Elizabeth Blackwell
(aka Maya H.)

Hi! I'm Elizabeth Blackwell and I was born in Bristol, England in 1821. I grew up with six siblings and my mom and dad.  When I was eleven my family had hard times and my dad's plant was burnt down. We had a lot of money so we moved to the United States by boat and settled in New York City. After a little while we moved to New Jersey and eventually settled in Cincinnati, Ohio.

When I was a child my father called me a thinking creature because he thought I was very smart and girls deserved to go to school like boys. I applied at many schools and two said no. At the age of 26 I was the first female accepted at a medical school and it was called Geneva Medical School. I started school in 1847 and graduated in 1849. I was the first female  to be awarded a medical diploma. First I was an assistant at a hospital. Then I moved to Europe where I took a midwives course at La Maternia in Paris. During the Civil War I organized the Women's Central Association of Relief. I opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children after the Civil War in 1857. Then my sister, Emily Blackwell made it through school and started working with me. A woman named Mary Livermore also finished school. They helped me work at my infirmary for women and children. After my sister and Mary Livermore joined me at my infirmary, more and more women started coming for their health. Later, I organized the National Health Society.

Then I adopted a little girl named Kitty. Kitty and I found a dog named Lion and took him home. Kitty went to the infirmary with me every day. My work was very important because I opened the door for women to become doctors in England and the United States. I encouraged women to study to become doctors and fought for a long time for society to accept it. I then opened a hospital with all women doctors working there. Then I retired and wrote pioneer work in Opening the Medical Profession to women. I was 80 when I died. I died in Hastings, England in the spring of 1910.

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