Changing the Face of Medicine

The exhibit, Changing the Face of Medicine, arrived the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe that Marion Public Library applied to host it five long years ago. Thanks to Roger, head of properties, and Paul, network manager, the panels were erected and the computer kiosks were up and running the next day.

This exhibit examines how women and other minorities have struggled to become physicians. As you walk around the panels, you will see the stories of women such as Elizabeth Blackwell who worked and studied, sometimes against overwhelming conditions, to become healers.

Medicine is so broad a field, so closely interwoven with general interests, dealing as it does with all ages, sexes and classes, and yet of so personal a character in its individual appreciations, that it must be regarded as one of those great departments of work in which the cooperation of men and women is needed to fulfill all its requirements.

--Elizabeth Blackwell

Contrary to popular opinion, Elizabeth Blackwell wasn't born in America but in Britain. Her family immigrated to the US when she was still a child. She applied to many medical schools in the late 1840s but was rejected by all but one. The Geneva Medical College in Geneva, NY presented her application to the student body and allowed them to vote on her admission. Thinking that it was a prank, they voted to admit her. The school and townspeople were horrified upon her arrival. In the beginning she was a outcast among her fellow students as well as the community. As her intelligence and persistence became apparent, she made friends among the students. In January 1849 Blackwell won the triple crown for women in medicine:

• 1st in her class,
• 1st woman in the US to graduate from medical school,
• and the 1st woman in modern times to be a physician.

You can learn much more about America's women physicians @ the Marion Public Library from now until February 12 through Changing the Face of Medicine