The Chronicle - Fall 2011 Edition by Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing

ISSN 1049-2259

Fall 2011, Vol. 23, No. 2

Bates Center Names Reading Room in Honor of Ellen D. Baer by Jean C. Whelan

(From L to R) Dean Afaf Meleis, Joan Lynaugh, and Julie Fairman join Ellen Baer(second from right) to cut the ceremonial ribbon at the unveiling of the Center’s reading room renamed in her honor. (Photo: Beth Hull)

Barbara Bates Center for The Study of The History of Nursing University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

n April 27, 2011 the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing kicked off its 25th anniversary by honoring Dr. Ellen D. Baer, one of the three original founders of the Center. In a surprise ceremony unveiling the name change, the Center recognized Dr. Baer as central to its establishment as a unique archival repository, research center and scholarly hub. During the ceremony Ellen was honored for her outstanding contributions, guidance, good works and concrete support. This special occasion was marked with speeches, ribbon cutting and smiles all around! Those who have followed the Center’s progress from its inception know how critical Ellen has been to its continued success. Moreover, Ellen’s impressive career has greatly enhanced the reputation of the Center as a place of scholastic excellence. Ellen came to Penn in 1980 as one of many faculty recruited by then Dean Claire Fagin from New York’s Lehman College. At the time, Ellen, a graduate of Columbia University,

was completing her doctoral studies at New York University. Her 1982 dissertation, “The Conflictive Social Ideology of American Nursing, 1893, A Microcosm,” was an historical analysis examining the ideological conflicts which developed in American nursing within the social context of the end of the 19th century. Baer’s work explored the impact of women’s issues, industrialization, urbanization, the growth of science in medicine, and nursing development. Nursing was part of the reform movement that developed in response to these issues. Through a happy confluence of events, Ellen joined two other Penn faculty members at the School of Nursing, Drs. Joan Lynaugh and Karen Buhler-Wilkerson, who were also trained in historical research. This wealth of historical scholars formed the nucleus of what became this world class Center. Once the Center was established, (see The Chronicle, Vol.23, No.1) Ellen, who assumed the role of Associate Director, was instrumental in guiding the Center’s programs through its early years. As a prodigious scholar and educator, Ellen continued on page 5

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Barbara Bates Center for The Study of The History of Nursing The Barbara Bates Center for The Study of The History of Nursing was established in 1985 to encourage and facilitate historical scholarship on health care history and nursing in the United States. Part of the Center’s mission is to maintain resources for research to improve the quality and scope of historical scholarship on nursing; and to disseminate new knowledge on nursing history through educational programs, conferences, publications, seminars and interdisciplinary collaboration. Current projects at the Center include studies of the role of nurses in health care, the history of hospitals, the forces shaping child health care delivery, the nursing workforce and the construction of nurses’ personal and professional lives. The Center also continues to collect, process, and catalogue an outstanding collection of primary historical materials. Center Hours are Monday through Friday, 10:00 am. to 4:00 pm. Scholars planning to conduct research at the Center should email nhistory@ nursing.upenn.edu or call 215-898-4502. Our Center staff will respond with a description of the scope and content of relevant materials in the various collections. Center Advisory Board Neville Strumpf, Chair Ellen D. Baer Ruth Schwartz Cowan Dorothy del Bueno M. Louise Fitzpatrick Hannah Henderson Jeanne Kiefner Nadine Landis Sandra Lewenson Mark Frazier Lloyd Marian Matez Rosalyn Watts Center Directors Julie Fairman, PhD, RN, FAAN, Director Barbra Mann Wall, PhD, RN, FAAN Associate Director Jean C. Whelan, PhD, RN, Assistant Director Joan E. Lynaugh, PhD, RN, FAAN, Director Emerita Center Fellows J. Margo Brooks-Carthon, PhD, CRNP Cynthia Connolly, PhD, RN, FAAN Patricia D’Antonio, PhD, RN, FAAN, Julie Solchaski, PhD, RN, FAAN, Winifred Connerton PhD, CNM, Post-Doctoral Fellow Center Staff Gail E. Farr, MA, CA, Curator Sandra Chaff, MS, MA, Archivist Tiffany Collier, MA, Administrative Coordinator Donna Ostroff, Volunteer The Chronicle is published twice a year Managing Editor: Jean C. Whelan, PhD, RN Editor: Tiffany Collier, MA Assistant Editor and Graphic Designer: Kailun Wang

News from the Center Julie Fairman inducted into Sigma Theta Tau International Hall of Fame. It was with great pleasure that Dean Afaf Meleis announced the induction of Bates Center Director Dr. Julie Fairman into the ranks of the Sigma Theta Tau International Hall of Fame. In her announcement Dean Meleis noted that “Julie was selected for her internationally recognized program of scholarship related to the history of nursing which has had an enormous impact on the field of understanding the history of health care and health policy after World War II. Because of this expertise, she was selected as the 2009-2010 ANA/ AAN/ANF Distinguished Nurse Scholar in Residence at the Institute of Medicine resulting in her serving on the staff of the Future of Nursing Commission which was jointly led by Drs. Donna Shalala and Linda Burnes Bolton (who also supported Julie’s nomination to the Hall of Fame). Julie demonstrated great leadership and vision in her role, providing the historical context and the framework for how the committee’s work would best meet the needs of contemporary nursing and in conducting research and writing the report. Since then, she has continued to champion the implementation of the report recommendations throughout the country.” The induction ceremony took place July 14 in Cancun, Mexico during the 22nd International Nursing Research Conference. Congratulations Julie on this notable honor!

Bates Center Associate Director Barbra Mann Wall receives two major honors Faculty at the Bates Center are always a busy group, but the past six months have been particularly significant for the Center’s Associate Director Dr. Barbra Mann Wall. In March, 2011, School of Nursing Dean Afaf Meleis announced with great pleasure that Dr. Wall was granted tenure within the rank of Associate Professor of Nursing effective July 1, 2011. In her announcement Dean Meleis noted

that Dr. Wall has garnered a national and an international reputation as an expert in the history of nursing and social institutions intertwined with nursing professional history. She has a sustained program of research in the history of nursing and health care with a special emphasis on the history of Catholic Sisters and their nursing work which has consistently received funding for her research. Her work has made significant scholarly contributions to the nursing history literature and has shed new light on the role of the church in nursing education. The Bates Center was thrilled with this announcement and then in July we received more good news about Dr. Wall. Dean Meleis announced that Barbra was appointed as the Evan C. Thompson Endowed Term Chair of Excellence in Teaching, effective September 1, 2011. The Thompson Chair is funded by an endowment from Wharton alumnus Evan Thompson, a 1964 Wharton School graduate and acknowledges the commitment of dedicated teachers. This is an impressive and well deserved honor. Congratulations Barb!

Awards Center Fellow, Dr. Cynthia Connolly received the 2011 Penn Nursing Alumni Society Legacy Award which is presented to alumni who have contributed to preserving and interpreting the history of nursing at Penn. Center Fellow, Dr. Patricia D’Antonio received the 2011, Pennsylvania Hospital, Department of Nursing RelationshipBased Care, Nursing Excellence Award for her book American Nursing: A History of Knowledge, Authority, and the Meaning of Work. Center Associate Director, Dr. Barbra Mann Wall received the 2011, University of Pennsylvania, Family and Community Health Department Award for Exemplary Teaching.

Grants Two Bates Center faculty recently received Rockefeller Archive Center awards. Post-

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doctoral fellow Dr. Winifred Connerton received a grant for her proposal “Americans Abroad - How Nurses Represented the Country, the Women and the National Mission.” Dr. Patricia D’Antonio received a grant for her study “A History of Health Demonstration Projects in the United States, 1920-1940.” These awards enable Drs. Connerton and D’Antonio to study at and use the collections stored at the Rockefeller Archive Center. Two faculty members were also recipients of the University of Pennsylvania’s University Research Foundation Grants program (URF). Dr. Barbra Mann Wall received a URF grant for a project entitled “Knowledge Translation and the Changing Meaning of Missionary Nursing.” Dr. Patricia D’Antonio received a grant for her study “A History of Health Demonstration Projects in New York City, 1920-1940.” Doctoral Student Linda Maldonado received a Xi Chapter Sigma Theta Tau International grant for her proposal “I Told Them, ‘Leave it Alone: It’s Our Center’: Midwives’ Collaborative Activism Towards Infant Mortality in Two U.S. Cities, 1970-1990.” Dr. Cynthia Connolly was awarded a Commonwealth Foundation grant to analyze and synthesize the Foundation’s child health programs. The grant is entitled “State(s) of Health: The Commonwealth Fund, Child Development, and Health Policy, 1999-2011.” Several faculty members continue work on on-going grants. Dr. J. Margo Brooks Carthon continues work on a National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health K01 grant, “Nursing Care and Practice Environment Influences in Reducing Disparities in Hospital Outcomes.” Dr. Cynthia Connolly’s Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research grant on the history of children and pharmaceuticals since World War II entitled “A Prescription for a Healthy Childhood: A History of Children and Pharmaceuticals in the United States” is on-going. Dr. Patricia D’Antonio’s National En-

dowment for the Humanities (NEH) Preservation Assistance grant, which has enabled the Bates Center to contract with consultants at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia to conduct a general preservation needs assessment of the Center’s collections, resulted in an extensive visit and evaluation from the Conservation Center. In the next edition of The Chronicle we will feature an article describing the visit and what it means for the Center. Drs. Patricia D’Antonio and Julie Fairman are progressing on their Rockefeller Archive Center Conference Grant-in-Aid, “Rethinking the Global History of Nursing.” They and Dr. Jean Whelan continue work on a Routledge Press Publication Grant for a publication entitled Routledge’s Handbook on the Global History of Nursing.

Publications Brooks Carthon, J.M. (2011). Bridging the gap: Collaborative health work in the city of brotherly love, 1900-1920. In P. D’Antonio & S. Lewenson (Eds.), Nursing History Interventions Through Time (pp. 75-85). New York: Springer Publishing Co. Sumpter, D., & Brooks Carthon J. M. (2011). Lost in translation: Student perceptions of cultural competence in undergraduate and graduate curricula, Journal of Professional Nursing, 27(1), 43-49. Brooks Carthon, J.M. (2011). Making ends meet: A historical account of community networks and health promotion among blacks in the city of brotherly love, American Journal of Public Health, 101(8), 1392-1401. Brooks Carthon, J.M., Kutney-Lee, A., Sloane, D., Cimniotti, J., & Aiken, L. (2011). Quality of care and patient satisfaction in hospitals with high concentrations of black patients, Journal of Neurosurgery, 43(3), 301-310. Brooks Carthon, J.M., (2011). [Review of the website Canada’s Role in Fighting Tuberculosis]. Nursing History Review, 19(1), 202-205. Connolly, C.A. (2011). Pneumococcic meningitis: Complete recovery of a six

month old infant treated with penicillin, Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 165, 385-387. D’Antonio, P. (2011). [Review of the book Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War]. Social History of Medicine, doi: 10.1093/shm/ hkr060 Fairman, J.A., & Okoye, S.M. (2011). Nursing for the future, from the past: Two reports on nursing from the Institute of Medicine, Journal of Nursing Education, 49(6), 305-311. Fairman, J.A. (2012). The right to write: nurse practitioners and prescription. In J. Green & L. Watkins (Eds.), The American Prescription from the New Deal to the New Millenium. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press. Fairman, J.A. (2011). Patients and the rise of the nurse practitioner profession. In B. Hoffman, N. Tomes, R. Grob & M. Schlesinger (Eds.), Patients as Policy Actors (pp. 215-230). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Mahoney, A. (2011). Florence Nightingale: Perspective for today’s nurse. Nurse.com 2011 Presents Florence Nightingale, 54. Wall, B.M. (2011). Catholics in a secular marketplace, Ethics and Medics, 36(6).

Presentations M. McHugh, J. Margo Brooks Carthon, L. Kelly, D. Sloane, L. Aiken. “Impact of Nurse Staffing Mandates on Safety Net Hospitals: Lessons from California,” Eastern Nursing Research Society 23rd Annual Scientific Session, March, 2011, Philadelphia, PA. J. Margo Brooks Carthon. “Community Networks and Health Promotion among Blacks in the City of Brotherly Love,” Dr. Martin Luther King Commemorative Symposium on Social Change Lecture, January, 2011, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine-School of Nursing. J. Margo Brooks Carthon, O. Jarrin, A. Kutney Lee. “Post-Surgical Outcomes among the Elderly: Differences by Eth-

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nicity and Gender,” Academy Health Annual Research Meeting, Gender & Health Interest Group, June 14, 2011, Seattle, WA.

Patricia D’Antonio. “Religion and Reconciliation,” Berkshires Conference of Historians of Women, June, 2011, Amherst, MA.

J. Margo Brooks Carthon, O. Jarrin, A. Kutney Lee. “The Influence of Race and Gender on Post-Surgical Outcomes among the Elderly,” Academy Health Annual Research Meeting, Disparities Interest Group, June, 2011, Seattle, WA.

Patricia D’Antonio. “Nursing’s Historical Diversity,” New Careers in Nursing Symposium, March, 2011, Wayne State University College of Nursing, Detroit, WI.

J. Margo Brooks Carthon, A. KutneyLee, O. Jarrín, T. Cheny, D. Sloane, L. Aiken. “Does Nursing Quality Impact PostSurgical Outcome Disparities among Minority Elders?” Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research Annual Meeting, May, 2011, Seattle, WA. Winifred Connerton. “All Preaching the Same Gospel: American Colonial Service and Missionary Nurses in the Philippines 1900-1917,” American Historical Association Annual Meeting, January, 2011, Boston, MA. Winifred Connerton. “All Preaching the Same Gospel: American Colonial Service and Missionary Nurses in the Philippines 1900-1917,” Berkshires Conference of Historians of Women, June, 2011, Amherst, MA. Cynthia Connolly. “The Presence of the Past: Case Studies in Child and Family Health Policy,” Society for the History of Children and Youth Sixth Biennial Conference: The State of Children, June, 2011, Politics and Policies of Childhood in Global Perspective, New York, NY. Cynthia Connolly. “The Fever Disappeared and The Child Improved Immediately: Sulfonamides, Penicillin, and the Transformation of Children’s Health Care, 1936-1949,” American Association for the History of Medicine, April, 2011, Philadelphia, PA. Patricia D’Antonio. “American Nursing: A History of Knowledge, Authority and the Meaning of Work,” Nursing Grand Rounds, May 2011, Pennsylvania Hospital. Patricia D’Antonio. “Exploring People and Places in the History of Nursing,” Hannah Lecture, Canadian Association for the History of Nursing, May 2011, Fredericton, Canada.

Patricia D’Antonio. Invited Commentary, “Is Access to Health Care a Human Right? A Global Perspective,” Global Health Reflections Week, March, 2011, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Patricia D’Antonio. “Religion and Reconciliation,” Berkshires Conference of Historians of Women, June, 2011, Amherst, MA. Julie Fairman. “Future of Nursing: Campaign for Education Action,” University of Chicago School of Nursing, April, 2011, Chicago, Il. Julie Fairman. “The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Education Action,” Summit on Nursing Education in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Higher Education Nursing Schools Association, May, 2011, Harrisburg, PA. Julie Fairman. “The Future of Nursing,” Pennsylvania Consortium for Advancing Nursing Education, May, 2011, Harrisburg, PA. Julie Fairman. “History and Health Policy: Nursing for the Future,” University of Navarra, May, 2011, Pamplona, Spain. Julie Fairman. “Gender and Disasters: Expectations and Realities,” International Council of Nursing, History Section, May, 2011, Valette, Malta. Julie Fairman. “Putting the Past Back In: How History Informs Modern Health Policy,” International Council of Nursing, May, 2011, Valette, Malta. Julie Fairman. “The Right to Write: Nurse Practitioners and Prescriptive Privileges,” Keynote, History of Women’s Health Conference, Pennsylvania Hospital, May, 2011, Philadelphia, PA. Julie Fairman. “The Future of Nursing:

Where we Came From and Where we are Going,” AORN National Conference, March, 2011, Philadelphia, PA Julie Fairman. “The Future of Nursing Leadership,” NLN Immersion Conference, June, 2011, Baltimore, MD. Amanda Mahoney. “The Nurse in the Agnew Clinic, Mary V. Clymer and the Art of the 19th Century OR,” AORN National Congress, March, 2011, Philadelphia, PA. Linda Maldonado. “Midwives’ Collaborative Activism in Two Northeast Cities: 1970 to 1990,” History of Women’s Health Conference, April , 2011, Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, PA. Barbra Mann Wall. Invited lecture, “Doing History,” University of Oviedo, School of Nursing, Spain, May, 2011. Barbra Mann Wall. “Experiencing the Sacred: Material Culture and the Twentieth-Century American Hospital,” Berkshires Conference of Historians of Women, June, 2011, Amherst, MA Jean Whelan, Heather Urkuski and Luba Polyak. “Imaging the Nurse: The Photographic Collection of the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing,” American Association for the History of Medicine, April, 2011, Philadelphia, PA. Jean Whelan, Heather Urkuski and Luba Polyak. “Visualizing the Nurse: The Digital Photographic Collection of Alumnae Association of the Philadelphia General Hospital School of Nursing,” Digital History Lab, Berkshires Conference of Historians of Women, June, 2011, Amherst, MA.

The Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing is now accepting applicants for the following fellowships Alice Fisher Society Fellowship Lillian Sholtis Brunner Fellowship for Historical Research in Nursing Karen Buhler-Wilkerson Faculty Fellowship for Historical Research in Nursing The deadline for these fellowships is December 31, 2011. For more information about the fellowships, please visit www.nursing.upenn.edu/ history

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Reading Room, continued engaged in an ambitious research program which focused on investigating the history of women in the workplace and resulted in numerous presentations, articles, books, grants, and awards. With federal funding, she developed the Oncology masters program and an AIDS elective for undergraduate seniors. During her tenure as Adult Health Section Chair, the Critical Care masters program (led by Center Advisory Board member Dr. Rosalyn Watts) also began with federal funding. In addition to her many activities and faculty responsibilities during her years at Penn, Ellen managed to squeeze in a NRSA, Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 1986-1987 under the direction of Dr. Charles Rosenberg, who was then a Professor in Penn’s Department of History & Sociology of Science. Ellen, aware of the power of the media, recognized the importance of promoting nursing and its history to an audience beyond the academic community. She spoke on radio, developed and created visual media programs, addressed professional groups and wrote in the national press. She co-authored several opeds with Suzanne Gordon that were published in the NY Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, and LA Times. One of her most important contributions to the national discussion on nursing and health care was a February 23, 1991 solo authored op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled “The Feminist Disdain for Nursing” which presented such a compelling argument that it has been reprinted in several other publications. In 1995, Ellen became a Professor Emerita and with her husband Hank, began dividing her time between her native New York City and Florida. This was not however a typical retirement! Over the years, Ellen maintained an active academic career as a Visiting Professor at New York University, the University of Athens (Greece) where she was also a Fulbright Senior Scholar, the University of Miami and most recently Florida Atlantic University. During those years, Ellen continued her close association with the Center through her roles as colleague and friend to Center faculty and students, as well as her service on the Center’s Advisory Board. Ellen ably led the Center’s Advisory Board as Chair from 2006 to 2011, and continues to serve as an indispensable board member.

The decision to dedicate the Center’s reading room in Ellen’s honor was an easy one considering her role in establishing the Center, her significant contributions to nursing history, as well as her valuable support and guidance. The ceremony itself was a joyous occasion that managed to remain a complete surprise to Ellen until the dedication. Indeed, Current Advisory Board Chair Neville Strumpf succeeded in keeping Ellen away from the Center prior to the ceremony so that faculty, students, staff and friends could

gather. The reading room and lobby area was arrayed with celebratory decorations, such as a large poster, balloons, and the obligatory red ribbon across the room entrance. To top it all off, the windows to the reading room were etched in Ellen’s honor. As Ellen made her way down the Center corridor, she was greeted with great applause and cheers that left her greatly moved. In her welcoming remarks to the attendees, Dean Afaf Meleis noted that because of Ellen’s efforts the History Center is now the preeminent center for scholarship in nursing history through the generation of historical knowledge, promotion of scholarship and research of nursing and healthcare history on a global scale. Dean Meleis credited Ellen’s leadership and investigations into the history of women in the workplace with truly setting the stage for the accomplishments of the Center, which now boasts more than two decades of award-winner research and historical insights. Afaf also called attention to Ellen’s contributions and partnership with the School during which Ellen has given much of her time, passion, and financial support to drive forward the mission of the School of Nursing both inside and outside of the History Center. Ellen played a central role in the creation of two of the most critical student scholarships still in

existence today: The Hillman and Sands Scholars Programs. These programs have supported more than 250 Penn Nursing students – who would have not otherwise been able to cultivate their nursing leadership at Penn. Afaf concluded her remarks by noting the remarkable achievements of Ellen’s career which are deserving of our recognition. Bates Center Director, Julie Fairman spoke about Ellen’s commitment to advancing the Center’s program. Julie noted that Ellen’s continued involvement with the Center is highly valued for numerous reasons and that Ellen, along with her husband Hank (a former School of Nursing Overseer), have chosen to support the Center in a very concrete and generous manner. Julie called attention to one among many examples of Ellen’s support, the Baer Photoarchiving Fund, which has allowed the Center to embark on several innovative and groundbreaking digitization projects. The Center’s Director Emerita, Joan Lynaugh congratulated Ellen and recalled how delighted all three founders were to find each other at Penn. She noted Ellen’s high energy, creative problem solving and focus on getting things done. But, she said, even though we were working very hard and taking some big chances in developing the Center, we had so much fun working together that it seemed that anything was possible. Ellen graciously thanked everyone for this significant honor and spoke of her attachment to the Center and its work. She expanded on Joan’s remarks regarding the Center’s founding, noting what a pleasure it had all been. As Ellen summarized it: “Joan had the ideas, Karen had the contacts, and I knew how to get the funding. Combining those assets with Dean Fagin’s know-how and support made it all happen, and what a wonderful time it has been.” Ellen’s most recent plans include beginning an “official” retirement from all her positions and focusing on her husband of fifty years, children and four divine granddaughters. For those of us at the Bates Center, we heartily endorse this well-deserved retirement as long as Ellen promises to keep the Bates Center as part of her activities. We congratulate Ellen on her many achievements and welcome the new name of our reading room as a fitting recognition to an incredible scholar, supporter and friend.

The Chronicle

2011 Bates Center Fellowships Awarded The Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing is pleased to announce the following recipients of the 2011 Center Fellowships: Rima Apple (Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin) was awarded the Lillian Brunner Fellowship for Historical Research in Nursing Funke Sangodeyi (Doctoral Student, History of Science Department, Harvard University) and Jaime Lapeyre (Doctoral Student, School of Nursing, University of Toronto) were awarded the Alice Fisher Society Fellowship for Historical Research in Nursing & Beth Linker (Assistant Professor, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania) was awarded the Karen Buhler-Wilkerson Fellowship for Historical Research The Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing is proud of its fellowship program which offers scholars an opportunity to carry out research at the History Center as well as provides financial support. During the spring of 2011 the Center hosted two Fellows who describe their research below.

Dr. Mary Lagerway Western Michigan University Bronson School of Nursing The Karen Buhler-Wilkerson Faculty Fellowship for Historical Research provided me with funding to carry out a research project aimed at identifying, describing, and analyzing content related to positive and negative eugenics in nursing texts and addressing what such content reveals about eugenic discourses in nursing during the 20th century. My visit involved accessing a wealth of material located at the Barbara Bates Center, including early nursing texts, journals and manuscripts. During my time at the Center, I consulted a number of archival sources including books on birth control, public and community health, psychiatric nursing, and maternal child nursing. In addition, I identified several other valuable sources through the Nursing Studies Index. As I carried out the study, the research evolved from collecting data from nursing textbooks throughout the 20th century to a more focused analysis of texts from the first half of the century, such as the journal Trained Nurse and Hospital Review. Through my research I have found that activities surrounding eugenics have had a long history in the United States. Governmental support for negative eugenics, for instance, began with the passage of the world’s first law legalizing involuntary sterilization. Although the term eugenics fell out of favor in the mid-20th century following the Holocaust, legal eugenic

sterilizations continued in the United States and include content focusing on “feebleinto the 1970s. More recently, the Human mindedness… degeneracy” and various Genome Project has raised other perceived soethical questions about cial ills. The guidewhether enhanced ability lines for 1927 and to predict heredity disorders 1932 named eugenmay lead to a new, more ics specifically as an focused eugenics. Nursing expected component has been largely absent of nursing curricula. in publications about the For example, in the history of eugenics, and guidelines published nursing literature rarely in 1927 and 1932, the addressed eugenic con“Modern Social and cerns. Beyond the wellHealth Movements” documented connections section directly adbetween Margaret Sanger’s dressed heredity by birth control advocacy and specifying that the eugenics, little is known history and aims of about nursing’s attitudes the “eugenics proDr. Mary Lagerway towards or involvement in gram” should be the eugenic movement of the first half of taught, along with euthenics and Mendethe 20th century, and the support of other lian genetics. However in later versions nursing leaders such as Lillian Wald, Mary of these guidelines, the social and health Breckinridge, and Lavinia Dock for some movements sections is present without any aspects of the eugenics program is even reference to eugenics. less well understood. Published accounts of eugenics by My research has found that during the nurses mostly promoted the practice as a 1920s and early 1930s nursing texts, prescientific system that would improve health sented eugenics as holding scientific promcare. One compelling example of this could ise for improving the health of the nation. be found in Aileen Cleveland Sinclaire’s Nursing accepted the potential of the eugenThe Psychology of Nursing, a story of five ics movement as part of preventive health fictional student nurses and their adjustcare to advance the population’s well-being ment to nursing school published in 1921. and promoted the need for nurses to be inIn this text, one student, Mary Anderson, formed and up-to-date. My review of NLN was highly praised for her knowledge and Curricular Guidelines found that in 1919 acceptance of “the scientific ideas of euthe guidelines recommended that ten hours genics.” Another example is found in the continued on next page be devoted to “Modern Social Conditions”

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2nd edition of Public Health Nursing, by Mary Sewall Gardner, which drew a direct connection between the eugenic practices of the day to those of ancient Spartans leaving disabled children to fend for themselves in the treacherous elements. Prior to WWII, professional nursing publications portrayed eugenics as providing a positive scientific basis for promoting reproduction among the healthy (often of Northern European descent) middle to upper classes and negative eugenics of encouraging limited reproduction and forced sterilization of the “unfit” (who were often poor, uneducated, and more recent immigrants) as reasonable. Eugenic language was most prevalent in public health and psychiatric nursing texts, and in discussions of poverty, immigrants, cleanliness, and social problems. In addition to supporting my research on nurses and the 20th century eugenics movement, The Barbara Bates Center’s Karen Buhler-Wilkerson Fellowship allowed me to present my findings to faculty and students at a seminar held on March 30, 2011. The discussion following my presentation provided valuable suggestions for exploring additional sources and helped in refining my focus. In addition to supporting this particular study, the Fellowship provided me with preliminary data to use in writing a R-03 grant application, “Nursing in the United States Eugenics Movement,” which is currently under review. Julie Davidow Department of History University of Pennsylvania I was delighted to receive the 2011 Alice Fisher Society Fellowship for Historical Research in Nursing, which enabled me to research the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing’s extensive archives. The Center’s collections contain critical resources that I have used for my dissertation research on African-American citizenship and politics in Philadelphia between 1865 and 1920. I was fortunate

to be able to invest the majority of my time in investigating two key Center collections: The Starr Centre Association of Philadelphia and the Alumnae Association of the Mercy-Douglass Hospital School of Nursing. Philadelphia presents a unique location in which to research African-American political activities and citizenship roles. Throughout the last third of the 19th century, Philadelphia’s black population swelled because of an increase in southern migration by those seeking to escape discrimination. Because of this, by 1900 Philadelphia claimed the largest black population of any city outside the South. In Philadelphia, among the narrow alleys and crowded homes of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, AfricanAmerican residents met white Republican leaders and reformers head on in a struggle to define the meaning of black citizenship in the late 19th century. The encounters between northern reform organizations and working class black residents have been considered mostly from the perspective of white and black middle-class activists. By conflating black politics at the end of the 19th century with middle-class values, historians have largely missed the activities of African-Americans involved in the political machines of the urban north. My research seeks to illuminate this story. I began my Fellowship by reviewing the Starr Centre Association of Philadelphia collection which chronicles the evolution of a settlement house founded by a group of social reformers at the turn of the 20th century in Philadelphia’s seventh ward. This neighborhood was a center of African-American population and migration and the locus of W.E.B. DuBois’ research for The Philadelphia Negro. The Starr Centre offered the area’s residents a number of services,

including a penny savings bank, a coal collective, free library, day nursery and other activities for the neighborhood’s children. Among the papers of the Starr Centre, I found evidence that there was intense interest in the impact of increased African-American migration from the South in Philadelphia. Reformers, both black and white, questioned the political and cultural influence of a large number of African-American southerners settling in a crowded northern neighborhood and sought consultation as they adjusted to black migration. Starr Centre leaders invited Booker T. Washington, for example, in 1899 to discuss the “negro problem” in the north. As one Starr Centre manager put it in announcing Washington’s visit, “The condition of the Negro in the Northern City involves questions of so much importance to the city…and presents such special difficulties that it has been thought best to seek the benefit of general discussion and advice before developing (the Starr Centre’s) plans further.” The second collection I investigated, that of the Alumnae Association of the Mercy-Douglass School of Nursing, contributed further to my understanding of the ways in which young African-American women struggled to find an economic toehold in the industrial north. The collection includes the records of two health care institutions serving the Philadelphia African-American community: the Fred-

Julie Davidow

erick Douglass Memorial Hospital and the Mercy Hospital. Opened in 1895, the Frederick Douglass Hospital School of Nursing was the first African-American nursing school in Philadelphia. In 1948, Douglass Hospital merged with Mercy continued on next page

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Hospital, also an African-American institution, to form the Mercy-Douglass Hospital and School of Nursing. At the dawn of the 20th century, most black women in Philadelphia worked in domestic service and nursing provided an alternative, more prestigious employment path, if only for a small number. The segregated educational system in place dictated that African-American women pursue their education in black institutions. The reputations of both Douglass and Mercy Hospital’s schools of nursing meant that future nurses eagerly sought admittance to their programs. Mary Eliza Laughlin of Greensboro, North Carolina, for example, applied to the nursing program in 1916. “It will be allright (sic) any time you send I will be ready,” 17-year-old Mary wrote to the surgeon-in-chief at Douglass Hospital in October 1916. Admitted to the school in 1917 Mary passed her final examinations in May 1920. Unfortunately, the record is silent on the scope of Mary’s career after graduation. In addition to the opportunity to explore several key collections, the Bates Center offered the occasion for me to present a draft of a section of my dissertation at the Center’s seminar series on March 16, 2011. The feedback from faculty and students helped sharpen my thinking about my topic and steered me toward additional research possibilities I had not yet explored. With my research now nearly at an end, my focus is to complete my dissertation during the upcoming academic year.

Update on the Nursing History Section of the International Council of Nurses

here was excitement in the air on May 4 during the International Council of Nurses (ICN) 2011 Conference in Malta when the ICN Nursing History Section held its second meeting. Originating in 2009 at the ICN conference in Durban, South Africa, the Nursing History Section aims to increase networking opportunities for historians (L to R) Julie Fairman, Concessa M. Nsanze, Susanne Malchau Dietz of nursing from around the and Barbra Mann Wall world. (See Vol.21, No.1 The Chronicle) Based on the tremendous outpouring of interest demonstrated at the first section meeting, the conference in Malta built on the work begun in South Africa where nurses from all over the world met. Led by Bates Center Associate Director, Dr. Barbra Mann Wall, ICN’s Nursing History Session was a tremendous success. The Malta meeting featured the opportunity for established researchers, Dr. Christine Hallett from England, Center Director Dr. Julie Fairman, Dr. Susanne Malchau Dietz from Denmark, and Catherine Sharples from Malta to present their research to the conferees. Attendees at the session enjoyed thought provoking talks in which speakers discussed the incorporation of gender and race into historical research, the interpretation of various texts, the advantages and disadvantages of doing biography, and the beginnings of the Knights of Malta as a nursing order in the Middle Ages. Section attendees came from Spain, Greece, Taiwan, South Africa, Tanzania, Sweden, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Togo, Ethiopia, New Zealand, as well as other countries. The outcome of the meeting was the expansion of a network of international scholars in nursing history that can lead to joint historical research projects, thereby producing a significant and unique body of scholarship. A major goal of the section is that the collaborative work between scholars of different nations will offer schools of nursing and professional organizations a framework for moving their educational and research enterprises forward. We look forward to future Section meetings in the coming years and will let Chronicle readers know of events as they are planned.

Fall 2011

Bates Nursing History Center Welcomes School of Nursing Community to an Open House

his past spring, the Bates Center sponsored a lively event that kicked off the Center’s 25th anniversary celebration. “Breaking for History” showcased Center treasures to more than 60 students, staff, and faculty who enjoyed cupcakes and refreshments after viewing many of the Center’s holdings and artifacts. One of the items that caught everyone’s attention was the Florence Nightingale chest which Bates Center Founding Director Dr. Joan Lynaugh opened up for visitors. As Joan recounted, the chest belonged originally to Florence Nightingale who presented it as a gift to Alice Fisher, the first Chief Nurse of the Philadelphia Hospital (later Philadelphia General Hospital). The chest captivated the interest of everyone, especially as it holds several stones Nightingale found next to an Egyptian sphinx on one of her many trips abroad. The stones beguiled Nightingale so much she helped herself to them, taking them back to England with her where they eventual found their way to Philadelphia via Alice Fisher! Other collection items which generated attention and comments were photographs from the Starr Centre Association in South Philadelphia, a philanthropic organization that emphasized Ellen D. Baer Reading Room display during Open House event at the Center maternal and child health initiatives. The Starr Centre photos were particularly popular with those interested in child health. Nurse postcards from the Center’s Helfand Collection offered a unique look at the way nurses have been portrayed over the years. A student register from the Albert Einstein Medical Center School of Nursing, formally The Jewish Hospital Training School for Nurses provided a glimpse at early 20th century nursing. And one of the Centers’ most valuable holdings, the diary of Mary Clymer—the nurse depicted in Thomas Eakin’s Agnew Clinic rounded out the displayed items and kept attendees so fascinated they needed to be reminded of the food! The Bates Center still has a plethora of other items perfect for exhibiting many of which will be on display at our next Open House, October 20th from 2PM to 4PM. For further information e-mail nhistory@nursing.upenn.edu or call 215-898-4502.

Bates Center Faculty Present at International Conference held by the Robert Bosch Foundation’s Institute for the History of Medicine

n May 12th and 13th, 2011, Drs. Julie Fairman, Patricia D’Antonio, and Barbra Mann Wall were invited speakers to the 2nd International Conference on Nursing History in Berlin, Germany. Organized by the Institute for the History of Medicine of the Robert Bosch Foundation, Stuttgart, the conference was held in Berlin’s Medical Historical Museum. The overall theme of the conference, “Conflicts in Nursing History”, focused on four distinct sub-themes: conflicts and religion; conflicts during war; conflicts and institutions; and conflicts with nurses, patients, doctors, and families. Center Associate Director Barbra Mann Wall presented a paper entitled “Religion and Health Policy in 20th Century America, with a Comparison to Europe,” Center Fellow Patricia D’Antonio presented “Conflict and Cooperation in American Nursing” and Center Director Julie Fairman spoke on “The Right to Write: Nurse Practitioners and the Politics of Practice.” This invitational Bosch Conference Attendees at the Berlin Medical Historical Museum conference which brought together scholars of nursing history from Germany, England, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States, created an impressive forum for the development of comparative perspectives in nursing history.

The Chronicle

Keith Mages Successfully Defends Dissertation

(L to R) Barb Mann Wall, Julie Fairman, Pat D’Antonio, Joan Lynaugh, and Beth Linker join Keith Mages (center) in Ellen D. Baer Reading Room following his sucessful dissertation defense.

his May, Bates Center doctoral student Keith C. Mages successfully defended his dissertation Identity from the Shelves: Nurses, Libraries, and the Bellevue Classification System, 1934-1969. This historical study examined the Bellevue Classification System (BCS), named after New York City’s famed Bellevue School of Nursing, a system of library classification created specifically for the intellectual control of libraries within hospital-based nurse training schools. Devised and completed during the early 1930’s by Bellevue instructor and nurse Ann Doyle, with the assistance of librarian-consultant Mary Casamajor, the BCS was modeled upon a decimal plan, much like the Dewey Decimal System, with major subjects divided into ten main classes. The history of the BCS provides a unique angle to analyze and appreciate nursing’s intellectual and professional identity development. Examined as a cultural object, the BCS emerged as a distinctive intellectual platform that reflected a particular moment in time and nursing’s particularly gendered relationship to knowledge. Dr. Mages’ research shows how nurse educators of the early to mid-20th century conceptualized the library as the physical manifestation of nursing’s intellect. To these individuals, the library provided not only access to knowledge, but also proof of nursing’s independent knowledge reserves. Other classification systems of the era did not capture the practice, or the mind, of the early 20th century nurse. However, these systems, which included the Dewey Decimal Classification System, Library of Congress Classification System, Ballard (Boston Medical Library) Classification System, and the National Health Library Classification System, served Ann Doyle as both catalysts and reference points. The Bellevue Classification System thus provided Doyle the opportunity to construct and promote a distinct viewpoint of nursing knowledge. Specifically, the BCS allowed Doyle to portray nursing as discipline with an intellectual, and professional, distinctly gendered identity. This research spanned the years 1934 until 1969 when the Bellevue School of Nursing ceased functioning as an independent educational institution, phasing out its program. Hunter College of the City University of New York transferred its baccalaureate nursing program to the Bellevue facility, and at the same time became a School within the College, the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing. And, it was not just the Bellevue School of Nursing which ceased to operate. By the year 1969, the Bellevue Classification System had also transitioned, from an active symbol of nursing’s intellectual and professional identity to a vestige of nursing’s fading past. Dr. Mages research contributes greatly to our understanding of a critical yet understudied aspect of nursing’s history. Congratulations Keith on this significant study and impressive achievement!

Bates Center Holds Symposium on Bioethics

n April 27th, The Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing began its 25th anniversary festivities with a symposium entitled Bioethics: History Informing the Future. Cosponsored by the University of Pennsylvania Office of the Provost and the School of Nursing, the widely popular event brought together a diverse selection of scholars whose research has focused on ethics in health care and other interdisciplinary fields. The event highlighted the globalized implications of bioethics across race, class, and gender divides. The symposium began with introductions by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Dean Afaf I. Meleis, PhD, DrPS(hon), FAAN and Center Director Julie Fairman, PhD, RN, FAAN. Dean Meleis warmly offered anniversary congratulations to the Center for 25 years at the School of Nursing and also thanked the Office of the Provost for their support of the event. Dr. Fairman then spoke in further detail about the founding of the Center and its mission before introducing the symposium’s keynote speakers: Susan M. Reverby, PhD and Jonathan Moreno, PhD. Dr. Reverby (Marian Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas, Wellesley College), a longtime friend and collaborator at the Center, opened the symposium with a presentation entitled “Escaping Melodrama: A View of History and Bioethics From the Perspective of Studies in Tuskeegee and Guatemala.” In her talk, Reverby recounted the events surrounding her research on the U.S Public Health Service study in Guatemala that occurred from 1946 to 1948. The study is of course infamous today because men and women were deliberately given syphilis. Her investigation led to a U.S. government response from the Secretaries of the Departments of State and Health and Human Services and an apology from President Obama to President Colom of Guatemala. Further, President Obama established a Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, with University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutman as Chair, to explore the historical context of the research in Guatemala and continued on next page

Fall 2011

A New Website, NURSING, HISTORY, AND HEALTHCARE Launched

(L to R) Dean Afaf Meleis, Renee C. Fox, Provost Vincent Price, Susan Reverby, Ronald Bayer, Jonathan Moreno, Connie Ulrich, and Center Director Julie Fairman gather during the anniversary symposium.

current human subject protections. The Commission recently released its report on the historical investigation and is now turning its attention to its ongoing work in reviewing contemporary standards that protect human research participants. (For more information on the Presidential Commission visit http://bioethics. gov/). Reverby spoke to how she came to uncover this story and also to the responsibilities of historians to not just provide the facts but also the context of what they investigate and the ways in which to understand such horrific deeds. The Symposium’s second keynote speaker, University of Pennsylvania Professor Jonathan D. Moreno, PhD (David and Lyn Silfen University Professor of Ethics; History and Sociology and Science) took a different approach to the topic of bioethics with his presentation “Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense.” Covering similar subjects as his book of the same name, Moreno detailed US military and national security initiatives of the latter half of the 20th century to the present day that have focused on neuroscience, in particular the ways in which the brain can be manipulated, and the ethical implications of this coercion. Drawing startling parallels between cinematic treatments of military mind-control (i.e. John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate) and real-life operations, such as the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, Moreno illustrated that

ethical dilemmas found in the latest SciFi bestsellers are faced on a daily basis by our nation’s military. Following Moreno’s presentation, University of Pennsylvania Provost Vincent Price, PhD, moderated a lively response panel featuring the School of Nursing’s own Connie Ulrich, PhD, RN, FAAN (Associate Professor of Nursing; and Associate Professor of Bioethics, Department of Medical Ethics, School of Medicine), Renee C. Fox, PhD (Professor Emerita, Sociology Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania) and Ronald Bayer, PhD (Professor, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, HIV Center for Clinical Behavioral Studies at the New York Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University). The panelists brought a wealth of knowledge on issues of bioethics to the forefront and created an environment for engaging discussion. The symposium closed with a reception that was marked by a celebratory air as faculty, staff, and students gathered to mark the occasion and prepare for the year-long special events at the Bates Center. To all who came to the symposium and shared in the festivities, we thank you and hope that you will join us as we gather on April 14, 2012 for So . . . What Are We Doing Here?, a daylong symposium that will highlight the work and legacy of one of the Center’s co-founders, Joan Lyanugh, PhD, RN, FAAN.

his September we witnessed a long awaited event with the lauch of Nursing, History and Health Care (NHHC). The site was the creation of Center Assistant Director Jean Whelan and the late Bates Center Director Karen Buhler-Wilkerson, who several years ago came up with the idea to develop a site devoted to nursing history that would document, analyze and place in historical context the most compelling and controversial political social issues influencing the provision of nursing care. The NHHC project took shape over several years and received significant funding via a National Institute of Health, National Library of Medicine, Scholarly Work in Biomedicine and Health Grant, (1 G13 LM008295) and a University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation grant. The American Academy of Nursing’s Expert Panel on Nursing History advised on the project throughout the duration of the project. Creation of the website was an ambitious project undertaken by Bates Center faculty and one which they found to be of great value in promoting the importance of nursing history to understanding the American health care system. As both the public and scholars depend more and more on obtaining information electronically, a significant presence on the internet is essential for historians of nursing and health care. Website content was provided by today’s leading nursing historical scholcontinued on page 15

12 The Chronicle

The Barbara Bates Center for The Study of The History of Nursing thanks all of its donors for their generosity and appreciates their continued support. Donors June 30, 2010 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; July 1, 2011 Dr. Linda H. Aiken Alumnae Association of the Mercy Douglass School of Nursing Dr. Ellen Davidson Baer Henry P. Baer, Esquire Ms. Susan Baer Mr. J. Mark Baiada Mrs. Ann C. Baiada Jack D. Barchas, MD Dr. Israel Bartal Dr. Nira Bartal Dr. Alice J. Baumgart Dr. Elizabeth M. Bear Miss Rita T. Beatty Mrs. Susan Weiss Behrend Dr. Jeanne Quint Benoliel Dr. Nettie Birnbach Dr. Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Dr. Ann Marie Walsh Brennan Dr. Barbara Brodie Dr. Lillian Sholtis Brunner Mr. and Mrs. John C. Burnham Ms. Arline Cancellieri Dr. Barbara Chamberlain Dr. Pamela Frances Cipriano Mrs. Beryl Boardman Cleary Ms. Jacqueline A. Conklin Dr. Cynthia A. Connolly Ms. Sarah T. Cunningham Ms. Alicia J. Curtin Dr. Patricia O. D'Antonio Joseph C. D'Antonio, MD Dr. Anne J. Davis Mrs. Eleanor L. Davis Mr. Harold M. Davis Dr. Dorothy J. Del Bueno Dr. Lynore D. Desilets Dr. Lynne M. Dunphy Mr. James T. Dunphy Mr. Robert J. Duscher Episcopal Hospital Nurses Alumni Association Dr. Jonathan Erlen Dr. Claire M. Fagin Mr. Samuel Fagin Dr. Julie Schauer Fairman Ronald M. Fairman, MD Ms. Mary Jane Fenton Ms. Patricia I. Fischer Dr. M. Louise Fitzpatrick Dr. Marilyn E. Flood Catherine C. Freeman Family Trust Ms. Catherine C. Freeman

Ms. Kathleen F. Gender Dr. Carol P. Germain Mr. Richard E. Gingrich Ms. Carol K. Gross Dr. Jennifer L. Gunn Ms. Mary S. Gutshall Ms. Isabella S. Harrison Dr. Laura Lucia Hayman Mr. Richard L. Hayman Mrs. Patricia A. Heffner Ms. Loretta Ashley Helton Mrs. Beth Helwig Mrs. Hannah L. Henderson Dr. Eleanor K. Herrmann Mr. and Mrs. Stephen W. Holt Mr. Vincent Hughes Ms. Karen Jacobs Mrs. Theresa F. Judge Mrs. Dorothy Goldstein Kapenstein Ms. Julie Karcis Dr. Arlene W. Keeling Mr. James R. Keiser Mrs. Josephine D. Keiser Mrs. Alda E. Kerschner Mr. Roy Kerschner Ms. Jeanne J. Kiefner Ms. Marcia E. King Ms. Susan M. Kjellin Dr. Mary Ann Krisman-Scott Dr. Norma M. Lang Mr. Glenn Lang Charles E. Letocha, MD Dr. Sandra B. Lewenson Dr. Jing Li Mrs. Cheryl L. Lichner Mrs. Barbara Lund Dr. Joan E. Lynaugh Ms. Ruth Manchester Dr. Diane J. Mancino Mrs. Barbara Barden Mason Mr. Jerome M. Matez Mrs. Marian B. Matez Dr. E. Ann Matter Ms. Ruth B. McKenty Dr. Therese Meehan Ms. Adrian S. Melissinos Dr. Andrew P. Mezey Dr. Mathy Mezey Ms. Lana L. Miller Ms. Mary Alice Musser Mr. John L. Parascandola Steven J. Peitzman, MD Dr. Robert V. Piemonte

Dr. Rosemary C. Polomano Jane Benson Pond, RN Ms. Laura M. Randar Dr. Elizabeth A. Reedy Ms. Elizabeth H. Rice Dr. Sylvia Rinker Mr. Theodore R. Robb Dr. Deborah A. Sampson Mrs. Alice B. Savastio Dr. John A. Savastio Dr. Cynthia C. Scalzi Mr. Norman Schorr Mrs. Thelma M. Schorr Dr. Suzanne C. Smeltzer Ms. Janet E. Smith Ms. Linda Snodgrass Miss Nancy T. Snyder Solomon & Sylvia Bronstein Foundation Mrs. Beverly Peril Stern Dr. Rosemary A. Stevens Mrs. Norma H. Stewart Robert J. Stewart, Esq. Ms. Jo F. Stow Dr. Neville E. Strumpf Dr. Janet Theophano Mrs. Christine Irene Toback Mr. Jeffrey M. Toback Dr. Lorraine Tulman Alan B. Tulman, MD Dr. Nancy M. Valentine Mr. D. W. Van Dusen Mrs. Elizabeth E. Van Dusen Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia Mrs. Betty M. Vydra Dr. Barbra M. Wall Dr. Linda V. Walsh Ms. Mary McCormack Walton Dr. Rosalyn J. Watts Dr. Emma S. Weigley Ms. Mary J. Welfare Ms. Claire J. Welty Dr. Jean C. Whelan Mark Gilbert, MD Charles J. Wolf III, MD Dr. Zane Robinson Wolf To donate to the Center, please visit www.nursing.upenn.edu/historygiving or use the donation card on page 8.

Fall 2011

Meet Center’s New Administrative Coordinator

n November 2010, the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing welcomed Tiffany Collier as its new Administrative Coordinator. Tiffany joined the Center following the retirement of Betsy Weiss, the Center’s previous Administrative Assistant. In coming to the Center, Tiffany has brought a wide range of professional and academic expertise that has greatly benefited coordination and implementation of several new Center projects and events. For instance, in April 2011 Tiffany coordinated and planned the unveiling ceremony for the Center’s Ellen D. Baer reading room (see story page 1) and also assisted with the 25th Anniversary symposium Bioethics: History Informing the Future (see page 10). Throughout the academic year, Tiffany coordinates the Center’s seminar series that is facilitated by Assistant Director Jean Whelan. Indeed as Jean has noted, “Tiffany has been instrumental in Tiffany Collier the Center’s seminars and its expansion into webinars and other technological initiatives.” Tiffany’s interest and background in graphic design, writing, and editing has been of great use to the Center. For example, Tiffany has worked on several Center publications since her arrival, including the Strategic Plan and The Chronicle, working firsthand on the newsletter’s redesign. Through her educational background, which includes degrees in the Humanities and Literature from the University of Pennsylvania and West Chester University respectively, Tiffany has conducted a number of research projects focused on postcolonial literature and cinema which she hopes to continue at the doctoral level in the near future. And Tiffany’s value to the Center extends well beyond her humanities expertise. Since coming to the Center, Tiffany has engaged in a careful review of Center expenditures and has aggressively pursued ways to reduce expenses incurred by the Center. For example, thanks to Tiffany’s efforts we are able to publish and mail The Chronicle you are currently reading at a much lower cost! As a self-professed bibliophile, Tiffany has taken an interest in uncovering the Center’s known and hidden book collections. According to Tiffany, the Center’s rare book collection is a “veritable treasure trove” that highlights the evolution of nursing history and health care in America and she hopes that more researchers will utilize these works in the future in addition to the archival collections. Indeed, as Tiffany states, “making the Center’s collections and books accessible to as many people as possible” is one of her main goals in working at the Center. Bates Center faculty and staff have been thrilled to work along with Tiffany as she coordinates and improves Center programs and activities. We feel empowered by her expertise and ease in carrying out projects. We welcome Tiffany and hope she has enjoyed her first year with the Center as much as we have enjoyed having her on the staff!

14 The Chronicle

Volunteers at the Bates Nursing History Center: Past and Present

rucial to the success of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing is the presence of a number of volunteers who have helped the Center run over its 25 years history. Volunteers bring skills, experience and a willingness to donate a precious commodity, their time, to help the Center operate smoothly. The Bates Center is fortunate in securing the services of a strong cadre of volunteers from the beginning of its existence. Stephanie Stachniewicz, former Director of the School of Nursing and Nursing Practice at the Philadelphia General Hospital (PGH) organized the first group of volunteers shortly after the opening of the Center. Stephanie, one of the individuals highly involved in establishing the Center, enabled the Center’s accession of the Alumni Association of the Philadelphia General Hospital Training School for Nurses Photograph Collection (18851977), the first and one of the largest collections acquired by the Center. This collection contains over 3000 images of the famous PGH from the late 1800s to its closing in 1977 and is one of the most valued collections held by the Center. Stephanie, along with PGH alum Helen Dopsovic, spent endless hours cleaning, identifying and organizing the photographs in the collection. This work, carried out in the Center’s initial years, has been used to great advantage in times that are more recent. Images from the PGH photograph collection are currently the focus of a Center project carried out in collaboration with the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image at the University’s Van Pelt Library, which will digitize and make accessible on the internet the photos contained in the collection. Once completed, this project will represent the first major digitization effort for the Bates Center. The early and very diligent work of Stephanie and Helen, who carefully identified and titled each image, shortened considerably the work of the digitization project. Stephanie and Helen also worked on several other major collections in the early days of the Center. They were joined in this volunteer endeavor by Irene Matthews, a retired nurse and Edith Nunan, retired PGH School of Nursing librarian, who contributed not only their time to the Center by doing “detective” work on

several complex historical research projfor insuring that Franklin’s name was inects but also donated valuable historical scribed on her gravesite in Meriden, Conmaterial. These early volunteers were innecticut in the 1990s. strumental in getting the work of the CenVolunteers take on many different ter up and running and in improving the roles at the Center, oftentimes switchquality of life in the Center. ing their roles and focus. Joel Sartorius The Center was equally lucky when worked as a consultant to the Center adlongtime volunvising and assisting with teer Rita Beatty the massive boxing and offered her time storing of Center materials and services. Ms. required for the temporary Beatty, a retired relocation of materials as nurse, served part of the 2007 School of during World Nursing’s renovation. Joel’s War II and the previous work before his Korean War as a retirement as a Librarian in Navy nurse. Her the Rare Book Department post-service caof the Free Library was a reer was in public tremendous asset in this health and comjob. Today, Joel continues munity health to volunteer at the Center services. Rita as “Photographer-in-Chief” kept active in taking pictures at Center her retirement by events, many of which are participating in featured in The Chronicle. Martha Mineva Franklin’s gravestone nursing research Recently, Joel donated and lecturing in the nursing administrato the Center one of the cameras he no tion program at the School of Nursing. In longer uses. We gratefully acknowledge 1992, she began volunteering at the Bates this donation and anticipate taking many Center by processing and preserving sevpriceless (and beautiful) photos of Center eral collections. Among the collections on faculty and staff! which Rita worked were the Starr Center In the Fall 2009 edition of The Association of Philadelphia collection Chronicle, we featured current volunteer and the records of the Visiting Nurse AsDonna Ostroff. And, recently we welsociation of Greater Philadelphia as well comed two volunteers, Virginia Cameras several smaller collections. One colon and Thora Williams graduates of the lection in which Rita held a particular Episcopal Hospital School of Nursing. interest was the Biographical Sketches Ginny and Thora have graciously offered of Women Prominent in Nursing manuto assist in the processing of the recently scripts. She was intrigued with the history acquired Episcopal Hospital and School of Martha Mineva Franklin, the first Afriof Nursing collection. Stay tuned for the can American nurse to graduate from the next edition of The Chronicle, which will Women’s Hospital Training School for feature their stories. Nurses located in Philadelphia in 1898. In We thank all of the Bates Center vol1908, Franklin was a founding member unteers, past and present, for their time. of the National Association for Colored Volunteers contribute greatly to the CenGraduate Nurses, which was dedicated ter’s functioning and add great value to to promoting the standards and welfare our work. For those interested in volunof black nurses and breaking down rateer opportunities at the Bates Nursing cial discrimination in the profession. At History Center please e-mail nhistory@ the time, African American nurses were nursing.upenn.edu or call 215-898-4502. barred from most nurse professional associations. As she researched more, Rita discovered that as Franklin had no surviving relatives when she died in 1968, her name was never inscribed on the family grave. Rita, who is someone who knows how to get things done, was responsible

Fall 2011

Bates Center Launches Fall Seminar Series with a New Twist As the academic year begins, the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing looks forward to its yearly Seminar Series. The Bates Center Seminar Series provides a venue for cross-disciplinary scholars to present topics of interest to the history of nursing and the health care community. Through the years, the Center has hosted researchers not only from the University, but also from other institutions such as the University of Virginia, Leibniz University of Hanover in Germany, and Kings College in London to name a few. This year we will welcome scholars from as far away as Israel, Finland, and Germany. The diversity of speakers and topics has always provoked thoughtful discussion and insight. Last spring, in response to requests from those unable to physically attend the seminars, the Center began broadcasting the seminars over the web. The Center webinars have brought the intimate seminars to a global audience, and there are now plans underway to expand the series even further to promote interactive dialogue. We welcome all attendees, both in person and electronically to join us for our upcoming dates!

Please see the 2011 - 2012 Bates Seminar Series schedule below Fall Series September 21, 2011 Speaker: Jim Higgins (Kutztown University) Title: “Philadelphia’s Saviours: Nurses and the 1918 Influenza Epidemic” October 5, 2011 Speaker: Maiju Lehmijoki-Gardner (Loyola University, Maryland) Title: “Food in Religions and their Ethical Practices - Contemporary Implications of Ancient Traditions.” October 19, 2011 Speaker: Emily Abel (UCLA) Title: Institutionalizing the Incurable: Care for Sufferers of Fatal Chronic Diseases between 1880 and 1940

NHHC website, continued ars. From overviews on public health nurses to an examination on the increases in baccalaureate nursing degrees in the twentieth century, NHHC covers a broad spectrum of topics that will aid scholars on a global level. In addition, there is a groundbreaking segment entitled “History of Nursing Timeline: 1700-1869” that provides extensive background information on the American nursing movement. Kudos for insuring the release of the website also go to designer Rachel Eschenbach, Dan Carl, Donna Milici, Tim Blake, and Eric Stern of the School of Nursing’s Office of Technology and Information Systems and the Office of Communications’ Victoria Smith. Bates Center Administrative Coordinator Tiffany Collier and work study student Joanne Mantilla were also instrumental is seeing that the site was up and running and looked great! Please visit NHHC at www.nursing. upenn.edu/nhhc. Feedback and comments on the Nursing, History and Health Care website can be forwarded to nhhc@ nursing.upenn.edu

November 2, 2011 Speaker: Arlene Keeling (University of Virginia) Title: The Second Line of Defense: Philadelphia Nurses and the Influenza Epidemic, 1918 November 16, 2011 Speaker: Jessica Clark (Temple University) Title:Women’s History in House Museums: How Using Local Nursing Archives Can Improve Their Histories November 30, 2011 Speaker: Hilary Acquino (Albright College) Title: Leona Baumgartner: Crusader for the Public’s Health – How the First Female Health Commissioner Transformed the Health of New Yorkers January 18, 2012

Spring Series Speaker: Nira Bartal (Hadassah University, Jerusalem, Israel)

February 1, 2012

Speaker: Susan Brandt (Temple University)

Like Us On The Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing has joined Facebook. Visit our page to learn more about the Center, view photos, and keep up-to-date on all of our activities. h t t p : / / w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / PennNursingBatesHistoryCenter

February 15, 2012 Speaker: Rima Apple (University of Wisconsin) February 29, 2012 Speaker: David Rosner (Columbia University) March 28, 2012

Speaker: Susanne Kreutzer (University of Osnabruck, Germany)

April 18, 2012 Speaker: Beth Linker (University of Pennsylvania) Titles for the Spring Series will be announced later in the year. Please check Center website at www.nursing.upenn.edu/history.

Cover photo: Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, Class of 1936

16 The Chronicle

Barbara Bates Center for The Study of The History of Nursing

University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Claire M. Fagin Hall (2U) 418 Curie Boulevard Philadelphia, PA 19104-4217

CALENDAR The American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN) and the Georgia Southern University are cosponsoring the Association’s 29th Annual Conference, September 27-29, 2012 in Savannah, Georgia. Abstracts for paper and poster presentations accepted until January 15, 2012. Please submit abstracts to abstracts@AAHN.org. Additional information about the AAHN and the conference can be obtained at www.aahn.org. International Nursing History Conference, August 9-11, 2012. The Danish Society of Nursing History and the Danish Museum of Nursing History in affiliation with the Southern University of Denmark and the UC Danish Deaconess Foundation are pleased to invite scholars to an international conference on the History of Nursing in Kolding, Jutland. Abstracts will be accepted until November 15, 2011. Please send abstracts by e-mail to Mariann Bay mbay@health.sdu.dk. 2012 Annual CAHN/ACHN Conference, June 15-17, 2012 will be held in Medicine Hat, Alberta. The conference theme is: Places and People’s Health: Exploring

Nursing in Diverse Contexts. Abstracts (350 words max) will be accepted until December 1, 2011. Please include a one page CV with the abstract. Please submit e-mail abstracts (strongly preferred) to geertje.boschma@ nursing.ubc.ca. If submitting by mail, please send one original and 3 blind copies to Geertje Boschma, UBC School of Nursing, T201 2211 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver V6T 2B5, Canada. For further information on the conference contact Florence Melchior (florence@mhc.ab.ca) or visit the website at: http://cahn-achn.ca/ The Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science (SAHMS) invites paper proposals for its 14th Annual Meeting on March 2-3, 2012, at the Emory Conference Center in Atlanta, Georgia. SAHMS welcomes papers on the history of medicine and science, broadly construed to encompass historical, literary, anthropological, philosophical and sociological approaches to health care and science including race, disabilities and gender studies. To submit proposals, please visit the online submission site at: http:// www.uab.edu/lister/sahms. Abstracts will be accepted until Oct 15, 2011.

International Nursing Conference, Jerusalem, Israel June 4 - 7, 2012. Nursing at the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center and the Canadian Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) will jointly hold their first international nursing conference entitled: “Nursing: Caring to Know, Knowing to Care.” For more information, please visit the conference website at http://israel. rnao.ca/. The American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM) 85th Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, April 26 – 29, 2012 The annual meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine is a fun event where opportunities to hear and discuss scholarly papers on a broad range of subjects are blended with social activities that encourage networking. Please visit the AAHM website, www. histmed.org for more information.