Main content
Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing records
Notifications
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.
Overview and metadata sections
The Lankenau Hospital began its long existence in 1860, when the German Hospital of the City of Philadelphia was incorporated. The hospital did not open its doors to the public until 1866, as its original building was commandeered by the United States government for use in treating wounded Civil War soldiers during the years 1862-1866. With the entrance of the United States into the war in Europe in 1917, the Board of Trustees decided to change the name of the hospital to honor one its founders and major benefactors, businessman John D. Lankenau. Relocated twice in its history, the German/Lankenau Hospital became a local landmark in its facilities at Girard and Corinthian Avenues in North Philadelphia before moving in December 1953 to a new building situated on land carved out of the Overbrook golf course. This modern, tailor-made physical plant allowed the hospital to expand and grow better than it had been able to in the congested North Philadelphia neighborhood.
The year 1884 was marked by an event of considerable significance in the history of the Lankenau Hospital organization. One of the reasons the German Hospital had been formed was to provide German-speaking emigres with quality hospital care in surroundings where their mother tongue was spoken. Close ties were maintained with Germany, and medical advances made there were often put into practice by the doctors at the German Hospital. Thus, in 1884, aware of the need for better "nursing" care, seven Lutheran Deaconesses who were trained at the Kaiserswerth in Germany answered the call to modernize German Hospital's practices.
Though the number of Deaconesses at the German Hospital grew to thirty-six by 1899, the Board of Trustees of the hospital felt that it would be wise to establish a training school for nurses so that future needs could be met more easily. Thus the Training School of the German Hospital of the City of Philadelphia came into being in 1899, with an enrollment of five students. This diploma program, initially two years in length, was soon extended to three years-- the length which was maintained until 1968, when the program was slightly abbreviated to thirty-two months. Sister Magdalene von Bracht (one of the original seven Deaconesses), who was the directing sister of the German Hospital, became the de facto director of the fledgling training school. In 1909, however, Sister Marie Koeneke was named Superintendent of Nursing, as the school had become more formalized and was in need of someone who could devote full attention to its day-to-day operations. Sister Marie served in that position for twenty-four years, until 1933. Her impact on the course and direction taken by the school was profound, for it was during this period that the school became more of what we would consider "modern." The same year of Sister Marie's appointment, the first full-time nursing instructor in the state of Pennsylvania was hired by the German Hospital. Ida F. Giles, who was also a member of the infant Pennsylvania State Board of Examiners for the Registration of Nurses, played an important role in shaping the development of the nursing school. In 1919, the duties of the director had grown to the point that a full-time Assistant Director, Edith Bube, was added to the staff.
Though there were only five students at the school of nursing during its first year of operation, enrollment soon began to climb as the school established its reputation. Twenty years after its opening, enrollment was hovering around twenty-five students per class. The number remained steady at about thirty per class until the late 1940s when a surge in interest drove the number of enrolled students to new heights. As student interest increased and the field of nursing instruction progressed, more spacious and modern teaching facilities were needed. Thus, a Nursing Education Building attached to the main hospital was built in 1965, providing students with state-of-the-art laboratories and classrooms. Peak enrollment at the school was reached sometime in the late 1960s/early 1970s when there were as many as seventy-five students in a graduating class. The number of matriculants began to decline in the following years, especially in the decade of the 1980s, as college and university-based nursing schools began to make their ascent. Although the Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing affiliated with Eastern College in suburban Philadelphia in 1981, giving its students access to college-based natural science programs, still the number of students declined, resulting in the decision to close the program with the graduation of the class of 1992.
The history of the Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing would not be complete without mention of two other entities: the School of Practical Nursing and the Nurses' Alumnae Association. To meet the ever-increasing need for quality nursing care, the Lankenau Hospital opened a school for the training of licensed practical nurses in 1967. The School of Practical Nursing, which offered a one-year program, closed finally in 1979, after having graduated 151 LPNs. An abortive attempt to establish an alumnae association at the German Hospital in 1906 was followed by success in 1909. The Nurses' Alumnae Association has operated continuously for many decades since its second inception - its monthly publication, The Chronicle, affords a glimpse at the many activities of the association. It was very active in promoting nursing education by providing scholarships and supporting extracurricular activities.
Donated by the Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing, the collection includes records from the hospital, school of practical nursing, school of nursing, and the Nurses' Alumnae Association. Administrative files, student records, publications, artifacts, and a large number of photographs combine to provide a well-rounded view of the school throughout its many years of operation.
For information regarding transcripts please visit: http://www.nursing.upenn.edu/history/center-services/student-transcripts/
Gift of Nancy Snyder, Janice A. Bagnall, and Jane M. Kurz.
Organization
Subject
Place
- 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
-
Series 6 is restricted.
- Use Restrictions
-
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 contains materials generated by the Lankenau Hospital and its predecessor, the German Hospital. It includes, among other things, historical files, annual reports (from the years 1911-1991), subject files, a small number of clippings, and extensive holdings of at least three different hospital-based publications.
The School of Practical Nursing at Lankenau offered a one-year program designed to graduate licensed practical nurses. This series contains both administrative records and student files for the entire period of the program's existence.
This series, though not the most voluminous, has been divided into five subseries for ease of understanding: Administration, Studies and reports, Programs and activities, Subject files, and Publications. The Administration subseries includes annual reports, accreditation records, student standardized test scores, reports to and correspondence with the Pennsylvania State Board of Nurse Examiners, as well as other files, many historical in nature. The Studies and Reports subseries includes self-evaluations and progress reports, plus a number of other in-house studies . It also contains studies on each graduating class from 1953-1984. The Programs and activities subseries consists of materials which document some of the diverse extracurricular activities in which student nurses participated, programs and addresses relating to graduation and capping/pledging ceremonies, as well as curriculum plans and supplements. The Subject files subseries contains information on a variety of nursing and health-related subjects, from Army nursing to stamps on the subject of nursing. Also included are several files of biographical information on nurses. The final subseries, Publications, is comprised of bulletins and handbooks published by the school of nursing, yearbooks, and two student publications, Whites and Stripes and The Capsule.
Yearbook dropped X-Ray title in 1965. Afterwards it was known by various titles such as Maltese or Maltese Cross. Some yearbooks had no specific title.
This rather large series contains minutes of various committees at the Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing, including Faculty, Admissions, Curriculum, Student Association and others. There are also a number of files devoted to the minutes of the many ad hoc committees which were created through the years.
As the name suggests, this series consists of the final class records of courses taught at the school of nursing. Records are complete beginning with the Class of 1926, but there are also a few early roll books and final grade books which date as far back as 1921.
This series includes the student records for graduates and discontinued students. Though it is complete through the final graduating class (1992), it should be reiterated here that by convention, certain restrictions are placed on free access to student records. In order to preserve some measure of privacy, only those student records which are more than fifty years old (those fifty years being measured from the date of graduation or withdrawal) will be made available to researchers. In addition, though earlier records may be accessed, anonymity of the individuals must be maintained.
This series documents the history of the Alumnae Association from its second founding in 1909 up through the 1980s. It contains annual reports, minutes, early financial ledgers, and copies of the association's newsletter The Chronicle. The latter is an invaluable resource for charting the history and development of the association.
In this series are textbooks, manuals, handbooks, procedure books, journals, pamphlets and organizational histories. The first portion (box 83) are general materials with no specific reference to Lankenau. The second portion of materials (box 84) either refer specifically to Lankenau (such as a 1906 history of the German Hospital) or were materials used at Lankenau (such as nursing procedures or books on religious subjects in the German language).
The photograph collection, consisting of about six hundred individual images and several photo albums, is quite extensive and documents buildings, individuals and events from the late 19th century to c1992 for both Lankenau Hospital and the School of Nursing. This series is broken out into two subseries.
Sub-series A. Lankenau Hospital Historical; buildings exteriors; building interiors; non-hospital related exteriors; people; groups; operating theater; health museum; and promotional.
Sub-series B. School of Nursing Buildings; library in student residence; people; class portraits; groups; directors; nurses in the Armed Forces; classes; students in clinical areas; affiliated programs; ceremonies (pledging/capping); graduation; events; extracurricular activities; recreational activities; dormitory life; Miss Lankenau; Nurse Uniforms; and students with Dr. Annis of the Montgomery County Medical Society.