Elizabeth blackwell siblings names

A metrotome sounds like a more pleasant device than it is. A switchblade of sorts, it was once used to treat fertility issues. A doctor would push the metrotome into a woman’s uterus, press the handle, and release the blade; when he pulled it out, it cut through one side of her cervix. After that, the doctor reinserted the tool and repeated the procedure on the other side. Eventually a version of the metrotome was made with a double blade that could cut both sides of the cervix at once—a supposed improvement on the original design.

Elizabeth Blackwell did not approve of metrotomes, or much of anything else that male doctors recommended for female patients in the nineteenth century. When one of her relatives faced the prospect of being treated with one, she argued for less invasive interventions and cautioned that the scarring resulting from the procedure might make pregnancy even less likely. Blackwell, who was born in England in 1821, and immigrated to the United States with her family as a child, was America’s first female doctor. Her younger sister Emily was the third. Although neither sibling was especially interested in women’s health, the lack of opportunities available to them in the field of medicine meant that they mostly treated female patients and were often limited to obstetric and gynecological care. In order to expand their practice, they opened the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women, which went on to treat more than a million patients in its first hundred years.

The Blackwells were medical pioneers, but, except for a few professional awards named in their honor and a plaque commemorating the location of their infirmary, they have largely been forgotten. A new biography by the writer Janice P. Nimura, “The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine” (Norton), attempts to redress that situation by considering their lives in the broader h

SoundPractice host Mike Sacopulos recently interviewed Janice Nimura about her latest and award-winning book, "The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine," which examines the life and education of the first female physician in the United States. Nineteenth Century pioneers and practitioners, Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell helped educate a generation of female physicians and establish the emergence of women leadership in the medical community. Ms. Nimura walks us through life at antebellum medical colleges, public health of the time, changes in medical school education, and the education of women physicians since the early 1900s. Below is a transcript of the chat, which can be heard on the SoundPractice podcast.

SoundPractice Host -- Mike Sacopulos:My guest today on the AAPL SoundPractice Podcast is bestselling author, Janice Nimura. Ms. Nimura’s latest book is The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine. She holds degrees from both Yale and Columbia and has received a Public Scholar award from the National Endowment for Humanities.

Let's start off with the obvious question, who were Emily and Elizabeth Blackwell?

Janice Nimura:Thank you for having me. Well, if you are familiar with their names at all, you're probably familiar with Elizabeth Blackwell's name and the phrase, “first woman doctor pops” into your mind shortly thereafter. She was the first woman in this country to receive a medical degree in 1849. And her sister, Emily five years younger, followed her into the profession at her instruction and received her own medical degree five years later in 1854.

Mike Sacopulos:What inspired you to specifically pick these women and this topic in the field of medicine?

Janice Nimura:Well, I think that to do this kind of long-term, long form research and writing, you

The first woman in America to receive a medical degree, Elizabeth Blackwell championed the participation of women in the medical profession and ultimately opened her own medical college for women.

Born near Bristol, England on February 3, 1821, Blackwell was the third of nine children of Hannah Lane and Samuel Blackwell, a sugar refiner, Quaker, and anti-slavery activist. Blackwell’s famous relatives included brother Henry, a well-known abolitionist and women’s suffrage supporter who married women’s rights activist Lucy Stone; Emily Blackwell, who followed her sister into medicine; and sister-in-law Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first ordained female minister in a mainstream Protestant denomination.

In 1832, the Blackwell family moved to America, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1838, Samuel Blackwell died, leaving the family penniless during a national financial crisis. Elizabeth, her mother, and two older sisters worked in the predominantly female profession of teaching.

Blackwell was inspired to pursue medicine by a dying friend who said her ordeal would have been better had she had a female physician. Most male physicians trained as apprentices to experienced doctors; there were few medical colleges and none that accepted women, though a few women also apprenticed and became unlicensed physicians.

While teaching, Blackwell boarded with the families of two southern physicians who mentored her. In 1847, she returned to Philadelphia, hoping that Quaker friends could assist her entrance into medical school. Rejected everywhere she applied, she was ultimately admitted to Geneva College in rural New York, however, her acceptance letter was intended as a practical joke.

Blackwell faced discrimination and obstacles in college: professors forced her to sit separately at lectures and often excluded her from labs; local townspeople shunned her as a “bad” woman for defying her gender role. Blackwell eventually earned the respect of professors and classmates,

Transcript

ERIC: In November, we celebrated women in science and engineering at the Museum of Science. We got a great question about the history of women in science that we're going to explore today on Pulsar. I'm your host, Eric. And my guest today is author Janice Nimura, author of the new book, The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine. Janice, thanks for joining me.

JANICE: I'm honored to be here.

ERIC: So your new book explores the careers of Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell.

JANICE: Well, if you've heard those names at all you've probably heard Elizabeth Blackwell's name as the first woman doctor in America. She was the first woman to receive a medical degree in this country in 1849. And out of her many siblings, she picked her younger sister, Emily, who was five years younger, to follow in her footsteps and join her on this lonely path of being the first woman in medicine. Emily received her medical degree five years later in 1854.

ERIC: So to start with, what is it like to research the lives of two figures who lived more than 100 years ago? I mean, you can't interview them or ask anyone who knew them. So what kind of sources and materials did you use to get to know the Blackwell sisters?

JANICE: Well, luckily for me, the Blackwells were two among nine very tight-knit siblings who sort of had a sense of, "our tribe against the world," and at the same time, all drove each other a little nuts. So they were constantly leaving and writing back to each other, which meant there are thousands and thousands of letters among these siblings. A lot of them also kept journals, which was always a great gift to an archival researcher.

And I quite love doing research in the 19th century. It's just a thrill to hold old pieces of paper that someone poured their heart out onto and read that again so that the voice is fresh. Seeking treasure in archives is one of the biggest thrills of doing this work. S