Ellis Reynolds Shipp fulfilled many roles throughout her life, from wife and mother to student and teacher.

But the role she is perhaps most noted for is “doctor.” In 1878, Shipp graduated from the Women’s Medical College in Pennsylvania, where she was sent by Brigham Young so she could help reduce infant and maternal mortality rates in Utah.

Upon returning home, Shipp became one of the state’s first female doctors. She established the Ellis Reynolds Shipp School of Obstetrics and Nursing, which graduated over 500 nurses and midwives; helped create the Deseret Hospital; and delivered over 5,000 babies.

For these reasons and more, This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, Utah, dedicated a statue in her honor on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

“This morning, we are here to honor one of those pioneers who was so instrumental in the beginnings of the state that was to become the ensign to the nation,” said Ellis Ivory, CEO of This Is the Place Foundation, during the dedicatory prayer. “We’re thankful for the... remarkable service Ellis Shipp gave in delivering thousands of babies while teaching [and] training hundreds of nurses and midwives to... improve the healthcare of the people as they struggled to build the West.”

Ivory, like his father, was named after Ellis Shipp. Ivory’s grandmother, Mercie Hunt Ivory, attended Ellis Shipp’s obstetrics and nursing school while pregnant with her ninth child. Following graduation, she returned to Santa Fe County, New Mexico, where she became a sought-after nurse and midwife.

Kathryn Ivory, Ellis Ivory’s wife, said Mercie wanted so badly to name her 11th and final child after Ellis Shipp that she used the name even though the baby was a boy. That boy eventually passed the name onto his own son — Ellis Ivory.

Kathryn and Ellis Ivory stand next to a statue of Ellis Reynolds Shipp following its dedication at This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

During the statue dedication, Ellis Ivory invited his grandson — also named Ellis — and the sculptors, Stefanie and Roger Hunt, to assist in the unveiling.

The life-sized statue is cast in bronze and depicts Ellis Reynolds Shipp holding a book in her right hand and a baby against her left hip. The statue stands outside the Deseret Hospital replica building on the southeast side of This Is the Place Heritage Park.

A plaque by the statue includes the following note from an unnamed student of Shipp’s:

“Before I went to her class, we were so poor, my children went hungry. Mothers and newborn babies were dying all around me. I thought if I could just study in Dr. Shipp’s class and become a nurse and midwife, I could help my family and do some good in the world.

“I talked it over with my folks but they said, ‘Why, you can’t do that. It costs $50. You haven’t any money. Besides, you have a crying baby in your arms, who’ll take care of that?’ But I wanted to go so badly, I couldn’t forget it. At last, I went to see Dr. Shipp.

“She put her arm around me and said, ‘Of course you can come. You don’t need any money. Come and I’ll help you.’ And we went. And she held my squirming baby while she lectured to us so I could take notes.

“I never paid a cent, not even eggs. I helped bring a lot of babies into the world after I got through. Oh, how I loved her.”

An undated photo of Ellis Reynolds Shipp. She became a doctor in 1878, then returned home to train hundreds of women as midwives and deliver thousands of babies.

R. Scott Lloyd

Ellis Shipp’s life

Museum displays inside the Deseret Hospital replica building share details about Shipp’s life.

Born in Iowa in 1847, her family joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when she was a child, and she crossed the plains with them at only 5 years old. The oldest of six children, she took over caring for her father and four living siblings at age 14 after her mother died.

Shipp’s father remarried a year after her mother’s death, and she was then raised by her grandparents. It’s possible that this is when Shipp saw medicine practiced for the first time: her grandfather, William Hawley, had attended but not finished medical school, and was good at setting broken bones.

Shipp married Milford Bard Shipp in 1866 at age 19. They had 10 children together, but only six survived.

She left three young children at home when she entered the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in the fall of 1875. Shipp had some catching up to do — she’d taken the place of Margaret C. Shipp, another of Milford Shipp’s wives, who’d become too homesick to continue.

Ellis Shipp supported herself through medical school by selling dress patterns and teaching sewing classes. She was so poor that her health eventually suffered, and she went home to recuperate; but upon returning to Pennsylvania, she finished her schooling, even when her daughter Olea was born during her studies.

“How strange everything seemed [in school],” Shipp once wrote. “For a time, I felt almost bewildered — but soon my interest was awakened, and I began to feel my desires for knowledge increase as I began to see and realize how little I knew. What an undertaking this is; but I hope and believe it will prove a blessing.”

Ellis Ivory, CEO of This Is the Place Foundation, speaks about the statue of Ellis Reynolds Shipp during its dedication at This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. Ivory’s grandmother was one of Shipp’s students, and he is named after her.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

When she returned to Utah after medical school, Shipp felt strongly that if women had basic knowledge of medicine and obstetrics, far fewer would die during childbirth. She taught her first class in October 1878, and her first class graduated in June 1879.

Shipp taught in Salt Lake City, but when students couldn’t come to her, she went to them. She traveled all over the territory and even into Canada, often with her children in tow. Her class terms were three months, though sometimes they were only eight weeks.

Her accomplishments didn’t come without sacrifices. While separated from her 3-year-old son Burt during medical school, she wrote to him, “Oh, how precious you are to your mother’s heart. More than half of your dear life you have been deprived of a mother’s care and guidance ... it is the heart of your mother that has longed and yearned for the sight of your precious form and bright eyes and the sound of your prattling tongue.”

Burt died from diphtheria in November 1879, about a year after Shipp graduated medical school.

“This must have been a particularly difficult loss for Ellis after sacrificing her time with this little boy to get her medical training, and then not being able to save one of her own little ones,” a display in the Deseret Hospital replica building states.

Throughout her career, Shipp was known for never refusing a call. She also never billed those who couldn’t afford her services and never turned away prospective students who couldn’t pay for her classes.

Later in her life, Shipp became involved with the Utah Women’s Press Club and was a delegate to the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C.

She died in 1939 at the age of 92.

Striving for greatness

Sculptors Roger and Stefanie Hunt attend the dedication of the Ellis Reynolds Shipp statue at This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. The Hunts sculpted the Shipp statue and several others in the park.

Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Roger and Stefanie Hunt, the husband-wife duo who sculpted the new Ellis Shipp statue, have created several other statues for This Is the Place Heritage Park, such as the Pioneers of 1847 monument honoring Black pioneers.

Stefanie Hunt said the Ellis Shipp statue took about three months, and they sculpted her looking outward to give the impression that she’s looking at her students.

Roger Hunt added that, after learning about Shipp’s life and accomplishments, sculpting her was a “daunting task.” Everything from managing her home and raising children to teaching women and practicing medicine “really [shows] the kind of person she was.”

Marta Bennett, the home arts team supervisor at This Is the Place Heritage Park, said the Ellis Shipp statue represents all the female doctors who ran the Deseret Hospital.

“I hope [visitors] recognize Ellis Shipp’s commitment to help other people and ... the sacrifices she made to serve well,” Bennett said. “And also, [I hope] that they’ll connect their lives to hers, because there are so many similarities, [such as] balancing a profession and your family and sacrificing to do what you’re passionate about.”

Stephanie Shipman, who works on Bennett’s home arts team, said people don’t always realize how many opportunities Utah women had in the 1800s — more than many other women from the same era.

“[God] really provided a path for these women, to be able to leave their children in the care of other family members ... [so they could] go to medical school,” she said.

Bennett said this pattern — Heavenly Father creating ways for women to learn — shows her that He wants “the best” for His daughters. “I know He wants them to ... strive for greatness, whatever [their] role is.”

Roger Hunt, left, works on a statue of Ellis Reynolds Shipp at his studio in American Fork, Utah. He and his wife, Stefanie Hunt, are the husband-wife duo behind the new statue honoring Shipp at This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Provided by Roger and Stefanie Hunt