The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine

On May 14, 2018, activists gathered at the corner of Bleecker and Crosby Streets in New York City to celebrate the unveiling of a commemorative plaque that marked the site where Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in America, established “the first hospital for, staffed, and run by women” (1). The event was organized by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation as part of their Civil Rights and Social Justice Map. The crowd celebrated women's contributions to medicine and the reclaiming of a female hero.

On May 12, 1857, at the same location, Elizabeth Blackwell addressed an audience at the inauguration of the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children. The institution aimed to provide free medical care for women, practical experience for female medical students, and training for nurses. The ceremony also featured Henry Ward Beecher, a prominent pastor of Brooklyn’s Plymouth Church. When he praised women as naturally suited to medicine, he said it was due to their inherently motherly nature. Nonetheless, his endorsement provided significant publicity for the cause.