About The Blackwell Award

Two aspects of Elizabeth Blackwell’s own story guide the selections of honorees: First, Dr. Blackwell was a woman whose life opened doors to other women, by conspicuous professional achievement in a previously male-dominated occupation. Second, she lived a life of service, in which her talents and skills were offered to aid and benefit others. Recipients of the Elizabeth Blackwell Award are women who have achieved and women who have served.

Admitted to the Medical School of Geneva (now Hobart) College in 1847 and graduated first in her class two years later, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first female physician in the United States. Her life was devoted to women’s and children’s health care, reproductive education, and opening the medical profession to women.

The sculpture given with the Elizabeth Blackwell Award, created by Professor of Art A.E. Ted Aub, replicates his full-sized sculpture of Blackwell installed at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York, on October 1, 1994. Engraved in the sculpture’s granite base is an excerpt from a letter Blackwell wrote from Geneva in 1847: “I cannot but congratulate myself on having found at last the right place for my beginning.”

As a symbol of Hobart and William Smith Colleges’ Elizabeth Blackwell Award, the sculpture is presented for outstanding service to humankind.