Feb 03, 2018

Elizabeth Blackwell’s 197th Birthday

This Doodle’s Key Themes

“It is not easy to be a pioneer – but oh, it is fascinating!”

-Elizabeth Blackwell

As the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree, an active champion of women’s rights, and an abolitionist, Elizabeth Blackwell was nothing if not a pioneer.

Blackwell grew up in Bristol and emigrated to the United States with her family, where she began her professional life as a teacher. Early on, she asserted her moral convictions: when a teaching position in Kentucky exposed her to the brutality of slavery for the first time, she set up a Sunday school for slaves and became a staunch abolitionist.

Years later, the death of a friend prompted her foray into medicine, as Blackwell believed a female physician might have lessened her friend’s suffering. She persisted through seemingly endless rejections from medical schools – at least once being told that she should dress as a man in order to gain admittance. Finally, she was accepted into the Geneva Medical College by a unanimous vote of the all-male student body. She went on to establish a women-governed infirmary, found two medical colleges for women, and mentor several physicians.

Today’s Doodle is by illustrator Harriet Lee Merrion – who happens to be based in Bristol and regularly cycles past the house where Elizabeth grew up! Her illustration shows Blackwell in the midst of her pioneering practice and celebrates the significant positive impact she had on the lives of people around the world.

Early drafts of the Doodle below