In 1847 bright, persevering Elizabeth Blackwell wangled her way into the Geneva (N. Y.) Medical Institution. Two years later she graduated with distinction, becoming the first woman in the U. S. to obtain an M.D. degree. But when her sister sought to duplicate Elizabeth’s feat she found the school doors closed to her. Mid-19th Century America felt that no nice girl should be interested in the study of medicine. In 1850 a group of six Philadelphians, feeling that girls like the Blackwell sisters should be encouraged, founded the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania a block from the house where Betsy Ross sewed together the first American flag. They too, encountered prim obduracy. The American Medical Association refused to recognize the “irregular” institution. No professional journal would print its announcements. The county medical society excommunicated its professors. But aspiring women flocked to the school, which in 1867 changed its name to the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania.
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