Elizabeth Blackwell is the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree. The Elizabeth Blackwell award is given to women for outstanding service to humanity.

“The example of Doctor Blackwell has been perpetuated in many ways. In 1949, Hobart and William Smith Colleges celebrated the 100th anniversary of her graduation by making Elizabeth Blackwell Centennial Awards to 12 internationally famous women doctors.”

“In 1974, the Colleges joined with the United States Postal Service in holding first-day-of-issue ceremonies for an 18-cent stamp depicting “Elizabeth Blackwell: First Woman Physician,” said the Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

The fact that Blackwell made it into the institution on a schoolboy prank in no way lessens the great achievement of being the first female to receive a medical degree.