User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
I first read about Elizabeth Blackwell in one of those reverent old fashioned kids biographies, long ago, so I was fascinated to read Blackwell's real story. Nimura has done her research well, and I learned a lot about Blackwell that the kid biographies leave out--mainly that she really wasn't that drawn to medicine and didn't practice it that much. It was the idea of a woman becoming a doctor that appealed to her. Nor was she a suffragette, she seems to have felt that they should focus on active work in the community rather than trying to get the vote.
But here's why this is getting such a low review--it's another for my "good material, poor execution" shelf. Nimura starts out pretty well as a storyteller, but eventually it's more a recounting of the facts, the sort of book where you keep waiting for something to happen, and it really doesn't. And what makes this especially sad is that the Blackwells were fascinating, eccentric people. Their circle included suffrage leader Lucy Stone (whose daughter Alice Stone Blackwell became a leader of the movement in her turn) and the Beecher family. This could have been a lively book, but instead, it fades away.
Rating: really liked it
Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell were not typical of women living in the mid-1800's. They grew up in an educated family of open minded thinkers well-versed in the issues of the day. All the Blackwells were ardent abolitionists.
Elizabeth, the older of the two sisters, knew she had the capacity to become successful in any profession she desired, and she was not going to allow her gender to deter her. She arduously petitioned and applied to medical schools. Laughed at, scorned and ridiculed, she was undaunted. Finally by a fluke, almost a joke, she was accepted. Emily had the same barriers years later when she applied. It wasn't until 1893 when some of the more prestigious medical colleges accepted women. 'Doctor' did not describe a woman at that time. They were considered oddities in the worst sense of the word.
The Blackwell sisters were pioneers in the medical profession from the start opening new possibilities for women and changing outdated attitudes and procedures, not just in the U.S. but in Europe as well. Together they opened the N.Y. Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children which remained open until 1981 when it merged with Beekman Downtown Hospital and later with N.Y. Presbyterian Hospital. This hospital also allowed medical degree graduates to gain experience through rigorous in-house training programs. Their hospital was the only one at the time that allowed black doctors to treat white patients. Rebecca Cole, a young black doctor who worked in their hospital became an early voice against racial bias in public health. Being critical of the education women were receiving in all female medical colleges, they opened their own. They changed it from a 2 year program to 3. Exams required lab work and demonstration of skills. Good sanitation was stressed, even before the discovery of germs.
Janice Nimura does a very thorough job telling the story of the Blackwell sisters. Their vision and tenacity was admirable and should make us all appreciative. As much as I respect their accomplishments, I wouldn't want to have either as a friend. Nimura writes of their haughtiness and their "refusal to accept human imperfections". Their rigidity drove people away. They had harsh opinions towards other women, even those who pursued medicine and those who fought for the right to vote. They were disappointed when Pasteur proved many diseases were caused by germs and not by promiscuity. Prudish may have also described them.
I enjoyed this book immensely. Nimura is a wonderful writer; the writing flows nicely. I highly recommend it.
"At their deaths in 1910, Elizabeth at 89 and Emily at 84, there were more than 9,000 female medical doctors, 6% of all. Today 35% of physicians and slightly more than half of medical students are female."
Rating: really liked it
While the focus of this book is on the two Blackwell sisters who became the first women to receive medical degrees in the United States, it also touches on a lot of what was going on in their world, nineteenth-century United States and Europe. The reader will meet many of the movers and shakers of that era and come away with a real feel for the challenges an intellectual woman faced in that time. The Blackwell family moved from Bristol in England to New York in the early nineteenth century. The family, I gather, was upper middle class because the father owned a sugar refining plant in England which burned down. He began anew there, but as an abolitionist, felt ambivalent about this profession, knowing that Caribbean sugar plantations used slave labor. He brought his large family to the U.S. for new opportunity. He moved the family from New York to Cincinnati, then considered the "West", and soon thereafter died. This left the family in something of a financial bind so that all the siblings old enough to, needed to seek work. For the girls, teaching was the best option. Early in the Blackwell sisters' lives, one of their grandmothers had openly revealed her regret at being married and said if she had it to do over, she would not have married "Grandpapa". Interestingly, none of the five girls in the family ever married. Two of the three boys did, but they married strong, intellectual women. By not being married and needing to care for a family, the girls were more free to follow their intellectual pursuits. Elizabeth comes across as brilliant, but very prickly. She apparently sought to become a degreed physician more for the challenge and acclaim than from a desire to practice medicine. Emily, who was six years younger, was actually interested in science and received encouragement from Elizabeth to repeat her feat. Thereafter, Elizabeth seemed to have the ideas and start projects only to let Emily follow through and do the hard work. After receiving their degrees, both women went to Europe for further training. While working in a maternity hospital for indigent women in Paris (as a sort of intern), Elizabeth contracted an infection in one eye and lost that eye. I was really struck at how much traveling the Blackwell siblings were able to do. (For example, Elizabeth went to a sort of spa near the Polish border to try to heal her diseased eye, but without antibiotics, the "water therapy" there did no good. ) It was also interesting that they could choose to just go to and live in European countries. Imagine the paperwork that would entail these days. Some of the Blackwell siblings ended up returning to England, making their lives there. In the end, Elizabeth was one of them. She and Emily had started a women and children's hospital and a medical school for women, but Emily was left to run them in the end. Another interesting thing was the ease with which Elizabeth was able to go to an orphanage and come home with a young girl whom she raised as a sort of helpmate/servant. I was also interested to read of how women were perceived in the nineteenth century and how limited their options were. It makes you realize how extraordinary the Blackwell sisters' achievements were. You can also see clearly that they were able to achieve all they did because they didn't marry. Marriage was no great deal for women then. I was sometimes annoyed with Elizabeth's condescending and opinionated tone. She heartily disapproved of birth control (an attitude common then), but she had never had to bear child after child, at risk to her life and health. I was surprised she could have worked with women and not intuited that. Emily came across as a more sympathetic character. She seemed more down to earth and perhaps dogged in her approach to life. All of the Blackwells were obviously well educated and quite intelligent. They met so many of the notable people of their time. (Elizabeth even met Abraham Lincoln.) I found this book to be fascinating and well-written. The author included a nice bibliography and notes, so the interested reader can explore further. I was struck by the extensive letters and journals the Blackwells left behind, certainly a boon to the author. (This is something that actually concerns me about modern times. I really doubt emails and tweets will survive the years. How will historians in the future 'hear' the voices and learn of the lives of everyday people? In fact, I was interested in reading this book after I heard the author on the PBS Newshour talking about journaling:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the... )
I am grateful to the publisher and Netgalley for being able to read an advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
What distinguishes this book from other non-fiction historical accounts is the marriage of readability and meticulous documentation. The author manages deft storytelling to make the reader wonder, "how will this ever work out," a neat trick when the outline of the sisters' achievements is well known. Bonus: the Blackwell family and acquaintances feel like an intellectual movers and shakers list from the antebellum American north and Europe...names are dropped! We see you Florence Nightingale!
Rating: really liked it
This is a rather heavy, dense tome. Well researched I’m sure but not written in a reader-friendly way, at least not for me.
Having just recently read “They dared to be Doctors: Elizabeth Blackwell & Elizabeth Garrett Anderson” by Mary St. J. Fancourt I didn’t find anything in “The Doctors Blackwell” of any great interest that I didn’t know before.
Of course it could be that I am not in the mood for anything too hefty at the moment.
When I say I did not ‘finish’ the book it means that I skipped around until I got to the end.
Rating: really liked it
An excellent biography of two trailblazing female doctors, who earned their M.D.’s in the mid-19th century—and were also sisters. Elizabeth Blackwell is somewhat well-known as the U.S.’s “first” female doctor (which isn’t really true, the medical profession being entirely unregulated at the time and women having always practiced medicine, but she was America’s first official female M.D.). Lesser known is her younger sister Emily, whom Elizabeth pushed to join her in the profession, and who ultimately proved more interested in practicing medicine and sticking around to lead the institutions Elizabeth founded, while Elizabeth looked for more barriers to topple.
This is a serious biography but still an accessible one, and even having recently read another book that included Elizabeth Blackwell as one of its primary subjects, I still learned a lot. The fact that the two subjects here are sisters means there’s a lot about the eccentric, close-knit Blackwell family. I love a good biography of a sibling group and here there were nine, five sisters and four brothers. None of the sisters ever married, though most of them adopted orphan girls (in some cases as much servants as daughters), and the three who didn’t become doctors were actively involved in supporting their sisters who did: Anna as a journalist, Marian and Ellen as their sisters’ housekeepers. The brothers were supportive too, ferrying their sisters about to various postings; those who married, married women’s rights activists and abolitionists who had some “firsts” under their own belts, and raised daughters who also become activists and doctors.
However, the focus of the book is definitely Elizabeth, with fewer pages devoted to Emily and the others. Elizabeth was a fascinating, idealistic, determined and prickly character. Emily, from this account, is harder to pin down, but she seems somewhat more pragmatic and self-doubting. My biggest criticism of the book is that it starts to seem as if Nimura just disliked Elizabeth and therefore put the worst possible interpretation on everything. She obviously wasn’t perfect, but Nimura seems to come down hard on her for having an ego (in the 21st century? Is this actually a surprise in a trailblazer?) and for distancing herself from the women’s rights movement and being quicker to point out women’s shortcomings than men’s. Which I totally get: even today, older professional women who came up in a male-dominated environment do this, it seems to be a survival strategy, and people who succeeded where others failed often have little patience for those others. I do like a biography that explores the complexities and flaws of its subject’s personality, and maybe it’s just that I identify with Elizabeth in her high expectations and her finding ideals easier than people, but at times this one felt slightly judgmental.
On the other hand, this book manages something that most biographies of early female doctors shy away from, which is also discussing the actual efficacy of 19th century medicine, which was mostly lousy. People wanted to see dramatic results, so bloodletting, blistering, purging, etc., were all the rage. The Blackwells had their doubts about this—Elizabeth in particular believed hygiene and morality more successful than academy-endorsed medicine, and was at least half right—and so the book includes some exploration of different trends in medicine as well as the difficulties for a woman making her way in that extremely male-dominated profession.
Overall, definitely an interesting and well-researched biography that brings some fascinating historical figures to life, along with the medical world of the 19th century. I found it quite readable and am surprised some others didn’t; it’s not one of those light, humorous biographies, but it’s aimed at a general audience and has a strong narrative. It’s too bad that it wraps up the last 40 years of the sisters’ lives, after their professional collaboration ended, in just one chapter, but it does seem like there was less to say about those years. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the topic.
Rating: really liked it
I'm not sure why some reviewers felt this book was dry. It was great. I loved reading about the Blackwell sisters and their struggle to become doctors. The sisters themselves weren't really warm fuzzy people, but the backdrop of women's rights history in America and Europe was very compelling. It was also horrifying to read the accounts of medical doctors in the 1850's. I think you were mostly better off trying to get better on your own at home. I have a lot of admiration for these women pioneers and all they sacrificed to pave the way for women to have opportunities for education. I highly recommend reading this novel.
Rating: really liked it
Non-fiction. The Blackwell family moved from Bristol,
England to NYC to Cincinnati, Ohio. Then all over.
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first female physician (1849)
to graduate from a US medical school, a few yrs later sister
Emily was #3. Elizabeth felt comfortable as a professor of
medicine and Emily as the clinician/ surgeon. Their birth
family shared abolitionist beliefs. In her 40s Elizabeth
obtained a young girl "Kitty" from an orphanage. Ironically
Elizabeth used Kitty as part-ward & part-servant. Kitty was
given no choices as to her future wants/ needs. Marriage did
not appeal to Elizabeth, so she thought ditto for Emily & Kitty.
Elizabeth lacked social skills & said most woman were weak
+ uneducated. Women weren't her peers/ equals. She
thought women's rights/ suffrage supporters: too dramatic.
Eliz. didn't want to alienate men. She knew Harriet Beecher
Stowe & Florence Nightengale. Flo + Eliz. encouraged female
medical vocations: nurses and physicians, respectively. Flo
firmly taught that medicine demanded celibacy of female
practitioners. Flo carried a small pet owl in her pocket!
The Geneva Medical College (later absorbed by Syracuse
University) trained Elizabeth. The College session went
October through January, and the next year too. In between
she worked & resided at a hospital for midwife training. The
hospital had 600 indigent beds. A baby had infected eyes
after his mom w/ gonorrhea gave birth. Eliz. unknowingly
transferred infection from the baby to herself, while cleaning
baby's eyes. Elizabeth eventually lost one of her eyes and
needed a class eye. Once she had a medical degree, what to
do next?
Doctors Elizabeth & Emily Blackwell opened a hospital and
dispensary for poor women and children in May 1857 in NYC.
They had the support of pastor Henry Ward Beecher and
newspaper men, making their fundraising easier. Eliz. and
plutonic friend Dr. Elder visited Abe Lincoln at the White
House in 1864. Later Eliz. wrote family members about Abe's
ugly looks. Brilliant Eliz. couldn't recognize brilliant Abe!
And Abe was knee-deep in the Civil War.
Nov. 1868 Eliz. & Emily opened the Women's Medical College
of the New York Infirmary (65%mark). They required of
students 3 years of study. Eliz. was the Dean of Faculty.
Within 8 months. Eliz. took a boat to England and never
returned to the US. Emily did much better away from Eliz.'s
shadow. Emily ran the college 30 years and then closed it.
In the intervening years woman were more readily accepted
into mainstream medical schools in the US.
Some male physicians mentored these 2 sisters, some went
through the motions, and some showed open hostility. The
sisters were liked sponges & gained medical knowledge
from various persons in the medical community, from books
& went abroad to learn about the importance about hygiene
+new procedures from other physicians. The author
overused quotes from missives between Blackwell sibs. An
interesting book which could have been even better.
Revised 12/31/21.
Rating: really liked it
Interesting and well researched. I appreciate that it doesn't just idolize Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell, but shows their lives and traits. Both sisters were determined pioneers, and I admire their determination and persistence. Medical school after medical school rejected both, but they kept looking for individuals that would let them learn and grant them a diploma. At the same, Elizabeth in particular wasn't that interested in medicine, she just wanted to prove that women could do it. She never practiced much medicine, and instead became more interested in hygiene and morality. Emily on the other hand was more interested in the science of medicine and kept the infirmary and college running without Elizabeth. The book also reminded me how parts of medicine were so different in the 19th century, before we understood bacteria and viruses.
I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the history of medicine and/or pioneering women.
Rating: really liked it
This was a fascinating look at medicine in the U.S. and Europe in the 1840's to the 20th century. Without these two amazing women blazing the trail, who knows how long it may have taken for the world to accept female doctors! They were indomitable even though the roadblocks they encountered at every stage of their careers were outrageous. How wonderful for Ms. Nimura to bring to everyone's notice how courageous these women were and what a huge impact they had on medicine and on women as well! A tour de force!
Rating: really liked it
I rate this book a low-ish three stars, unfortunately drawn low not by the writing but by the truly unpleasant nature of one of its subjects.
I am a strong believer in women’s equality, and it is obvious that someone had to plough her way through the roadblocks long placed by the patriarchs in control of society. Elizabeth Blackwell was that breaker of roadblocks: first woman to earn a medical degree in the US, first woman registered as a physician in Britain. She was persistent, yet persistently unpleasant. She had no interest in sisterhood, except in exploiting her own blood sisters. She looked down on women in general. And the author ran this point into the ground.
Still, she set up clinics, a hospital, even a medical school that catered to women at the same time that she was a bully and a snob. How to reconcile these?
It was her younger sister Emily who secured the legacy. Six years younger, Emily’s education and career and even personal life were directed by her sister. Elizabeth only truly trusted family members, so when she made sure that there was back-up leadership for the institutions she envisioned (but wasn’t willing to put time and effort into sustaining them), she went to her sister. That became Emily’s job.
The saving grace was that Elizabeth decamped back to England, and when separated by an ocean Emily was allowed to work and thrive on her own terms.
The greatest legacy someone can leave behind in working for an institution is that it can move forward even after the charismatic leader has departed. Without Elizabeth and under Emily Blackwell’s leadership, the Woman’s Medical College was able to churn out small classes of graduates until the nearby Cornell med school finally opened its doors to women and poached their students (success!). Their New York Infirmary for Women and Children would serve the community until 1981.
I can’t recall reading about an historical figure about whom my opinion changed so dramatically during the read.
I kept getting more and more shocked and irritated:
Loc 4136: “They are all hard, mannish, soulless; and though they are all doing excellent service as pioneers,and I am always happy to praise them, as women physicians such as we wish to see as a permanent and valuable feature of society, I find them not only useless but objectionable.”
Loc 958: “She had always been someone who would rather impress than endear.”
Rating: really liked it
It took fierceness and a big ego to face down the male-dominated world that Elizabeth Blackwell found herself in when she decided she could do anything they could do. And she, herself, needed a backup support. Luckily she had Emily, her sister. Between them they would change the world I live in. And if you are reading this, you, too. From the time Elizabeth presented herself as an MD (one of 3) to the day she died, the measure of how much things had changed are in the number of female doctors with MD after their names - 9,000 in the US. In a lifetime, 6% of all US doctors. As of the date of this book's publishing that number grew to 35%, with med school enrollment at roughly 50/50 as students. Exactly the change for which those two sisters were laboring.
What's interesting, in that odd way interest can get weird is that Elizabeth herself was cranky, bigoted, self-interested more often than not, and rather immoveable when it came to her own opinions. She was difficult to live with, and poor Emily paid the price. They were women of their time, and hard on those women who fell short on Blackwell morals. They were a few of the first women to write about and encourage women to discover and enjoy all the perks (orgasm) of their own bodies BUT keep it within the very limited range of child-bearing years, under the umbrella of sanctioned unions. Once one was beyond child-bearing years, or out from under a proper relationship, well, all that pleasure gets retired permanently.
Still, with all their quirks, I wanted a better tale. This could have been one. Rather, it was a chronology of facts, delivered very flatly. Like an FBI report, I imagine (the FBI really has never allowed me to read one, but I imagine they are all "just the facts, ma'am."). Oh, well. I'm glad the book got to me - it is interesting, with things you'd never think happened. Such as her on one of Elizabeth's first flash assignments from her male over-teachers - to dissect a penis. She went at it without a blink. As years went by and her circle of profession crossed paths with the world famous Florence Nightingale; Elizabeth had no problem dressing her down in public. And the one the stays with me the most and keeps me thankful I live now. . .the exam that Elizabeth wrote about in a letter home: it had been a difficult week and the hardest part was getting a leech to stay stuck on a cervix during a bleeding. Evidently it was awkward and took a long time, it wanting to wander and not staying put. . .
Rating: really liked it
Thoughts soon.
Rating: really liked it
This was just ok. It was a very interesting topic but the writing was a little dry.
Rating: really liked it
A good biography of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in the U.S., and her sister Emily, who also became a doctor. The history and story a good read, but Elizabeth Blackwell comes across as quite the snob.
