I am happy to announce:
Celebration Edition #417:

Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women: Autobiographical Sketches
By Elizabeth Blackwell, 1821-1910.
London and New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/blackwell/pioneer/pioneer.html

Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 1821 – 31 May 1910), born in Britain, was  the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman to be listed in the UK Medical Register.   Elizabeth's father, Samuel Blackwell, held liberal attitudes towards religion, supported the anti-slavery movement, and believed strongly that  both boys and girls should receive a practical education with the opportunity to develop their personal talents.  Sadly, Samuel Blackwell died unexpectedly on 7 August 1838, leaving his large family in poor financial circumstances.

Elizabeth and her sisters turned to teaching to support themselves.  Over time, Elizabeth developed a conviction that she should become a medical doctor, overcoming her stated "natural repugnance to the medical line of life" and determined to succeed even though  "the general sentiment of the physicians is strongly opposed to a woman's intruding herself into the profession."  That she succeeded in achieving her goal is truly astounding -- and her autobiography is a fascinating account of her experiences, and gives a strong sense of her personality and motivations.

"I felt that I was severing the usual ties of life, and preparing to act against my strongest natural inclinations. But a force stronger than myself then and afterwards seemed to lead me on; a purpose was before me which I must inevitably seek to accomplish. "

In October 1847, Blackwell was accepted as a medical student by Hobart College, then called Geneva Medical College, in upstate New York.  She also gained clinical experience at the Blockley Almshouse in Philadelphia. It was not an easy experience, but Blackwell triumphed, in part through her unyieldingly polite and professional behavior.   Her graduating thesis at Geneva Medical College dealt with typhus and noted the importance of physical health for  moral  and social well-being – an idea that she would develop in her later reform work.  On January 23, 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to achieve a medical degree in the United States. The graduation ceremonies revealed the extent to which she had won respect: Dr. Charles Lee, the dean, stood up and bowed to her as he  conferred her degree, and the local press reported favourably on the event.

Nonetheless, in April 1849, Blackwell left the United States of America for Europe.  She enrolled at La Maternité in Paris as a student midwife, since they would not agree to admit her as a physician.  She gained tremendous experience in female diseases during her stay.  Unfortunately, she also contracted a horrific infection while treating a case of ophthalmia neonatorum, eventually losing the sight in her left eye, and with it all hope of becoming a surgeon.  She also trained at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London in 1850.

Blackwell chose to return to America to establish her own medical practice.  With support in part from the Society of Friends (Quakers) she formed an independent dispensary in New York in 1953.  The institution she established eventually became The New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children and is now the Lower Manhattan Hospital.

"The difficulties and trials encountered at this early period were severe. Ill-natured gossip, as well as insolent anonymous letters, came to me. Although I have never met with any serious difficulties in attending to my practice at all hours of the night, yet unpleasant annoyances from unprincipled men were not infrequent.  …  I am glad I, and not another, have to bear this pioneer work. I understand now why this life has never been lived before. It is hard, with no support but a high purpose, to live against every species of social opposition. . . ."

In 1869 she finished her early pioneer work in America and returned to England.  There she was active in  a variety of social reform movements, co-founded the National Health Society, and campaigned against the Contagious Diseases Acts as a semi-legalization of prostitution.  Her essay, ''Counsel to Parents on the Moral Education of their Children'' (1878) discussed prostitution and marriage, and argued that women as well as men experienced sexual feelings and were equally responsible for their control.  Her autobiography, "Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women" appeared in 1895.  Elizabeth died  on 31 May 1910,  at her home in Hastings, Sussex, and her ashes were buried in the graveyard of St Munn's Parish Church, Kilmun, Scotland.

Her autobiography is well worth reading, and I hope you will enjoy it.
Best wishes,
Mary Mark Ockerbloom
Editor, A Celebration of Women Writers

"The Hurricane Mystery"
By Sarah Lindsay Schmidt, fl. 1934.
New York: Random House, 1943. Copyright not renewed.
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/schmidt/hurricane/hurricane.html

"Tungsten had been mined in neighboring hills. Who knew but traces of other strategics – antimony, beryllium, possibly mercury and chrome and feldspar and mica, and, far less likely, nickel – were there to be discovered … It was the alloys that gave flexibility, strength, hardness, endurance, and lightness to the steel used in machine tools, tanks, vehicles, instruments, machines and weapons of warfare."

Sarah Schmidt's book is set in America, during the second world war, and dedicated to her son's wartime bride Walmar Dean.  It is packed with scientific detail about the discovery of strategic metals and their importance to the war effort.  However, while the concerns of World War II provide a structure for the book, it is another war -- the gender war -- that permeates its every page.  The book's heroine, Victoria Tyrrell, is the only woman in her graduating class at the Colorado College of Mines. Her entree into this area of scientific research is, as it was for many women, built upon her relationships to men. Her deceased father and her guardian, Professor Weldon, both studied and prospected for metals.  Her chief rival is Hosmer Leeds, another protege of Professor Weldon.

Victoria has earned a dual degree in both geological and a metallurgical engineering, and is the honor student of her class.  Yet, her guardian suggests that she become a secretary for a mining company rather than trying to find the "real job" that she craves as an engineer.  Her boyfriend notes dismissively, when they discuss introducing her to his parents: "when they see what a darn good-looking bit of femininity you are, they'll understand how little your brains really matter."  Victoria, from the very beginning of the book, constantly fights to prove her equality with men.  It is no coincidence that the book begins with a life-threatening physical challenge: "All her effort was centered upon keeping up with the tireless [male] figure in front of her. "

Everyone around Victoria assumes that women are weaker than men.  Vic's sister Imogen, who is in poor health, is in many ways the image of what Vic is expected to be: shy, sweet, gentle, her creative interests consistent with "domesticity".  When mysterious events occur, Vic is asked to keep her eyes open, under cover of looking after her convalescent sister.  She is determined to put her scientific training to use and  discover mineral wealth for the war effort, as well as discovering the truth surrounding a woman's death.  Even more, she is determined to prove to the irritatingly patronizing men she loves that she is capable of doing work of value.

"Nothing could have added more strength to her desire to prove she did have professional worth than the way those two men were treating her. But it must be conclusive proof. She would make no attempt to impress them unless and until she had such proof."  As Victoria becomes able to assert her own worth, she also becomes able to assert the worth of her decisions, and her right to make them, whether or not the men in her life agree with them.

Schmidt's description of a young woman attempting to make a career in science vividly portrays the difficulties she faces from friends as well as foes.  The mystery is interesting background to a deeper story, about the difficulty of a woman achieving recognition for her abilities and achievements.