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Nursing History Small Collections
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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.
Overview and metadata sections
Most of the collections included here consist of personal papers, student lecture notes from various nursing schools, and assorted nursing memorabilia and ephemera. Of particular significance are the two letters written by Florence Nightingale (MC 44).
People
- Radbill, Samuel X., 1901-1987
- Gruber, Mildred, 1904-1906
- Witmer, Laura Strickler, 1934-1947
- Nightingale, Florence, 1856-1896
- Mannsell, Thomas, Major General
- Godfrey, Mary Robinson, 1910-1987
- Francis, Susan C., 1934-1987
- Heffernan, Bernardine, 1968-1986
- Holman, Lydia, 1888-1960
- Jones, Elizabeth Kratz, 1899-1946
- Lemley, Alice and Lillie, 1887-1888
- Cavell, Edith Louisa, 1865-1915
- Soper, Martha Lenora Collett, 1919-1920
- Stern, Beverly Peril, 1955-1960
- van der Peet, Roberta
- Overholt, Ella Florence
- York, Edith M., 1922-1923
- Currier, Hazel
- Renz, Dorothy L. Feifer
- Osborne, Estelle M.
- Kennedy, Marion Kern
- McNeil, Marjorie E. Snider
Organization
- Freedmen's Hospital Nurses Alumni Club of Philadelphia.
- J.B. Lippincott Company.
- Lebanon Hospital (Lebanon, Pa.).
- Nurses for the Future Conference.
- Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
- Allentown Hospital School of Nursing.
- Hahnemann Hospital.
- Jewish Hospital (Philadelphia, Pa.). Training School for Nurses.
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
- University of Michigan School of Nursing.
- Museum of Danish Nursing History.
- St. Mary's Hospital.
- St. Luke's Hospital of Philadelphia.
- Philadelphia General Hospital.
Subject
- Nursing
- Nursing--History
- Home care services
- African American nurses
- Crimean War, 1853-1856--Medical care
- Military nursing
- World War, 1914-1918--Medical care
- American Red Cross
- Nursing students
- Pediatric nursing
- World War, 1914-1918
- World War, 1939-1945--Medical care
- Hospice Care
Place
Occupation
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Barbara Bates Center for the Study of The History of Nursing
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared 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 small collection includes notes on medical history, reminiscences, the Radbill Lectures, personal notes, and notes on childcare and nursing history.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This collection consists of two notebooks containing nursing lecture notes. Gruber's training school is unknown, but may be Gowanda State Hospital.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This small collection regards home deliveries in Somerset County, PA, with Witmer assisting Dr. I.C. Miller.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
Freedmen's Hospital was established in 1865 as the Freedmen's Bureau for the "relief of freed men and refugees" by the War Department of the United States. This was due in part to the many freed slaves who migrated to Washington, D.C. following the Civil War. Four years after the hospital's founding, they relocated to the campus of Howard University. The School of Nursing was founded in 1894 as an eighteen-month program which was later expanded two years. In 1909, the length of study was increased to three years. In the early twentieth century, the school affiliated with a number of institutions in the Washington area in addition to Howard, such as the Gallanger Municipal Hospital and the D.C. General Hospital. The hospital phased out the school and graduated its last class in 1973. Howard University opened their baccalaureate school of nursing the following year to replace Freedmen's. Over Freedmen's 79-year period, it graduated 1,700 nurses.
The Freedmen's Hospital Nurses Alumni Clubs, based in Washington, D.C., coordinates local clubs around the country. The Freedmen's Hospital Nurses Alumni Club of Philadelphia, founded in 1966, was established to promote goodwill among its graduates, to participate in the community health and cultural and educational programs, and to support the scholarship fund of the Freedmen's (and later) the Howard University Federation.
This collection includes five folders of miscellaneous materials that document some of the activities of the Philadelphia club. There is also one publication of oral interviews produced by the national office.
Physical Description0.1 Linear feet 5 folders
Copies of historical excerpts, club's purpose, list of charter members, and other activities.
Florence Nightingale was born into a British well-connected, upper-class family in May 1820. She entered nursing in 1844 following a “call from God,” rebelling against expectations for a woman of the period. In October 1854 she set out with 38 volunteer nurses to aid the sick and wounded during the Crimean War. She is known for working for better conditions for military hospitals and general conditions for the nursing profession. She died at age 90 in August 1910.
This collection contains two letters and one envelope unrelated to the letters. All three items contain hand and type-written notations concerning gift status and dates for which there is no documentation authentication.
Physical Description0.02 1 folder
The envelope is addressed by hand to the Rev. T.S. Greene at Claydon Rectory. "To enquire particularly after the Rev. Greene with Florence Nightingale’s anxious and kindest regards 1/5/82." No authentication of handwriting.
Personal letter wishing a woman well with her pregnancy and requesting the child, if a boy, be named after her father.
This letter concerns conditions surrounding the purchase of Embley, the family home in England.
Mary Margaret Robinson Godfrey (January 25, 1886- May 28, 1995) was a naval nurse during World War I and was the first Navy nurse to serve aboard ship. She graduated from the Thomas Jefferson Hospital School of Nursing in 1909, and joined the Navy Nurse Corps in 1910. Prior to World War I, Godfrey was stationed in the Philippines and Mare Island. She was also Chief Nurse at the Old Grey's Ferry Naval Home and Hospital. Later she was director of nursing at League Island Navy Hospital. While at League Island that she contracted -- and survived -- the Spanish flu. During the war she was called to be Chief Nurse on board the troop ship the Leviathan. She left the Navy in 1919.
Her obituaries can be found at the following links: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Z1sPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-oQDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6486%2C115052 http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=85217739&PIpi=92384902
This small collection includes Godfrey's letter of appointment; a reprint of an article titled "Iodized Catgut: Drying, Sterilizing, and Storing"; and a reprint of a presentation at nurses convention in Cleveland, OH, 1918.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This collection contains biographical information about Susan Francis, RN.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
Heffernan was a clinical nurse specialist. This small collection includes correspondence, job specifications, reprints, workshop agenda, application for workshop, and a cassette tape.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This small collection consists of one notebook, labeled "Nurses Training School." Institution unknown.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This small collection consists of two folders of correspondence, primarily regarding her work in public health nursing in North Carolina, along with Holman's death certificate.
Physical Description0.05 Linear feet 2 folders
This is a paper on on preparing nurses for public health work in Poland, 1939-1960.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder, 13 leaves.
This small collection consists of nine newspaper clippings on the American Red Cross.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
These contracts document Jones' military nursing appointments with the US Army Medical Department and the Isthmian Canal Commission.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
The lecture notes are from the period of Alice Lemley's study at the Philadelphia Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1887-1888. Topics touched upon in the notes include obstetrics, nervous frustration, contagious diseases, and antiseptic use.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
J.B. Lippincott Company, established 1885, was a prominent publishing house in Philadelphia, PA. This collection contains some correspondence related to publication of nursing books.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This collection contains lecture notes and examinations from Newman's nursing education, which may have been at Lebanon Hospital in Lebanon, PA.
Physical Description0.1 Linear feet 5 folders
This small collection consists of conference papers.
Physical Description0.3 Linear feet 2 folders, 1 unfoldered item
This transcript contains the first day's sessions: “An Analysis of the Effects of Current Initiatives to Attract Quality Undergraduate Nursing Students: Strategies for a Brighter Future,” “Riding the Yoyo: The Work and Worth of Nursing in the 20th Century,” “The Talent Pool in Nursing: A Comparative and Longitudinal Perspective,” “Factors Associated with Cyclical Nursing Shortages A Labor Economist's Analysis of Nursing.”
This transcript contains the second day's sessions: Nursing For College Graduates Panel Discussion: What Happens If..., Strategies for Change
This folder contains the following papers: Welcome letter by Claire Fagin, "A Labor Economist's Analysis of Nursing" by Charles R. Link, nursing program statistics, "Recurring Hospital Nurse Shortages: Explanations and Solutions" by Linda H. Aiken and Connie Flynt Mullinix, "The Talent Pool in Nursing, A Comparative and Longitudinal Perspective" by Kenneth C. Green. Nurses for the Future conference: "Strategies for Change," "Nursing for College Graduates" by Donna Diers, "Riding the Yo-yo: The Work and Worth of Nursing in the 20th Century."
This collection, assembled by Beatrice Ritter, includes information on Edith Cavell, Florence Nightingale, and European nursing.
Physical Description0.06 Linear feet 3 folders
This small collection contains Soper's lecture notes from her time as a nursing student at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Physical Description0.01 Linear feet 1 folder
This small collection contains Stern's issued manuals from her time as a student and employed nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, accompanied by a photograph of Stern in uniform.
Physical Description0.04 Linear feet 2 folders
This small collection contains items relating to Navy nursing.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This collection contains one paper, "The Nightingale Model of Nursing," written by van der Peet.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This collection contains mostly hand-written lecture notes (a few typed pages), both loose and in notebooks, on all aspect of nurses training (e.g., ethics, gymnastics, dietetics, gynecology, lab techniques, operations and operating room techniques, venereal disease, etc). The notes were taken by Overholt as a student from 1921 – 1923 at the Allentown Hospital School of Nursing. There also are senior exam questions in different subjects, and a page of the State Board exam questions for “Medical Nursing and Specialties”, June 8th, 1922.
Physical Description0.2 Linear feet 11 folders
York was Superintendent of Nurses at Hahnemann Hospital, Scranton, PA.
Physical Description0.08 Linear feet 4 folders
This collection consists of photos and program of the 1936 graduation of the Jewish Hospital School of Nursing.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This small collection includes printed materials collected by Currier, along with one photograph of an American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) meeting from 1938. It also includes an oral history transcript of an interview with Russel Lynn about Currier's life and career, conducted when Currier was 102 years old.
Hazel Peterson Currier was born November 7, 1903. She attended nursing school at the University of Minnesota, graduating in 1925. She became a nurse anesthetic and was actively involved in professional organizations such as the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) and the Pennsylvania Nurse Anesthetists. She retired in 1970.
Physical Description0.05 Linear feet 2 folders
Tabitha Parker Fondes was born in Parsonsburg, Maryland. She helped her widowed mother raise four siblings until the age of 23 when she learned about a career in nursing. This information was carried in a newspaper ad – a call for student nurses at the Mercer Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey – that was blowing across a field she was hoeing. Thus began her 50-year career in nursing. Initially, she was involved in private duty nursing.
She met her husband, James Peter Fondes, while in Philadelphia for a nursing convention after World War I. They raised three children during the Depression. After World War II, her son Alex brought home an Army buddy, William Marchant, who became integrated into the family. A writer for the theater, he is responsible for many successful plays and screen plays. In 1975, he dedicated his biography of Noel Coward, “The Privilege of his Company” to Tabitha Parker Fondes.
She spent time with her son Alex, a theatrical researcher, and became a motherly figure to prominent American actors such as Anthony Franciosa, Ben Gazzara, Shelly Winters, Elaine Stritch, and Maureen Stapleton. While living in England her son became friends with Sir Michael Redgrave and his family as well as members of the Queens household. When Tabitha Fondes visited, she had a meeting with the Queen Mother.
Another son, Robert Parker Fondes, is an avid historian and preservationist. He established the Robert Parker Fondes Endowment in Nursing in her memory at Salisbury State University in Maryland. Her son states it was created in “celebration of a life that took a farm girl from Parsonsburg to demanding motherhood in Philadelphia, to some of the most sophisticated and lively circles in the world.” (Information from the “Alumni News” Vol. 11 No.1 Spring 1996, page 3.)
This collection contains records of significant achievements in Fondes' career, notably her New Jersey and Pennsylvania nursing licenses and registration.
Physical Description0.4 Linear feet 12 folders
Dorothy L. Feifer Renz annotated this Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Procedure Manual during her time at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) School for Nursing between 1953-1954. It documents Renz's understanding of HUP's nursing curriculum and clinical practice procedures during the midcentury period.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This collection was donated by Michael Zwerdling, a collector of healthcare-related postcards. See donor file for photocopies of other postcards in his personal collection.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This collection contains nursing stamps, envelopes, and embossed postal cards.
Physical Description0.1 Linear feet 4 folder
This small collection consists of a photograph and biography of Edith Cavell, with a facsimile of a Luxemburg landscape.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This folder contains a paper about African American nurses authored by Osborne.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This collection consists of photographs of Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania nurses.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This collection consists of a Students' Nursing Practice Record for training completed at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, November 1940.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
Marjorie Elizabeth Snider McNeil was born in 1922. She graduated from the University of Michigan School of Nursing in 1943, and joined the Army Nurse Corps the following year. After five weeks of basic training, she was posted to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri. Her war service took her overseas to the 103rd General Hospital Unit in England. After the war she married and moved to Cambridge, Massachussetes, where she worked as an obstetrical nurse. In 1948 the McNeils relocated again, this time to Ann Arbor. She did not resume her nursing work except for a brief period around the time of her father's death in 1964. In the 1970s she entered the kitchenware business and became president of a local store until her retirement in 1989. McNeil died in Vienna, Virginia, in 2005.
This collection consists of approximately 200 pages of obstetrics class lecture notes taken by Marjorie E. McNeil, University of Michigan School of Nursing, July - September 1942. The notes are accompanied by a few pages of biographical material prepared by Laurie McNeil.
Physical Description0.02 Linear feet 1 folder
This collection consists of several letters written by an Army nurse during World War I.
Physical Description0.2 Linear feet 1 folder
Materials in this collection consist of printed materials regarding the Musuem of Danish Nursing History.
Physical Description0.2 Linear feet
This collection contains 7 calendars of nurses from photographs to fine art.
This collection was donated by Charles Rosenberger. These photographs are images of the students, teachers, and wards of St. Mary's Hospital in Troy, N.Y.
Physical Description0.2 Linear feet
1.0 Items
This collection was donated by Peter Short and consists of photographs of critical care nursing in hospital settings.
Physical Description1.0 Linear feet Oversized
This collection consists of lecture notes from Ruth Erikson (Messiner) while she attended the Phildelphia General Hospital Training School for Nurses (PGH).
Physical Description0.5 Linear feet