Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910) received her degree in 1849 from Geneva Medical College in New York. After overcoming many obstacles, she set up a small practice that expanded into the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, which featured an all-female staff.

When and where did the first blood bank open?

Several sites claim the distinction. Some sources list the first blood bank as opening in 1940 in New York City under the supervision of Dr. Richard C. Drew (1904–1950). Others list an earlier date of 1938 in Moscow at the Sklifosovsky Institute (Moscow’s central emergency service hospital) founded by Professor Sergei Yudin. The term blood bank was coined by Bernard Fantus (1874–1940), who set up a centralized storage depot for blood in 1937 at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.