By Hobart and William Smith Colleges on May 7th, 2018
Professor of Women’s Studies Betty Bayer joined a panel of distinguished speakers for the unveiling of the historic plaque marking the hospital founded by Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell Class of 1849, the first woman in America to receive her degree as a Doctor of Medicine.
The dedication ceremony, hosted by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, took place on Monday, May 14 at 58 Bleecker Street in New York, N.Y., the site of The New York Infirmary for Women and Children, the first hospital for women, staffed by women, and run by women.
Following her graduation at the head of her class from Hobart’s precursor, the medical school of Geneva College, Blackwell not only founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children but aided in the creation of its medical college. After returning to England, she helped found the National Health Society, was the first woman to be placed on the British Medical Register, and taught at England’s first college of medicine for women. She was a pioneer in preventive medicine and in the promotion of antisepsis and hygiene and was responsible for the first chair of hygiene in any medical college.