Emily Blackwell

Emily Blackwell, between 1870/1890

Emily Blackwell (born October 8, 1826 in Bristol , England ; † September 7, 1910 in York , Maine ) was an American doctor for gynecology and suffragette .

Life

Emily Blackwell was the sixth daughter of nine children of sugar refiner Samuel Blackwell (1790-1838) and his wife Hannah Lane (1792-1870). When Emily was six years old, a fire destroyed her father's business. The family became impoverished and emigrated to the USA in 1832. In New York, Samuel Blackwell went back into the sugar business, but he did not want to sell sugar made with the help of slaves. In 1837 the Blackwell family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where their father died the following year. Her mother ran a small private school that also taught black children.

Emily Blackwell, around 1860

In 1848 Emily began studying medicine at Rush Medical College in Chicago and later passed the exam. In 1857, her sister Elizabeth (1821-1910) opened the first Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary in New York, which was run by women. Emily initially worked for Elizabeth as a midwife, later she ran the New York Women's and Children's Hospital together with the Polish doctor Marie Zakrzewska (1829-1902), which later became a medical college to facilitate training for women. In order to prevent damage to the reputation of the doctors she trained, Blackwell insisted on very strict admission and final exams. The training was strict and the aspiring doctors - including Sophia Jex-Blake (1840–1912) and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836–1917) - had to demonstrate impeccable morals, otherwise they were excluded from the course. Emily and Elizabeth Blackwell campaigned for the rest of their lives - both died in 1910 - in numerous essays and journeys for the improvement of hygienic conditions and the expansion of general health insurance.

Other family members

Other Blackwell children have also been very successful in their careers. Samuel (1823-1901) and Henry (1825-1909) worked as social reformers. Anna (1816–1900) worked as a newspaper correspondent, Ellen (1828–1901) as a writer and artist. Samuel married the first American pastor, Antoinette Brown (1825–1921), and Henry the suffragette and anti- slavery activist Lucy Stone (1818–1893).

literature

• Martha Schad: Women who moved the world , Pattloch Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-629-01625-1 .
• Elizabeth Blackwell, Amy Sue Bix: Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women: Autobiographical Sketches. Humanity Books, 2005, ISBN 1-591-022-55X .
• Adele Glimm: Elizabeth Blackwell: First Woman Doctor to Modern Times. McGraw-Hill Education, 2000. ISBN 0-071-343-350 .

Web links

• Dr. Emily Blackwell , Changing the face of medicine (exhibition)