the present-day university's earliest predecessor was geneva medical college founded 1834 as part of geneva college, today known as hobart and william smith colleges. the new medical college was located in geneva, new york, and became the first college to grant a full m.d. to a woman, elizabeth blackwell in 1849. in 1871, the college was disbanded and its assets donated to the recently-founded syracuse university, which subsequently founded a medical college.