
Ellis Reynolds Shipp MD (January 20, 1847 – January 31, 1939)
was an American doctor and one of the first female doctors in
Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
. 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
Born Ellis Reynolds in Davis County, Iowa, she moved with her family to
Utah Territory
The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th st ...
in 1852 after her parents were baptized into
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...
(LDS Church).
Her family was among the early
Mormon pioneer
The Mormon pioneers were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), also known as Latter-day Saints, who migrated beginning in the mid-1840s until the late-1860s across the United States from the Midwest to the S ...
settlers of
Pleasant Grove, Utah
Pleasant Grove, originally named Battle Creek, is a city in Utah County, Utah, Utah County, Utah, United States, known as "Utah's City of Trees". It is part of the Provo, Utah, Provo–Orem, Utah, Orem Provo-Orem metropolitan area, Metropoli ...
. Her mother died when she was fourteen years old, and her father remarried and relocated the family to Sanpete County.
While living there, Ellis Reynolds was invited by
Brigham Young
Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until h ...
to move to Salt Lake City and live in the Beehive House and go to school.
Shipp began studying at the
University of Deseret
A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...
, and later in Philadelphia at the
Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania
A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl.
Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uteruses ...
in 1875. 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.
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.
Brigham Young
Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until h ...
sponsored her education in the eastern United States, and she later did further medical studies at the
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
in 1893.
Career in obstetrics practice and teaching
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.
Along with her established school, Shipp also traveled to settlements to teach women about health and nursing, at the request of the Relief Society. She delivered more than 5,000 children in her career.
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.
Service in LDS Church
Shipp served as a member of the General Board of the
Relief Society
The Relief Society is a philanthropic and educational women's organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It was founded in 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois, United States, and has more than 7 million members in over 1 ...
, 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. She also served with the Utah Women's Press Club as president and the National Council of Women as a delegate.
Shipp spoke twice at the
World's Congress of Representative Women
The World's Congress of Representative Women was a week-long convention for the voicing of women's concerns, held within Art Institute of Chicago Building, the World's Congress Auxiliary Building in conjunction with the World's Columbian Expositio ...
. 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.
Personal life
On May 5, 1866, Ellis Reynolds married Milford Shipp. She bore a total of ten children, six of whom survived infancy.
Shipp combined motherhood and a medical practice, saying, "It is to me the crowning joy of a woman’s life to be a mother." In 1910, she published a book of her own poems, ''Life Lines''.
Shipp died at age 92 in Salt Lake City on January 31, 1939, of cancer.
Honors
In 2023 a statue of Shipp was dedicated at
This Is the Place Heritage Park
This Is the Place Heritage Park is a Utah State Park that is located on the east side of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, at the foot of the Wasatch Range and near the mouth of Emigration Canyon. A non-profit foundation manages the park.
...
.
A neighborhood park in
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...
, is named "Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp Park" in Shipp's honor; it is located near where she lived and practiced medicine. A public health center in
West Valley, Utah
West Valley City is a city in Salt Lake County and an inner suburb of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 140,230 at the 2020 census,
making it the second-most populous city in Utah after Salt Lake City. The city inc ...
, the Ellis Reynolds Shipp Public Health Center, is also named in her honor.
Shipp is honored by the
Daughters of Utah Pioneers
The International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers (ISDUP, DUP) is a women's organization dedicated to preserving the history of the European settlers of the geographic area covered by the State of Deseret and Utah Territory, including Mormon pi ...
with a display room in the
Pioneer Memorial Museum
The Pioneer Memorial Museum is a history museum operated by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP) on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The museum hosts a large collection of artifacts related to the Mormon pioneers and early U ...
in Salt Lake City.
Ellis Reynolds Shipp Hall (Building 11) of the women's dormitories in the old
Heritage Halls at
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...
was named after Shipp.
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Shipp, Ellis Reynolds
1847 births
1939 deaths
American Latter Day Saint hymnwriters
American women physicians
Drexel University alumni
Mormon pioneers
People from Pleasant Grove, Utah
Relief Society people
University of Michigan Medical School alumni
University of Utah alumni
Young Women (organization) people
American leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Physicians from Utah
American women poets
Deaths from cancer in Utah
American women hymnwriters
Latter Day Saints from Utah
American women non-fiction writers