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Ellis Reynolds Shipp

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Ellis Reynolds Shipp.

Ellis Reynolds Shipp MD (January 20, 1847 – January 31, 1939)[1]: 258–259  was an American doctor and one of the first female doctors in Utah. She founded the School of Nursing and Obstetrics in 1879, and was on the board of the Deseret Hospital Association. In her 50-year medical career, she led the School of Nursing and Obstetrics to train more than 500 women as licensed midwives.

Early life and education

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Born Ellis Reynolds in Davis County, Iowa, she moved with her family to Utah Territory in 1852 after her parents were baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).[1] Her family was among the early Mormon pioneer settlers of Pleasant Grove, Utah. Her mother died when she was fourteen years old, and her father remarried and relocated the family to Sanpete County.[2] While living there, Ellis Reynolds was invited by Brigham Young to move to Salt Lake City and live in the Beehive House and go to school.[3]: 153 

Shipp began studying at the University of Deseret, and later in Philadelphia at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1875.[4] She left her children behind in Utah Territory in the care of her husband's three other wives. Milford Shipp's second wife, Margaret C. Roberts, was originally sent to Women's Medical College but returned after a month due to homesickness, with Ellis Shipp replacing her.[3]: 156  After her first year, she returned to Utah for the summer, eventually going back to Philadelphia pregnant with her sixth child. She graduated from the school in 1878 with honors.[1]: 258  Brigham Young sponsored her education in the eastern United States, and she later did further medical studies at the University of Michigan in 1893.

Career in obstetrics practice and teaching

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When she returned to Utah, Ellis Shipp founded the Ellis Reynolds Shipp's School of Obstetrics and Nursing, which trained over 500 women in midwifery and nursing.[5] Along with her established school, Shipp also traveled to settlements to teach women about health and nursing, at the request of the Relief Society.[6] She delivered more than 5,000 children in her career.[5]

In 1888, Ellis Shipp founded one of the first medical journals in Utah, called the Salt Lake Sanitarian, with Milford Shipp and Margaret Roberts. The three served as editors of the journal which was published for only three years.[7]: 373 

Service in LDS Church

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Shipp served as a member of the General Board of the Relief Society, the women's organization for the LDS Church, from 1898 to 1907. She also served on the general board of the Young Women's Mutual Improvement Association.[8] She also served with the Utah Women's Press Club as president and the National Council of Women as a delegate.[5] Shipp spoke twice at the World's Congress of Representative Women. She first spoke of the success seen by the women of Utah in medicine. Her second talk, entitled "Medical Education of Women in Great Britain and Ireland" was in the final publication of the congress.[9]

Personal life

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On May 5, 1866, Ellis Reynolds married Milford Shipp. She bore a total of ten children, six of whom survived infancy.[5] Shipp combined motherhood and a medical practice, saying, "It is to me the crowning joy of a woman’s life to be a mother."[10] In 1910, she published a book of her own poems, Life Lines.[2]

Shipp died at age 92 in Salt Lake City on January 31, 1939, of cancer.[1]

Honors

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In 2023 a statue of Shipp was dedicated at This Is the Place Heritage Park.[11]

A neighborhood park in Salt Lake City, Utah, is named "Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp Park" in Shipp's honor; it is located near where she lived and practiced medicine.[12] A public health center in West Valley, Utah, the Ellis Reynolds Shipp Public Health Center, is also named in her honor.[13]

Shipp is honored by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers with a display room in the Pioneer Memorial Museum in Salt Lake City.[14]

Ellis Reynolds Shipp Hall (Building 11) of the women's dormitories in the old Heritage Halls at Brigham Young University was named after Shipp.[15]: 695 

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Scrivener, Laurie; Barnes, J. Suzanne (2002). "Shipp, Ellis Reynolds (1847–1939)". A Biographical Dictionary of Women Healers, Midwives, Nurses, ad Physicians. Westport, Connecticut: Oryx Press. ISBN 1-57356-219-X.
  2. ^ a b Peterson, Maren (2020-10-15). "Stories of Utah Women: Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp". Utah Division of Archives and Records Service. Archived from the original on 2023-06-12. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  3. ^ a b Skalla, Judy (1980). "Beloved Healer". The Women Who Made the West. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-385-15801-7.
  4. ^ Davis Bitton; Thomas G. Alexander (25 November 2009). "Shipp, Ellis Reynolds (1847-1939)". The A to Z of Mormonism. Scarecrow Press. p. 210. ISBN 9780810870604. Retrieved 2014-09-01.
  5. ^ a b c d Jaworski, Karen Kay. "Ellis Reynolds Shipp". Utah History Encyclopedia. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. Archived from the original on 2010-03-26. Retrieved 2010-01-28.
  6. ^ Manesse, Alice Miller (2020-09-16). "Women of USU: Then and Now Women as Physicians". Utah State University. Archived from the original on 2023-06-26. Retrieved 2023-06-26.
  7. ^ Burgess-Olson, Vicky (1978). "Ellis R. Shipp". Sister Saints. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press. ISBN 0-8425-1235-7.
  8. ^ "Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp". University of Utah. 2004-03-15. Archived from the original on 2010-03-26. Retrieved 2010-01-28.
  9. ^ Durante, Dawn (2019). 100 Years of Women's Suffrage: A University of Illinois Press Anthology. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252051784.
  10. ^ "Ellis Reynolds Shipp—Mother and Doctor". LDS Church. Retrieved 2011-07-31.
  11. ^ Brackin, Karah (September 20, 2023). "This is The Place Heritage Park honors one of the first female doctors in Utah with a statue". KSLTV.com.
  12. ^ "Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp Park". Utah History Resource Center. Archived from the original on 2012-07-14.
  13. ^ Bauman, Joseph (1995-09-21). "Health Clinic Bears Name of a Pioneer". Desert News. Archived from the original on 2023-06-23. Retrieved 20 June 2023.
  14. ^ "The Pioneer Memorial Museum - The Medical Room". Daughters of Utah Pioneers. Archived from the original on 2023-06-20. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
  15. ^ Wilkinson, Ernest L. (1975). Brigham Young University: The First 100 Years. Provo: Brigham Young University Press.

Further reading

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