On January 23, 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the U.S. to earn an M.D. She was granted her degree from Geneva College in New York (now known as Hobart). In 1857, after several years of private practice, she and her sister (also a doctor) founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. In 1868, the institution expanded to include a women’s college to train nurses and doctors, the first of its kind in America.
