Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska

Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska (1829 to 1902) was a Polish-American physician, born in Berlin, who became a pioneering female doctor in the United States. She came to medicine by assisting her mother, a midwife, and after repeated rejections was admitted to the Royal Charité midwifery school in Berlin, graduating in 1851. She was appointed chief midwife at the age of twenty-two, but protests led to her dismissal after only six months, and in 1853 she emigrated to New York with her sister Anna. She is best known for founding the New England Hospital for Women and Children, which opened the medical field to women and gave them hands-on learning, and within it she established what is described as the first general training school for nurses in America. She also initiated the creation of the first sand gardens for children in America.