Elizabeth Blackwell was a British-born physician who became the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree. Born in Bristol in 1821, she emigrated with her family to the United States and was eventually admitted to Geneva Medical College in New York, graduating first in her class in 1849. Her qualification challenged assumptions that women were intellectually or socially unfit for medicine and made her an international reference point for women seeking entry to the profession.
Blackwell continued her medical training in Europe before returning to New York, where she established a dispensary and, with her sister Emily Blackwell and Marie Zakrzewska, founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children. She later returned to Britain and supported medical education for women, becoming associated with the London School of Medicine for Women. Her career combined clinical practice, public health, medical education and advocacy for women’s professional independence.
In Ambrose Parry’s A Corruption of Blood, Sarah Fisher seeks out Elizabeth Blackwell after learning that a woman has succeeded in gaining a medical degree. Blackwell’s achievement gives Sarah a real historical example against which to measure her own determination to practise medicine despite the barriers facing women in Britain.
