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Elizabeth Blackwell
(3 Feb 1821 - 31 May 1910)
English-American physician who was the first woman in to earn an M.D. from a U.S. medical school.
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Science Quotes by Elizabeth Blackwell (7 quotes)
I felt more determined than ever to become a physician, and thus place a strong barrier between me and all ordinary marriage. I must have something to engross my thoughts, some object in life which will fill this vacuum, and prevent this sad wearing away of the heart.
— Elizabeth Blackwell
Entry from her early journal, stated in Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women (1895), 28.
If the present arrangements of society will not admit of woman’s free development, then society must be remodelled, and adapted to the great wants of humanity.
— Elizabeth Blackwell
From letter (12 Aug 1848) to Emily Collins, reproduced in Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, History of Woman Suffrage (1881), Vol. 1, 91.
It is not easy to be a pioneer—but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.
— Elizabeth Blackwell
As quoted, without citation, in Arlene J. Morris-Lipsman, Notable Women (1990), 70. The author dates this to “twenty years after her graduation,” [which was on 23 Jan 1849]. Please contact Webmaster if you know the primary source.
My whole life is devoted unreservedly to the service of my sex. The study and practice of medicine is in my thought but one means to a great end, for which my very soul yearns with intensest passionate emotion, of which I have dreamed day and night, from my earliest childhood, for which I would offer up my life with triumphant thanksgiving, if martyrdom could secure that glorious end:— the true ennoblement of woman, the full harmonious development of her unknown nature, and the consequent redemption of the whole human race.
— Elizabeth Blackwell
From letter (12 Aug 1848) replying to Emily Collins, reproduced in Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan Brownell Anthony and Matilda Joslyn Gage, History of Woman Suffrage (1881), Vol. 1, 91. Blackwell was at the time a student at the medical college of Geneva, N.Y.
Our school education ignores, in a thousand ways, the rules of healthy development; and the results … are gained very generally at the cost of physical and mental health.
— Elizabeth Blackwell
Lecture (2 Dec 1959) delivered in Clinton Hall, New York City. Published in 'Medicine as a Profession for Women', The English Woman’s Journal (1 May 1860), 5, No. 27, 148. (Prepared together with Emily Blackwell.) The Blackwells recognized the connection between health and learning. They also wanted that teachers (of whom 90% were women) should “diffuse among women the physiological and sanitary knowledge which they will need.”
The idea of winning a doctor’s degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me.
— Elizabeth Blackwell
In Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women (1895), 29.
![Elizabeth Blackwell quote: To her [Florence Nightingale] chiefly I owed the awakening to the fact that sanitation is the supreme](https://todayinsci.com/B/Blackwell_Elizabeth/BlackwellElizabeth-Sanitation500x250px.jpg)
To her [Florence Nightingale] chiefly I owed the awakening to the fact that sanitation is the supreme goal of medicine its foundation and its crown.
— Elizabeth Blackwell
In Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women (1895), 176.
Quotes by others about Elizabeth Blackwell (1)
I shall esteem it a very great honor to have a degree from the institution that gave Elizabeth Blackwell her opportunity to study medicine.
Accepting a Doctor of Science honorary degree (28 Apr 1934) from Syracuse University, on the hundredth anniversary of the founding of Geneva Medical College. As quoted in Patricia J. F. Rosof, 'The Quiet Feminism of Dr. Florence Sabin: Helping Women Achieve in Science and Medicine', Gender Forum (2009), No. 24. Reiterated in Letter (15 Jun 1934) after the commencement, to Charles Flint, the fifth Chancellor of the university. (M.S. Box Fl-Fu, APS)
![Elizabeth Blackwell quote: To her [Florence Nightingale] chiefly I owed the awakening to the fact that sanitation is the supreme](https://todayinsci.com/B/Blackwell_Elizabeth/BlackwellElizabeth-SanitationThm.jpg)
See also:
- 3 Feb - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Blackwell's birth.
- Elizabeth Blackwell - biography as remembered by a fellow student in 1892.
- 20 Jan - Elizabeth Blackwell U.S. 18 cent stamp issued (1974) and other events, births and death for that date.
- Elizabeth Blackwell: America's First Woman M.D. - An annotated collection of documents and photos tracing her career by the National Library of Medicine.
- Sympathy and Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine, by Regina Morantz-Sanchez. - book suggestion.
- Elizabeth Blackwell: First Woman Physician, by Tristan Boyer Binns. - book suggestion.
- Booklist for Elizabeth Blackwell.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
