On this day, October 19, in 1849

Elizabeth Blackwell graduated from Geneva Medical College in New York becoming the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree. Elizabeth was originally born in England to a family that encouraged both their daughters and their sons to pursue a formal education. Upon moving to America, she joined the abolitionist cause as well as becoming an active women’s rights advocate. After completing graduate studies in a London Hospital, Elizabeth returned to the US, but finding herself barred from practicing in American hospitals, she established a medical clinic in New York for women and children. Ten years later, she founded a Women’s Medical College there to train women physicians.