Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to WomenBlackwell, Elizabeth
History
Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women
Blackwell, Elizabeth
Blackwell, Elizabeth, 1821-1910; Women physicians -- United States -- Biography
The design of this institution is to give to poor women an opportunity
of consulting physicians of their own sex. The existing charities of
our city regard the employment of women as physicians as an experiment,
the success of which has not yet been sufficiently proved to admit of
cordial co-operation. It was therefore necessary to form a separate
institution which should furnish to poor women the medical aid which
they could not obtain elsewhere.
The following gentlemen cordially consented to act as trustees of
the proposed institution: Messrs. Butler, White, Haydock, Sedgwick,
Collins, Field, Draper, Greeley, West, Harris, Foster, Raymond,
Flanders, Dana, Manning, Spring, Bowne. Consulting physicians, Drs.
Kissam, Parker, Cammann, Taylor. Attending physician, Dr. Elizabeth
Blackwell.
Messrs. Sedgwick and Butler kindly procured an Act of Incorporation. A
meeting for organisation was held on January 30, 1854. A constitution
and bylaws were adopted, and the following members were appointed
an Executive Committee to transact the business for the year: Stacy
B. Collins, Richard H. Bowne, Charles A. Dana, Elizabeth Blackwell,
Charles Foster.
The Eleventh Ward was chosen as the location for the dispensary, it
being destitute of medical charity, while possessing a densely crowded
poor population. The necessary rooms were found in Seventh Street,
near Tompkins Square, and were ready for the reception of patients in
the month of March. The dispensary has been regularly opened through
the year, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, at 3 o’clock.
Over 200 poor women have received medical aid. All these women have
gratefully acknowledged the help afforded them, and several of the
most destitute have tendered their few pence as an offering to the
institution.
With all these patients, the necessity of cleanliness, ventilation,
and judicious diet has been strongly urged, and in many cases the
advice has been followed, at any rate for a time. A word of counsel
or information, too, has often been given to the destitute widow
or friendless girl who was seeking work as well as health; the best
methods of seeking employment have been pointed out, suitable charities
occasionally recommended, and pecuniary aid sometimes rendered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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