Emily Blackwell M.D.
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Emily Blackwell M.D. (1826 - 1910)

Dr. Emily Blackwell M.D.
Born in Bristol, England, United Kingdommap
Ancestors ancestors
Daughter of and
Sister of , , , , , , and
Died at age 83 in York Cliffs, York, York, Maine, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 17 Oct 2017
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Contents

Biography

Notables Project
Emily Blackwell M.D. is Notable.

Dr. Emily Blackwell, M.D., one of the first women to receive a medical degree (M.D.) in the United States, was born on 8 October 1826 in Bristol, England, United Kingdom.[1]

She was the sixth of the nine children (who lived to adulthood) of Samuel Blackwell, a sugar refiner, and Hannah Lane, who immigrated to the United States from Bristol in 1832.[2] The family first settled In New York, then in 1838 moved to Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio.

Emily was the second woman to earn a medical degree (M.D.) from Cleveland Medical School, part of Western Reserve College, in Cleveland, Ohio in 1854. Five years earlier, her older sister, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., was the first woman to receive a M.D. in the United States in 1849 from Geneva Medical College, Geneva, New York. [3][4]

In 1857, Emily, along with her sister Elizabeth and Dr. Marie Zakrzewska, M.D., established the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children. In 1868, the Blackwell sisters created the Women's Medical College in New York City.[3] After Elizabeth moved to England, Emily became dean in 1869. She served as a professor of obstetrics and gynecology for 30 years, educating 364 women physicians before co-ed medical school was commonplace. Emily was posthumously inducted into the U.S. National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993, 20 years after her sister Elizabeth. [5]

Like her four sisters, Emily never married. She adopted a daughter named Anna (also called “Hannah” or “Nannie”) in 1871. Emily lived the last three decades of her life with Dr. Elizabeth Cushier, a physician who served at the Infirmary.[3] The two women retired from medicine at the turn of the century. After traveling abroad for a year and a half, they spent the next winters at their home in Montclair, New Jersey and summers in Maine.

Education

Although her older sister, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., had warned Emily of the grim prospects women doctors faced, she was not deterred. Emily was finally accepted into Cleveland Medical School, part of Western Reserve College, in Cleveland, Ohio where she earned her medical degree in 1854.[6]

Dr. Emily Blackwell then traveled to Europe to continue her studies. First, she went to Edinburgh, Scotland, to study for a year with Sir James Young Simpson. She so impressed him that he recommended her to several of Europe's most important clinics. As Simpson noted in a letter to Blackwell in 1891, he had rarely met a young physician as well versed in literature, science, and medical practice. Following a second year of clinical study and observation in England, France, and Germany, Emily Blackwell returned to New York to work with her sister.

Death

Emily Blackwell, aged 83, died on 7 Sep 1910 at her summer home in York Cliffs, York County, Maine, United States,[7] a few months after her sister Elizabeth's death in England. Emily was buried in Chilmark Cemetery in Chilmark, Dukes County, Massachusetts.[1]

Census

1850
Henderson, Henderson, Kentucky, United States. [8]
1860
New York City, New York County, New York, United States. [9]
1870
New York City, New York County, New York, United States. [10]
1880
New York City, New York County, New York, United States. [11]
1900
Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. [12]
1910
Montclair, Essex, New Jersey, United States. [13]

Sources

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8611502/emily-blackwell: accessed 06 August 2023), memorial page for Dr Emily Blackwell (8 Oct 1826–7 Sep 1910), Find a Grave Memorial ID 8611502, citing Abel Hill Cemetery, Chilmark, Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave.
  2. ↑ "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2M1-QH64 : 2 August 2022), Manifest of Passengers, ship name Cosmo, from Bristol, England, arrived in New York City on 5 Oct 1832, Sam’l Blackwell, 42, merchant, Hannah, 39, Anna, 16, Mary Anne, 14, Elizabeth, 12, Samuel, 9, Henry, 7, Emily, 5, Ellen, 4, Mary, 39, Lucy, 32, Elisa Major, 24, governess, all from Great Britain, intending to live in the United States. [missing infant John Howard, less than a year old, and George, yet to be born]
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wikipedia: Emily Blackwell, retrieved 17 Oct 2017
  4. ↑ Wilson, Tracy V. and Holley Frey. "Elizabeth Blackwell, America's First Female M.D." Stuff You Missed in History Class (Podcast). 24 March 2014. HowStuffWorks.com (web). Retrieved 17 Oct 2017.
  5. ↑ [https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/emily-blackwell/ National Women's Hall of Fame
  6. ↑ Changing the Face of Medicine: Physicians Biography: Emily Blackwell
  7. ↑ "Maine Vital Records, 1670-1921," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q24X-16LG : 2 March 2021), multiple sources, Maine; FHL microfilm, Emily Blackwell, aged 83, died 7 Sep 1910 in York, Maine, United States, parents Samuel Blackwell and Hannah Lane
  8. ↑ "United States Census, 1850", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M654-Z86 : Mon Jul 17 20:21:10 UTC 2023), Henderson, Henderson, Kentucky, United States, Emily Blackwell in household of Wyatt H Ingram [where Emily worked as a schoolmistress in Kentucky, where her sister Elizabeth had previously worked]
  9. ↑ "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MC4Y-JYQ : Tue Jul 18 01:40:14 UTC 2023), New York City, New York County, New York, United States, household of Emilia Blakwell
  10. ↑ "United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8F8-C73 : 29 May 2021), New York City, New York County, New York, United States, E Blackwell in household of Louis Turner
  11. ↑ "United States Census, 1880", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MZDR-23V : Thu Aug 03 06:45:23 UTC 2023), New York City, New York County, New York, United States, household of Emily Blackwell
  12. ↑ "United States Census, 1900", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSK8-T4H : Thu Aug 03 17:03:03 UTC 2023), Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States, household of Emily Blackwell [Incorrectly indexed as part of the previous household of Maud Stanley and Joseph James]
  13. ↑ "United States Census, 1910", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKY3-NK7 : Tue Jul 18 16:21:01 UTC 2023), Montclair, Essex, New Jersey, United States, household of Emily Blackwell and Elizabeth Cushier




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Emily Blackwell, M.D.
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Categories: Obstetrician-Gynecologists | National Women's Hall of Fame (United States) | New York, Physicians | Case Western Reserve University | Abel Hill Cemetery, Chilmark, Massachusetts | Doctresses | Notables