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Adaline Chase papers
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Barbara Bates Center for the Study of The History of Nursing [Contact Us]Claire Fagin Hall, 418 Curie Boulevard, Floor 2U, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-4217
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Barbara Bates Center for the Study of The History of Nursing. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
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Adaline Chase, 1897-1978, was born and raised in Lynn, Massachusetts. She graduated from Whiting High School in Lynn (1915) and enrolled in Mount Holyoke College as a member of the Class of 1919. In the fall of 1919, Chase entered Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing in Boston where she received her formal nursing training. She met the state registration requirements in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania earning the title of "Registered Nurse" in both states.
Following her training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Chase began her career as a public health nurse for the American Red Cross as well as working as a private duty nurse in Milford, New Hampshire. In 1927, Chase became Assistant Director of the Visiting Nurse Association in Waterbury, Connecticut. The following year she accepted the position of Teaching Supervisor at Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing. In 1931, Chase moved to Providence, Rhode Island to become the Educational Director of the District Nursing Association. To further her career as a nurse-educator, she enrolled in Columbia University's Teachers College and earned her Master of Arts degree in 1937.
Chase then moved to Philadelphia where she was instrumental in establishing a School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, where she served as Assistant Professor of Public Health Nursing (1937-1949) and as Associate Professor of Nursing Education (1949-1962). She retired as Associate Professor Emerita in 1962. Chase was active in many local, state, and national professional organizations as well as a number of philanthropic associations. She was a member of, among others, the American Nurses Association, the National League for Nursing, the Pennsylvania Nurses Association, and a Fellow in the American Public Health Association.
Despite its small size, this collection documents Chase's career from her training days in Boston to her post retirement activities in Philadelphia. Chase kept personal diaries of hospital training, manuscript drafts on issues relating to public health nursing, and other documents promoting the nursing profession in general. There is a good overview of her professional career and the advancements she made throughout her life. Her activities at the University of Pennsylvania are also well documented with correspondence files, teaching records, and related material about the development of an academic-based nursing education program.
There is one small file on the development of the Ruth Weaver Hubbard Foundation, established by the Visiting Nurse Society of Philadelphia in 1956 in memory of its former director, of which Adaline Chase served on the board of directors. There are several files documenting her work with the Pennsylvania Advisory Committee for General and Special Hospitals. Chase's work with professional organizations are also well documented throughout collection. Later in her life, Chase became interested in nursing history, and she kept several files about nursing history in general and nursing history at the University of Pennsylvania in particular.
This collection also contains photographs, artifacts, and some publications. The 2 photographs are stored separately; the artifacts have been added to the artifact collection; the publications have been added to the book collection.
Gift of Esther and Miriam Knoer.
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- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Barbara Bates Center for the Study of The History of Nursing
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Center staff, updated by Bethany Myers
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is unrestricted.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright restrictions may apply. Please contact the Center with requests for copying and for authorization to publish, quote or reproduce the material.
Collection Inventory
This series consists of materials which reflect Chase's personal and professional life, including membership in professional associations. Her diaries cover daily activities from 1920 to 1932, although there are some gaps in the later years. Two unpublished manuscripts created by Chase for her graduate program at Teachers College and a 1934 radio script for WPRD radio in Providence, Rhode Island are also included in this series.
This series consists of 3 folders documenting Chase's interest in the history of the nursing profession later in her life. There is one folder on nursing history in general which includes correspondence and proposed course outlines in nursing history. Two folders focus on the development of the nursing program at the University of Pennsylvania with correspondencereceived by Ann L. Austin, Elizabeth Porter, and D. McKee; and miscellaneous notes, typescripts, manuscripts, and publications reflecting the history of the University's School of Nursing.
This series consists of Chase's organizational files. This includes the alumni association material from Massachusetts General Hospital School of Nursing; correspondence and minutes of the Advisory Committee for General and Special Hospitals (1963-1969), a division of the Pennsylvania Department of State; minutes from the Pennsylvania League for Nursing (1957-1958); and the Ruth Weaver Hubbard Foundation (1948-1956). Also included are course bulletins by the University of Pennsylvania's School of Education (1939-1944), correspondence and faculty/committee material from the School of Nursing (1948-1975), and a certificate designating Chase as an Emeritus Professor (1962). There is also one folder that consists of notes, correspondence, and certificates from professional associations.
Included in this series are a variety of candid snapshots; formal portraits of Chase, including one family portrait with Chase as a young child; images of activities by a professional association, possibly the Pennsylvania League for Nursing; and a formal group portrait of the Provident District Nursing Association form 1933.