Ellis Reynolds Shipp

Ellis Reynolds Shipp MD (January 20, 1847 – January 31, 1939) 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 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). 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.

Shipp began studying at the University of Deseret, and later in Philadelphia at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania 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. She delivered more than 5,000 children in her career.

Service in LDS Church 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. She also served with the Utah Women's Press Club as president and the National Council of Women as a delegate.

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.

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. A public health center in West Valley, Utah, the Ellis Reynolds Shipp Public Health Center, is also named in her honor.

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

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