Elizabeth Blackwell Dies

In 1907 Blackwell was injured in a fall from which she never fully recovered.

She died on 31 May 1910 at her home in Hastings in Sussex after a stroke. She was buried in June 1910 in Saint Mun's churchyard at Kilmun on Holy Loch in the west of Scotland.

Elizabeth Blackwell died on May 3, 1910. She died at the old age of eighty-nine. She opened a world of opportunities for women. She always fought for what was right her whole life. In 1949 the Blackwell medal was established. It is given to women that have outstanding achievements in the practice of medicine. She will always be remembered as a great woman.

Soon after establishing the college, Elizabeth Blackwell returned to England. She set up a private practice in London and served as a lecturer at the London School of Medicine for Women. She retired in 1877 and moved to Hastings. Elizabeth Blackwell died at her home there on May 31, 1910.

Elizabeth had always planned to return to England to make her career there, and did so in 1869, leaving the college under the directorship of Emily. Once in England, she helped Florence Nightingale to organize the National Health Society. She also founded the London School of Medicine for Women. In 1875 she was appointed the professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Children, which had been founded by Elizabeth Garrett. She continued to work here from 1875-1907, when a serious fall forced her to retire.

On February 3rd, 1910, Elizabeth Blackwell died. In her lifetime, she had accomplished what no other woman had done before, and what almost the whole world had thought impossible. Against great odds, and much resistance, she had succeeded in becoming the world’s first woman to graduate from medical school, become a doctor, and help educate other women in the field of medicine. Written on her tombstone are these words, along with a line from Elizabeth’s lecture on The Religion of Health, which was her favorite work:

“In loving memory of Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D. –born at Bristol, 3rd February, 1821, died at Hastings, 31st May, 1910. The first woman of modern times to graduate in medicine (1849) and the first to be placed on the British Medical Register (1859)”

“It is only when we have learned to recognize that God’s law for the human body is sacred as - nay, is one with - God’s law for the human soul, that we shall begin to understand the religion of the heart.”