Elizabeth Blackwell

1821 – 1910

Elizabeth Blackwell was an English-American physician who in 1849 became the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, graduating at the top of her class from Geneva Medical College in upstate New York. Refused admission by every other school she applied to, she went on to co-found the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children in 1857 and the Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary in 1868, opening medical careers to generations of women. She was also the first woman entered on the British General Medical Council's Medical Register.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM