Not far from Euston railway station and the British Library in central London sits a historic building The New Hospital For Women. Opened in 1890 by pioneering physician Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, it was the first hospital in Britain where women could be treated by female doctors.
Maddie Moate takes us on an early 2020 tour of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Gallery, a permanent exhibition within the original hospital building on Euston Road.
Despite being a woman and facing a medical profession who believed she didn’t belong there, Elizabeth became the first woman qualified to study medicine in the UK, she opened the first hospital where women could treat women AND she helped open the first school of medicine for young ladies so they could follow in her footsteps!
Not only was Anderson the United Kingdom’s first female doctor, but she was also a political campaigner, a suffragette, a hospital co-founder, and the first female mayor in England. There’s a timeline on the gallery’s site.
Find portraits of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (and her sister Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett, a leader in the UK’s women’s suffrage movement) in the National Portrait Gallery.
Related reading at The History Press: 11 little-known things about Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.
Then watch these related videos on TKSST:
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• The 1913 women’s suffrage march on Washington DC
• The Archaeology of Crossrail and the history of London
• What are the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs?
• The World’s First Poo Museum
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