The First Woman to Receive a Medical Degree in the U.S., Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell s Owned and Signed Book on The Evolution of Sex

Blackwell, Elizabeth

About this Item

BLACKWELL, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Blackwell s signed copy of a landmark study on reproductive theory and sexual differentiation, reflecting her lifelong engagement with the biological sciences. Patrick Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson. The Evolution of Sex. New York: Scribner & Welford, 1890. First American edition. 12mo. 322 pp. Original publisher s red cloth, spine and upper cover titled in gilt: "The Contemporary Science Series." Signed "Blackwell" in ink on the front free endpaper. . This copy of The Evolution of Sex, co-authored by biologist and social theorist Patrick Geddes and naturalist J. Arthur Thomson, was edited by Havelock Ellis and published in the influential "Contemporary Science Series." The book provides a Darwinian framework for understanding sexual reproduction, making it an apt text for Blackwell, whose work in women s health centered on physiology, education, and reform. Its presence in her library directly aligns with her 1852 lectures on reproductive anatomy and sexual health for young women, taught in the basement of a church at a time when such education was scarce and controversial. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821 1910), the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, ranked first in her class at Geneva Medical College in 1849. She later practiced medicine in New York and London and became a foundational figure in public health and women s medical education. Her ownership of this volume combined with her 1880 pamphlet The Human Element in Sex underscores a career-long focus on reproductive ethics and physiology. Her educational and medical work consistently challenged cultural taboos around women s bodies and sexuality, linking scientific discourse with social advocacy. The authors of The Evolution of Sex were early theorists of evolutionary biology and sex differentiation, whose work helped popularize and complicate Darwinian ideas for the reading public. Blackwell s copy therefore marks a rare convergence of feminist medical history and scientific literature at the close of the 19th century. Front inner hinge cracked; cloth mottled and worn with darkening to spine and light fraying at spine ends. Gilt title still legible. Pages toned but clean. Blackwell s signature is large and bold, occupying the upper right corner of the front endpaper. No other signed books by Blackwell are known to exist in the market; only three examples of her autograph have surfaced at auction in the last forty years. Extremely rare.

Seller Inventory # 22270

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The First Woman to Receive a Medical Degree in the U.S., Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell s Owned and Signed Book on The Evolution of Sex
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Women's Education
  • Women in Sciences
  • Exceptional Pieces
  • Women History