PEOPLE IN AMERICA - Elizabeth Blackwell

PEOPLE IN AMERICA - March 24, 2002: Elizabeth Blackwell

By Nancy Steinbach

Anncr:
Every week we tell about someone important in the history of the United States. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray

Freeman tell about the first Western woman in modern times to become a doctor. Now, the story of Elizabeth
Blackwell on the VOA Special English program People in America.
(Theme)
VOICE 1:
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in Bristol, England, in eighteen-twenty-one. Her parents, Hannah and Samuel

Blackwell, believed strongly that all human beings are equal.

 

Elizabeth's father owned a successful sugar company. He worked hard at his job. He also
worked to support reforms in England. He opposed the slave trade. He tried to help improve
low pay and poor living conditions of workers. And he wanted women to have the same
chance for education as men.

He carried this out in his own home. Elizabeth had three brothers and four sisters. All
followed the same plan of education. They all studied history, mathematics, Latin¹ and Greek.
These subjects were normally² taught only to boys. Friends asked Samuel Blackwell what he
expected the girls to do with all that education. He answered, "They shall do what they
please."

VOICE 2:

In eighteen -thirty-two, Samuel Blackwell's sugar factory was destroyed by fire. He and his wife decided³ to move
the family to the United States. Elizabeth was eleven years old.

The Blackwells settled in New York City. But Mr. Blackwell's business there failed. The family moved west, to
the city of Cincinnati, on the Ohio river.

Samuel Blackwell was sick for much of the trip. He died soon after arriving in Ohio. To help support the family,
Elizabeth and her two older sisters started a school for girls in their home. Two younger brothers found jobs.

In the next few years, Elizabeth's brothers became successful in business. The girls continued operating their
school. But Elizabeth was not happy. She did not like teaching⁴.

Elizabeth began to visit a family friend who was suffering from cancer. The woman knew she was dying⁵. She
said women should be permitted to become doctors because they are good at helping⁶ sick people. The dying
friend said that perhaps her sickness would have been better understood if she had been treated by a woman. And
she suggested that Elizabeth study medicine.

VOICE 1:

Elizabeth knew that no woman had ever been permitted to study in a medical school. But she began to think
about the idea seriously after the woman who had suggested it died.

Elizabeth discussed it with the family doctor. He was opposed. But her family supported the idea. So Elizabeth
took a teaching job in the southern state of North Carolina to earn money for medical school.

Another teacher there agreed to help her study the sciences she would need. The next year, she studied medicine
privately⁷ with a doctor. He was also a medical school professor. He told Elizabeth that the best medical schools


were in Philadelphia.

VOICE 2:

No medical school in Philadelphia would accept her. College officials told her she must go to Paris and pretend
to be a man if she wanted to become a doctor. Elizabeth refused. She wrote to other medical colleges -- Harvard,
Yale, and other, less well-known ones. All rejected her ... except Geneva Medical College in the state of New
York.

She went there immediately, but did not feel welcome. It was not until much later that she learned⁸ the reason: her
acceptance⁹ was a joke. The teachers at the college decided not to admit a woman. But they did not want to insult¹⁰
the doctor who had written to support Elizabeth's desire to study medicine. So they let the medical students
decide.

The male students thought it funny that a woman wanted to attend medical school. So, as a joke, they voted to
accept her. They regretted their decision by the time Elizabeth arrived, but there was nothing they could do. She
was there. She paid her money. She wanted to study.

VOICE 1:

Elizabeth Blackwell faced many problems in medical school. Some professors refused to teach her. Some
students threatened her. But finally they accepted her. Elizabeth graduated with high honors¹¹ from Geneva
Medical School in eighteen-forty-nine. She was the only woman in the Western world to have completed medical
school training.

Three months later, Doctor Elizabeth Blackwell went to Paris to learn to be a surgeon she wanted to work in a
hospital there to learn how to operate on patients. But no hospital wanted her. No one would recognize that she
was a doctor.

A hospital for women and babies agreed to let her study there. But she had to do the tasks of a nursing student. At
the hospital, doctor Blackwell accidentally¹² got a chemical liquid in her eye. It became infected. She became blind
in that eye. So she was forced to give up her dreams of becoming a surgeon.

Instead, she went to London to study at Saint¹³ Bartholomew's Hospital. There, she met the famous nurse Florence
Nightingale.

Elizabeth returned to the United States in eighteen-fifty-one. She opened a medical office in New York City. But
no patients came. So Doctor Blackwell opened an office in a poor part of the city to help people who lived under
difficult conditions. And she decided to raise a young girl who had lost her parents.

VOICE 2:

Elizabeth Blackwell had many dreams. One was to start a hospital for women and children. Another was to build
a medical school to train women doctors. She was helped in these efforts by her younger sister Emily. Emily also
had become a doctor, after a long struggle to be accepted in a medical school.

With the help of many people, the Blackwell sisters raised the money to open a hospital in a re -built house. The
work of the two women doctors was accepted slowly in New York they treated only three-hundred people in their
hospital in its first year. Ten times as many people were treated the second year.

VOICE 1:

Elizabeth Blackwell's work with the poor led her to believe that doctors could help people more effectively by
preventing sickness. She started a program in which doctors visited patients in their homes. The doctors taught
patients how to clean the houses and how to prepare food so sickness could be prevented.

News of Elizabeth's theories spread. Soon, she was asked to start a hospital in London. She spoke¹⁴ to groups in
London about disease¹⁵ prevention. And she worked with her friend Florence Nightingale.

Elizabeth returned to the United States to start America's first training school for nurses. And in eighteen sixty


eight, she opened her medical college for women. She taught the women students about disease prevention. It
was the first time the idea of preventing disease was taught in a medical school. Soon other medical schools for
women opened in Boston and Philadelphia.

VOICE 2:

Elizabeth Blackwell felt her work in America was done. She returned to England. She started a medical school
for women in London. She wrote books, and made speeches about preventing disease.
Doctor Blackwell talked of deaths that should never have happened, of sickness that should never have been

suffered. She spoke about the dangers of working too hard, of eating poor food, of houses without light, of dirt
and other causes of disease. And she told doctors that their true responsibility was to prevent pain and suffering
from ever happening.

In eighteen -seventy-one, she started the British National Health Society. It helped people learn how to stay
healthy.

VOICE 1:
Elizabeth Blackwell never married. Neither did her sisters. They believed in treating men like equals. And they
expected to be treated like equals themselves. Most men of that time did not accept such treatment. This belief
caused problems for their brothers too. They had trouble finding¹⁶ wives who wanted to be considered as equals.

Two of Elizabeth's brothers did marry, however. Both their wives were famous workers for the cause of women's
rights.
VOICE 2:

Elizabeth Blackwell died in England in nineteen-ten. She was eighty-nine years old.
She was a very strong woman. She once wrote that she understood why no woman before her had done what she
did. She said it was hard to continue against every kind of opposition¹⁷. Yet she kept on because she felt the goal
was very important. Toward¹⁸ the end of her life, she received many letters of thanks from young women. One
wrote that Doctor Blackwell had shown the way for women to move on.

(Theme)
VOICE 1:
This Special English program was written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE 2:
And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.

 

Email this article to a friend
Printer Friendly Version

1 Latin   

adj.拉丁的，拉丁语的，拉丁人的；n.拉丁语

参考例句：

• She learned Latin without a master.她无师自通学会了拉丁语。
• Please use only Latin characters.请仅使用拉丁文字符。

2 normally   

adv.正常地，通常地

参考例句：

• I normally do all my shopping on Saturdays.我通常在星期六买东西。
• My pulse beats normally.我脉搏正常。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

5 dying   

adj.垂死的，临终的

参考例句：

• He was put in charge of the group by the dying leader.他被临终的领导人任命为集团负责人。
• She was shown into a small room,where there was a dying man.她被领进了一间小屋子，那里有一个垂死的人。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

8 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

9 acceptance   

n.接受，接收，验收，接纳；承认，认可

参考例句：

• The new laws gained widespread acceptance.新法令受到广泛赞同。
• It took years for Einstein's theory to gain acceptance.爱因斯坦的理论经过多年才被人们接受。

10 insult   

vt.侮辱，凌辱；n.侮辱的言词或行为

参考例句：

• You will insult her if you don't go to her party. 你要是不去参加她举办的聚会，就对她太无礼了。
• I can't sit down with that insult.我不能忍受那种侮辱。

11 honors   

n.礼仪；荣典；礼节； 大学荣誉学位；大学优等成绩；尊敬( honor的名词复数 )；敬意；荣誉；光荣

参考例句：

• He aims at honors. 他力求名誉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We did the last honors to his remains. 我们向他的遗体告别。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 accidentally   

adv.偶然地；意外地

参考例句：

• Mary accidentally let out that her mother had telephoned.玛丽无意中说出她的母亲来过电话。
• As I turned around,I accidentally hit him in the face.我转身时不经意撞了他的脸。

13 saint   

n.圣徒；基督教徒；vt.成为圣徒，把...视为圣徒

参考例句：

• He was made a saint.他被封为圣人。
• The saint had a lowly heart.圣人有谦诚之心。

14 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

15 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

16 finding   

n.发现，发现物；调查的结果

参考例句：

• The finding makes some sense.该发现具有一定的意义。
• That's an encouraging finding.这是一个鼓舞人心的发现。

17 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

18 toward   

prep.对于，关于，接近，将近，向，朝

参考例句：

• Suddenly I saw a tall figure approaching toward the policeman.突然间我看到一个高大的身影朝警察靠近。
• Upon seeing her,I smiled and ran toward her. 看到她我笑了，并跑了过去。