Somebody who works hard <i>(derog.)</i>
"Shee done all er ohmwork, Shee's a right keener."

<b>Elizabeth Blackwell</b> (February 3, 1821 – May 31, 1910) was an abolitionist and women's rights activist, and the first woman to practice medicine in the United States with a college degree.

Blackwell was born in <u>Bristol</u>, England, the third of nine children born to a sugar refiner who could afford to give his numerous sons, as well as his daughters, an education. In 1831, the family emigrated to the United States, and set up a refinery in New York City. After the death of her father, she took up a career in teaching. Desiring to apply herself to the practice of medicine, she took up residence in a physician's household, using her time there to study from the family's medical library. She became active in the anti-slavery movement (as did her brother Henry Brown Blackwell, who married Lucy Stone), in the course of which she made friends with Harriet Beecher Stowe. Another brother, Samuel C. Blackwell, married another important figure in women's rights, Antoinette Brown.

Blackwell applied to several prominent medical schools but was rejected by all. Her second round of applications was sent to smaller colleges, including Geneva College in New York. She was accepted there and braved the prejudice of some of the professors and students to complete her training. Blackwell overcame taunts and prejudice from the faculty as well as from her fellow students while at medical school. On January 23, 1849, she became the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, graduating at the top of her class.

Barred from practice in most hospitals, she founded her own infirmary, the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, in 1857. When the American Civil War began, she trained nurses, and in 1868 she founded a Women's Medical College at the Infirmary to formally train women, physicians, and doctors. After American hospitals refused to hire her, she opened a clinic in New York City where she was joined by her sister Dr. Emily Blackwell and Dr. Marie E. Zakrzewska.