ABSTRACT
Rogers’ change archetypes place Smith in social context and contrast him to his two Geneva classmates, Elizabeth Blackwell and Elisha Harris. Blackwell and her English friend Florence Nightingale were innovators, persons who developed new ideas but did not work well with others. Harris was a member of the early majority, a consolidator more than a groundbreaker. In Rogers’ schema, Smith bridged these two types. He was an early adopter, one with vision and connections who was a local change leader. Blackwell started her teaching hospital for women, Harris became a visible supporter of New York’s sanitary reform movement, and Smith gained stature as a creative surgeon and medical author. A national public health movement began in 1857, which Harris supported and Smith, now married to the daughter of a successful Brooklyn lawyer, avoided. Smith launched a new journal, American Medical Times, in 1860 with a goal of uplifting his profession. There was ominous news from South Carolina as 1860 ended, but Smith saw an optimistic road ahead.
