister's death in England.

Other sites about Emily:
http://www.greatwomen.org/blkwelem.htm
http://www.lemoyne.edu/library/womens/women_medicine.htm
http://www.netsrq.com/~dbois/black-em.html