Frances Carothers Blanchard graduated from Wheaton College in 1880. She received an M.D. in 1885 from Women's College (Chicago), which was affiliated with Northwestern Medical College. She practiced medicine in Des Moines, IA until February 1896, when she married Charles A. Blanchard. In 1910 they visited Russia and spent some time in Odessa and in 1918, Panama. After the death of her husband in 1925, she visited Palestine in 1930, going on to Bombay where she was met by her missionary son-in-law. While on her trips abroad she developed a special interest in leprosy. (Medical Woman's Journal, June 1943)