Women's Work: The Founding of Cottage Hospital

NOTICIAS Quarterly Magazine Or The Santa Barbara Historical Society Vol. XLllI. No, 3

Autumn 1997

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Women’s Work; ,!he Founding of Cottage Hospital

OMEN have played a remarl^able role in the medical hist0J~y of Santa Barbajxi.

Dr. Belle Reynolds, a much-decojxited heroine ofthe Civil War,practiced here.

A commoji sight on the city’s streets in the iSSoszvas Dr. Harriet Belcher on horsebacl{on her way to tend to yet another patient. In the spring of1888 a group ojivomen held a meeting;its pwpose:to establish a neiv medicalfacilityfor the city ivhich ivould oper ate under the highest professional standaixls ojthe age. Out of this meeting ivould develop Cottage Blospital.

In this Autumn issue ojNoticias, Blizabeth B. Cjilbertson profiles the zvomen ofthe San ta Barbara Cottage Hospital Society and chrmucles their campaign to mafe their dream a reality. Despite setbacks and nionerous dijjiculties, these zvomen did not give into despair nor did they siveiuejrom their pwpose. 1 he rcsidt ojtheir hai'd ivorl{zvas a medical facility ivhich today has treated Santa Barbara residentsjor over one hundred and fve years.

Fwnt cover photograph shows Lottie Walfer participating in the Trades Carnival oj i8gozvhich i-aised money toivards the constniction oj Cottage Hospital. Image on page ^9 and baefcover illustration is a detailjwm a i8i)8 "bird‘s-eye'’viezv map of Santa Barbara.

All illustrative matenal isjrom the collections of the Santa Barbara Histoiical Society.

Elizabeth B. Gilbertson has been involved in the medical industry for some twen ty-five years as a registered nurse, director of a women’s health service, and as an adminstrator of health care plans. She received a Master’s degree in the Health Advocacy Program of Sarah Lawrence College in New York in 1990 and earned her nursing de gree at Quinnipiac College in Connecticut. She presently splits her time between homes in Nevada and Santa Barbara.

INhORMATlON FOR CONTRIBUTORS: NOTICIAS is a quarterly journal devoted to the study of the history of Santa Barbara County. Contributions of articles are welcome.

Those authors whose articles are accepted for publication will receive ten gratis copies of the is sue in which their article appears. Further copies are available to the contributor at cost. The authority in matters of style is the University ofChicago Manual ofStyle, ^th edition.Thc Publi cations Committee reserves the right to return submitted manuscripts for required changes.

Statements and opinions expressed in articles are the sole responsibility of the author.

Michael Redmon, Editor Judy Sutcliffe, Designer

© 1997 The Santa Barbara Historical Society 136 E. Dc la Guerra Street, Santa Barbara. California 93101 ● Telephone: 805/966-1601 Single copies $5.00 ISSN 0581-5916

COConoen’s Cdb^k: The I^ounbinQ op QoccAoe liospiCAl

€[LizAl3ecb 33. GiLbepcson

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from 1888 until 1914. This is the story of how they began.

In a corridor of Cottage Hospital hangs the portrait ol a middle-aged wom an named Harriet Belcher. Its caption reads. "Through her inspiration this Hos pital was founded.”

Harriet Belcher was a physician who graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania at the age ot thir ty-seven and came to Santa Barbara from Rhode Island in 1882. Rigorously trained in regular therapeutics and infused with the confidence engendered by practicing in

OTTAGE Hospital is a non-profit community hospital located in Santa Bar bara. California. Today Cottage is a ter tiary care facility ot over 600 beds serving a large area of central Southern California.

One hundred and nine years ago, it was a gleam in the eyes of a small group of women who organized their community to bring it into being. They conceived the idea, raised the funds, oversaw the con struction process, and supervised the ad ministration of the hospital they had created- Women controlled Cottage Hos pital, both as directors and administrators.

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chc "golden era" of women in medicined Harriet Belcher brought with her to Santa Barbara a conviction that modern medical treatment required the availability ot a hospital. Her friend, Hannah C. Moor, re called her oft-repeated assertion. "We are going CO have one." Moor wrote, "Where it was going to come from was another question, but she had taith."2 Although she died in 1887, her faith was not misplaced. In chc early spring of 1888. a small group of Santa Barbara women met at chc home of Harriet Caldcr. who opened chc meeting by stating as its purpose "the need to establish a proper place for the care of chc sick under chc management of trained and careful nurses and resident, able physicians.’’^ An article in one of the daily newspapers, chc A/oming Press, October 1, 1893. recalls chat the sick whom Calder had in mind v\’crc "the

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number ol homeless people—clerks, teach ers. tourists, and others, who had no place CO go when they became ill. or no one to properly care lor them, and even residents who could not have chc best of nursing in their own homes. . . ." Another concern, according to a historical account published many years later, was chc number of "sick people being attracted by chc cli mate and CO whom the hotels and board inghouses could give accommodations only at a price prohibitive for sufferers having but moderate means.

The small group that met at Harriet Caldcr’s home organized a meeting on April 16 in Unity Chapel, chc meeting place of the Santa Barbara Unitarian Soci ety, for "all ladies interested in chc move ment of establishing a Hospital in Santa Barbara."5 Fifty women attended, forty of whom agreed to become charter mcm-

Dr. Harriet Bclchcr, tv/io inspired the vision [lull became CulUige liospUal, stands in front ofher office/ home in the iiooblockof Stale Street, mid-iHSos. Fhe large building at light is the Presbyteiian Church.

WOMEN'S WORK: COTTAGE HOSPITAL bcrs of the Sanca Barbara Coccagc Hospi tal Corporation.6 This association, known as "The Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Society," was formed "to establish a Hos pital in or near Santa Barbara, for the care of the sick and disabled, a training school for nurses: . . . to acquire property by pur chase. gift, or otherwise, and to hold, lease, and dispose of same for the use of this Corporation. Judge Paul Wright, a local land lawyer and friend of Harriet Belcher's, drew up the Articles of Incorpo ration; his wife, Emily, presided over the meeting at Unity Chapel. Harriet Belch er’s vision of a hospital had taken root.

The women who attended the first meeting in Unity Chapel were a cross sec tion of middle and upper middle class San ta Barbara. The elite, composed of Yan kees who had married into the families of the Spanish dons, were not represented, nor were there any recent arrivals. Most of those present were wives or. in some cases, widows, of established merchants and professionals. They included the wives of Henry Chapman Ford, the prom inent local artist; Rev. A. H. Carrier, the Presbyterian minister; Walter H. Nixon, an attorney and editor of the Daily Press; F. W. Conrad, principal of public schools; Charles Woodbridge, manager of the Sun set Telephone and Telegraph Company; and E. G. Stoddard, a physician.

There were also several single women and three professionals; Caroline Guild and Marcia Gilmore, physicians, and Mrs. E. M. Shattuck, superintendent of the lo cal Chinese school.^ Nine of the leaders they elected that spring formed the nucle us of the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Society's leadership over the next several years.9 Two. Mary Ashley and Lucy Brinkcrhoff. were widows; both had been married to physicians. The other directors were

Hamer Calder hosted the initial meeting of Santa Barbara ivonien in the spting of i88S zvhich launched the effort to give the city a nciv hospital.

married, except for Abbey Sarah French Ely. Corresponding Secretary, 1888-93.

Almira Austin’s husband, N. P. Austin, was a prominent retailer; Silas Bond, whose wife Mary was the Society’s first vice-president, was an early Yankee settler who had become wealthy growing fruit in nearby Montccito; Jane Woodbridge's husband. William Henry, was a success ful real estate agent. Emily Wright was married to Judge Paul Wright, who had filed the hospital’s articles of incorporation and was credited with resolving the prop erty issues associated with Santa Barba ra’s original street survey. Caroline Tallant’s husband. Henry, was a merchant who had retired to Santa Barbara; Wil liam Calder, husband ot Harriet, was sim ply listed in the 1888 Santa Barbara city directory as a "capitalist."10 Most had come to Santa Barbara from the East.n None

were

young. The

directors

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No singk individual ivas more responsible for the founding of Cottage I lospital than Mary Ashley,ivho served as president ofthe Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Societyfor thefirst ten years ofits existence.

ranged in age from Almira Austin, fortyfour, to Mary Ashley, the eldest at sixtynine. Harriet Caldcr was sixty-two.12 Santa Barbara's Protestant churches had been organized in the 1860s and 1870s and all but Mary Ashley were members of some denomination. Lucy Brinkerhoff and Lucy Tallant were Episcopalians;!2 Almi ra Austin, Nettie Morrison, and Jane Woodbridge were Congregationalists;!-^ Abby Sarah French Ely, Harriet Caldcr. and Emily Wright were Unitarians, the latter two having been among the earliest trustees ot the First Unitarian Society of

Santa Barbara,l'”’ Mary Ashley was a Spiritualist.16 Apart from their Eastern birth and Protestant affiliations, there were few ob vious links between these women except one, the Women's Christian Temperance Union. According to an historical article that appeared in the Santa Barbara NewS' Press. Mrs. Paul R. Wright. Mrs. Henry Tallant, and Mrs. Mary Ashley, along with Mrs. Josiah Doulton, who was Hos pital Society Vice-president representing Montccito. and Mrs. Belle Franklin, a founding director, were officers of Santa

WOMENS WORK: COTTAGE HOSPITAL Barbara’s W.C.T.U. when ic re-organized in 1883,17 Following che filing of the arcicies of incorporation, which listed eleven direc tors elected at the Unity Chapel meeting, che next steps were che election of officers and che preparation of by-laws. Mary Ashley was elected president, an office she held for the next ten years. Born Mary Morrillc in Vermont, she had met and married her husband, James B, Ashley, in Illinois. They had come to Santa Barbara for his health in 1869, leaving behind in Il linois the graves of their six children. By 1876. after the Ashleys had acquired sub stantial acreage in Moncccico, Mary Ash ley was widowed. She turned her attention to managing her land (seven hundred acres in 1883), Spiritualism, and civic acti vism.18 In roles unusual for the times, she was a leader of two of che small number of lo cal community organizations that includ ed both men and women, the Santa Barba ra Society of Natural History and the Santa Barbara Horticultural Society, Members of the former studied local plant and animal life; che Santa Barbara Horti cultural Society promoted the interests of commercial agriculture, a significant func tion in a county where agriculture was a mainstay of the economy. She was treas urer of che Society of Natural History (1887-1890),15 and the only woman direc tor of the Horticultural Society as it lob bied Congress against Democratic propo sals CO reduce the carifi on foreign dried and green fruits.20 In another fiscal role, she provided financing for the fledgling Spiritualist settlement of Summcrland when ic was on che brink of foundering in 1890-91.21 In addition to these interests, Ashley was a committed activist for woman suf frage, and had served as president of Santa

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Barbara's Equal Rights League during che first California campaign for woman suf frage in 1878,22 During the decade of Mary Ashley’s tenure as president of the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Society, she attended every meeting, and che effectiveness of her leadership must have been a critical element in the hospital's birch and early survival. Ac che same time, however, che Society’s records reveal chat its success was a collective achievement coordinated by a core group of directors who devoted years to the effort.

The proposed by-laws, brought to the second meeting of che corporation at Uni ty Chapel on May 26, 1888. sec the hospi tal up as a membership organization.23 Members were elected by che directors and required to pay dues of one dollar per year or twenty-five dollars for a Life Membership. All members were required to signify their assent to the by-laws by signing them. Although che gender of members was not specified, and a few men became Life Members, as a practical matter this was a women’s organization.

By the second meeting, 110 women had joined.

After the proposed by-laws were read aloud and discussed, they were approved with several modifications. Directors were empowered to use their discretion in limit ing the occupancy of "free beds”: a sevenmember "gentlemen’s” Advisory Board was created, along with a twenty-member female advisory Board of Counselors. The members of both groups were well-known local citizens.

The by-laws specified chat the corpo ration, i.e., the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Society, was to meet annually to receive general statement of the progress and condition of corporate af fairs” and to elect directors who were cm-

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Peter Barba-ivas the architect ofthefirst Cottage Hospital. This iS6y hand-tinted photograph of Barber was executed in San Francisco by Juan Buckingham Wandesforde, tivo years before Barber came to Satita Barbara. Wandesforde ivas knoumfor his portraiture, landscapes, and still lifes in watercolor and oil.

powered to control "the property and con cerns of the Corporation.”

The directors undercook this task with minimal male assistance, the male Adviso ry Board not withstanding. The board minutes running from April 1888 through the completion of the hospital in Decem ber 1891. make only one reference to seek ing advice from men; in July 1891 the di rectors were requested to consult about heating and lighting the hospital.24 They did rely on Judge Wright, appointed Legal

Advisor early on, in property transac tions.25 and occasionally sought the opin ions of physicians, most but not all of whom were male, about particular techni cal questions.

The directors met at least monthly, and often weekly, during the years of the hospital’s inception. Their first action was publication of a pamphlet containing the articles of incorporation, by-laws, and a letter of solicitation for funds.26 The scale of the directors’ aspirations is revealed by

WOMEN'S WORK: COTTAGE HOSPITAL the fact that they ordered one thousand copies of this document, an astonishingly large number for a community in which only fourteen hundred men had voted in the most recent city election.27 With their organization in place, the directors took on the nuts-and-bolts work of creating an institution.

The balance of 1888 and the first half of 1889 were devoted to obtaining a site.

Multiple offers were considered and donat ed land actually accepted—with Harriet Caldcr’s caveat that the Society's obliga tion to construct a hospital there not take effect until water had been piped in by the donor—when concerns about the engineer ing complexities associated with the hill side location led the directors to reverse their decision. After obtaining two concur ring legal opinions about the acceptability of the title, a tract owned by Director Jane Woodbridge’s husband was eventually se lected. It was offered lor a nominal sum with unlimited term for payment.

Next, bids were taken for foundation work; the directors reviewed architect Pe ter Barber’s specifications, accepted the low bid and went on to consider the prob lem of funding construction of the struc ture. Although the minutes arc silent about all architectural matters, numerous accounts of local historians describe the original vision as a scries of small cottag es. each housing a separate department, hence the name "Cottage Hospital."

Several pieces of fragmentary evidence suggest that despite Santa Barbara’s small size and physical isolation, the hospital’s founders were in couch with current trends in hospital work. At the first corporation meeting, when some women objected to becoming charter members before there were by-laws, the Constitution of the Training School for Nurses of New York City(probably Bellevue) was read aloud to

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indicate what was contemplated. Mary Ashley made a trip to San Francisco in the summer of 1888 to acquaint herself with hospitals there.

At the Cottage Hospital Society’s Grand Carnival held in 1890. the nurse who represented the hos pital in the Trades Procession wore a uni form identical, except for the addition of an apron, to that worn by Isabel Hamp ton (Robb), superintendent of nurses at Johns Hopkins when it opened in 1889.

In this context, it seems reasonable to conjecture that the "cottages” referred to in historical accounts might have been an architectural interpretation of the pavilion hospital design in vogue in the nineteenth century. We know that Mary Ashley had read to the directors a letter of advice from a New York City physician who di rected them to Florence Nightingale’s work.

Nightingale emphasized the necessity CO design hospitals so as to maximize the circulation ol fresh air while minimizing the circulation of air contaminated by sickness. Described as "a sanitary code embodied in a building.”29 the resulting design featured a scries of pavilions, each ventilated by numerous windows on the long sides and doors at each end. Hospi tals of any size could be constructed by joining the required number of pavilions together with connecting corridors.-30 a feature chat could be eliminated in Santa Barbara's temperate climate, creating a hospital composed of a complex of indi vidual or structurcs. rectangular "cottages.” Tlie potential appeal of this design o in a resort to which large o numbers of suflcrcrs with respiratory ailments were drawn by its allegedly healthful air seems striking.

Whatever its origin, the design proved too costly to execute, and plans for a sin gle three-story frame building were substi-

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cuccd. The name "Coccage Hospital” was retained, Mary Ashley is reported to have said, "It has such a cozy sound."31 Raising the funds required for con struction proved difficult. An initial dona tion of $1,000 by Mary Ashley made in hope of stimulating similar contributions failed to produce the desired result.^2 In a period ot economic depression in Santa Barbara, many corporation members failed to pay their dues (this turned out to be a perennial problem) and an air of uncertain ty had begun to permeate directors’ meet ings when a $1,000 contribution from the estate of Leonora Bolles arrived in Novem ber of 1889 as a bolt from the blue,^'^ Immediately after her death and many months before her gift to the hospital became known, Le onora Bolles was eulogized in the T^lommg Press in an article enti tled. "A Transient Guest.” A sin gle

woman

from

New

York,

known to no one locally, she was described as "delicate and no long er young.” She and her maid were "quite alone,” She fell ill soon after arriving, and death came slowly. but

...so soothing and stimulating is this wondafid air, that she lay in compar ative comfort, while life sloivly and peacefully ebbed away.... She appre ciated this blessing of air and sun shine herself, and spofe ivith great in terest of the organization of Cottage Hospital, where other invalids could have like blessing.^"^ Her unexpected contribution made raising the remaining funds seem manageable. The directors ordered construction of the build ing to begin, formed a Building

Committee to supervise the process, and threw themselves into organizing an en tertainment to raise the balance of the money.

The modus operand! of the corporation from the beginning had been for the direc tors to provide leadership, coordination, and oversight ol the Hospital Society’s ac tivities, while drawing from the ranks of

Almost the eyitii'c toivyi zvas involved in some zvay in the Irades Carnival fundraiser. Here Lulu Lloyd does her part on behalf of the Shazighai Company,importers.

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WOMEN’S WORK; COTTAGE HOSPITAL

General Public Meeting for planning pur

the membership for financial support and womanpower. To date, the sums raised by a few small projects, although welcome, were not substantial.

The entertainment conceived to benefit

poses. Directed by a Board Committee in cluding Mary Ashley, these volunteers, joined by Hospital Society members, orga nized a five-day Grand Carnival. It was to be held at the Opera House, i.e.. the Lobero Theatre, with different local events

the Building Fund was of a wholly differ ent magnitude. To get it underway, the directors used the newspapers to solicit volunteers, who were invited to attend a

each evening and a matinee every after noon.

Tlie scale of the event they produced defies summary. The Morning Press, which normally devoted its front page solely to national and regional news, gave it front page coverage two days in a row, April 5 and 6, 1890. covered the entire front page with a report of the Trades Carnival April 10, and editorialized April 11 that the "Trades Procession was one of the most magnificent spec tacles ever held in this city.’’ To sup ply the demand for copies of the Morning Press coverage, an extra edi. tion was printed, I Virtually the entire community 1 was involved, either as participants or

Humor definitely played a role in carnival activities ds danonstrated by the outfit ivom by Dora Dem, sponsored by the brick coinpany, Fern & Nicholson.

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spectators or both. Scores of women decorated ornate booths, marched in

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m \pea?tkrek3:

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elaborate costumes representing busi ness establishments in town in the Trades Procession, and danced with husbands or beaux at the Costume Ball. A Gentlemen’s Committee pub lished the Daily Carnival, a news sheet issued each of the five days, containing a list of the day’s events and miscellaneous items of interest.

Hawked by children, it sold out every day. Dozens of little girls and "young ladies’’ were featured in special events. Hundreds attended, and the

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Morning Press complained that "hun dreds were turned from the door last evening [April ll], and also the night before.

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The Grand Carnival brought the

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Santa Barbara Cottage Hospi tal Society recognition and ac claim. In the opening address, delivered by State Senator E. H. Heacock. the directors

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were told. "Tlie tide of popu lar opinion is with you; the turbid waters have become clear; the stream . . . is no

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longer the trickling of water upon the mountainside, but the majestic sweep of the mighty river. . .”^7 The Morning Press trumpeted, "The Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is now an assured institution."38 When the receipts were counted, the net proceeds from the Grand Carnival were $2,741.53,^5 $700 more than the organizers had hoped.

A few large sums, all provided by active members of the Hospital Society, made up most of the balance required to fund the hospital’s construction.41 Emily and Judge Paul Wright and Anna Blake together made a $6,000 contribution in 1890. The Wrights, director and legal advisor respec tively. were among the Society’s most committed members from the beginning.

Anna Blake was a charter Society member and friend of Harriet Belcher’s who had come to Santa Barbara because of frail health and established a sloyd school of manual training which ultimately became the University of California at Santa Bar bara.42 Her contribution endowed a "free bed” in Harriet Belcher’s memory,43 In 1891, Mr. and Mrs. H. K. Winches ter gave $3,000. The Winchesters were active members of the Unitarian Society: Mrs. Winchester was a director who served with Emily Wright on the Build-

hi iSgu, Amici Blake gave a majorfinancial conLnbution toivards the construction ofthe hospital.

The next year she founded the Anna S. C. Blake Manual Tmining School which eventually metamotphosed into the University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara.

ing Committee and, like her, had been an early Unitarian trustee,44 Another $3,000 was received that year from Mrs. Margaret Hazard and her hus band, Rowland, scion of an old New Eng land family and owner of a textile mil! in Peace Dale, Rhode Island, where they maintained a home. After a cousin. Barclay Hazard, and his wife honeymooned in Santa Barbara in 1885. Margaret and Rowland Hazard and their family became winter residents here.45 Mrs. Barclay Hazard. Margaret Hazard, and her daugh ter. Caroline, were all charter members of

WOMEN'S WORK: COTTAGE HOSPITAL che Hospital Society, and had supported it with a series of gifts totaling about $1,000 in 1889. Rowland Hazard was a member of the Advisory Committee. Caroline, who subsequently became president of Wellesley College (1899-1910), donated the proceeds from the sale of her book, Mission Verses, and also raised money from among her friends.

When, despite these gifts and a num ber of smaller ones, che building was com pleted but funds were still short, Mary Ashley loaned the Society $3,000. The minutes were cryptic; all they reported

Margaret Hazard was anotherfinancial contrib utor. This photograph appeared in the book, A Precious Heritage, a biography oj Rpwland and Margaret Hazard zvritten by their daughter-, Caroline.

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was chac "Mrs. Ashley proposed a way of gctcing che sum of $3,000 CO pay off all indebtedness. All che Directors thought the offer Providential and gladly accepted ic."‘^7 The fiscal records were more candid.

During the late summer and fall of 1891. dealing with problems with the wa ter supply and equipping the hospital pre occupied the directors. Mary Ashley and Mary Bond constituted a committee to explore deepening the hospital’s well, which was ultimately done by a local con tractor under terms he negotiated with Mary Bond. Ocher directors attended to acquiring the necessary fixtures and mak ing bed sheets.

In lace November, Harriet Caldcr sub mitted her resignation due to illness. She had attended every meeting. Mary Ash ley read a resolve from the directors stat ing that; . . . Whereas Mrs. Harriet P. Calder has on account oj ill health resigned Jrom the Board of Directors . . . and ivhereas it tvas her prophetic vision that first recognized the necessity of this institution and the possibility ofbuilding it...we accept her resignation with reluctance, and assure her that we will always hold her in loving remembrance, feeling that to her the Master's words may be truly spoken, 'Well done, good and faithjul servant!""^^ Although Harriet Caldcr died within a few months, she lived CO see the hospital open.

Construction had proceeded, and by December 1891 it was finished.

The twenty-five bed hospi-

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HL.

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COTFAQE HOSPITAL i8gi 5anw Barbara's Cottage Hospital, shoitly after compUtioii ofconstmctioii

V.J-.

cal chc Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Soci ety built looked like a large Victorian homcd9 The architect. Peter Barber, had, in lace designed a number of Victorian homes in town. The hospital was located north of

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pacicnt rooms, each twelve by sixteen feet. To the right of the vestibule was a large parlor, while to the left was a sur gery and dispensary. A matron's room, bathrooms, and linen room completed the first floor of the main structure. A wing at the rear housed the kitchen, dining room, and offices. Verandas covered two sides.

On the second story were eight pa tient rooms, the smallest twelve by six teen feet, the largest eighteen feet square. The rest of the floor was taken up with accommodations for nurses, bathrooms, and, in the rear wing, two wards of four beds each. A laundry, fur nace room, and woodshed were in the basement and servants rooms were on the third floor.50 Regulations governing the hospital’s operations had been formulated long since, and were printed in the Society’s original pamphlet in 1888, They specified that "the practice of medicine in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital will not be confined to

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any school, but will be left to the option of the patient.”51 Tlic regulations also established several committees. The Committee on Finance ~i‘‘- '\ JU

u● JS

,

the city limits in an area not yet served by Santa Barbara’s mule-drawn trolleys. Light was provided by gas fixtures.

The front steps led into a spacious vestibule, from which a hall led to five sunny

Auditing, composed of several dircctors, had functioned since the beginning of the Society, reviewing its fiscal records and making reports to the corporation at the annual meetings.

Other committees established by the regulations included a Committee on Ad missions. authorized to "hear applicants for admission to the Hospital, refer them to the physician, who, by his certificate, recommends the applicant for admission . . . .”52 A Committee on Visiting was required ... on daysfixed by themselves, when not expected at the Cottage,[to] visit any and all

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parts ofthe Hospital, and... report errors or mal-administration, or needs, to the commit

of chc population of Santa Barbara in 1891. Historical accounts describe an

tee who have in charge the department in which defects or needs are seen, in no case dis-

event like a country fair, with residents bringing whatever they had as donations; shrubs and saplings for landscaping, kegs of cider, live chickens and turkeys, wicker furniture, and food of all kinds.55

cussing them in the presence ofpatients.^^ Prior to receiving patients, the directors made one last administrative decision: they decided that all patients who were able should select and pay their own phy sicians. Patients unable to do so would be cared for by "whatever physician was gra tuitously visiting the Hospital at the time."54 Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital opened December 8. 1891. The directors had au thorized the employment of Miss Ely. the first matron, two weeks before. The open ing of the hospital was celebrated with a Donation Reception which was attended by 5800 people, approximately two-thirds

The beginning of Cottage Hospital ended that afternoon. The next day, with two patients in the hospital, another epoch was underway.

The historical record, although scanty, reveals at least the outlines of what the women who founded Cottage Hospital did. Much more elusive, but critical to un derstanding their actions, is what they be lieved: about this hospital, about them selves, and about their role in the world in which they lived.

The context, Santa Barbara in the late 1880s and early 1890s. was a community

At the time ofthe opening ofCottage Hospital, the only other hospital in the city ivas the county hospital andpoorfarm, located on the lower Eastside.

WOMEN’S WORK: COTTAGE HOSPITAL Americanized only rccendy. The U.S. had won California from Mexico just forty years before; at that time there were under a thousand Americans in the entire state,-‘'6

Unlike Northern California, where the mining boom had fueled exponential growth, the Americanization of Southern California was a slow process; life on the vast Mexican ranchos around Santa Bar bara continued relatively unchanged until the late 1860s and early 1870s.

At about this time, Southern California in general and Santa Barbara in particular began to be promoted as health resorts. It was in this period that many of the found ers of the Cottage Hospital Society came to California.57 Among them was Lucy Noyes Brinkerhoff, first treasurer of the Hospital Society, who came to California in 1871. Like numerous other newcomers, she sent letters home to New England that were published in newspapers back there.5^^ These letters touted the beauty of the area, the salubriousness of the climate, and the benefits to health of the air as well as of the waters in local mineral springs.

Within fifteen years, the ranchos were re placed by farms; where cattle had roamed, invalids on outings from the developing community of Santa Barbara were savor ing the Mediterranean climate.59 Wlien in May 1888, the directors of the Society decided to publish their pamphlet, at Lucy Brinkerhoff’s suggestion the motto. "I was sick and ye visited me," was added to the frontispiece. This phrase, which was inscribed in the red wood lintel of the completed hospital, was part of the Biblical selection read by Rev. Mrs. Carrier at the opening of the second meeting of the corporation. Taken in con text, this motto offers a glimpse into the motivations of the Hospital’s founders.

The passage reads:

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When the Son ofman shall come in his glory, and all holy angels ivith him...

And before him shall be gathered all na~ lions;and he shall separate them onefrom an other, as a shepherd dividing his sheep from his goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left.

'Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed ofmy Father, in herit the f{ingdom prepared jor you from the foundation ojthe world: For I was a-hungered, and ye gave me ineat: 1 was thirsty, and ye gave me drinh: 1 was a stranger,and ye took di: Naked,and ye clothed me:I was sichs^ and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him saying. Lord when saw we thee a-hungered, and fed thee?or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw ive thee a stranger, and took thee in?or naked and clothed thee?

Or tvhen saw we thee sick or m prison. and came wito thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them. Verily 1 say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least oj these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Book of Matthew. Verses 31-40 This passage reverberates with themes of Christian virtue and charitable benefi cence. It would seem to imply that desire to aid the unfortunate, an eminently re spectable focus for women’s organization al efforts in the late nineteenth century, was the primary goal of the Cottage Hos pital Society. Certainly that was one of their concerns.

The "least of these" they had in mind were not the destitute, who were already served by a hospital of sorts located at a poor farm on county property near the in tersection of Salinas and Cacique streets.

64

NOTICIAS

This photograph ivas taken during Dr.Jane E. SpauUing's tenure as Hospital Supetinteyident, iSgi2911. She crusaded to have the elect7ic streetcar Ime extended to the hospital, ivhich ocewred in i8g6.

Dr.Spaidding staiids m front ofthe hospital, thirdfrom fight.

Rather, they probably thought more of

difficulties and. because of Santa Barbara’s

people of modest means, such as servants or people in boardinghouses.

For the "teachers, clerks, and tourists"

reputation as a health resort, the city had an unusually high proportion of both resi dents and visitors in poor health.

To attribute Cottage Hospital’s found ing principally to Christian altruism would be a mistake. The line. "I was sick,

described as "homeless" by the Morning Press, in its discussion of the population for whom the hospital was intended, boardinghouse living was a common ar rangement, Many such boarders were sin gle women. For example, Harriet Belcher’s letters, from early in her years in Santa Barbara, describe her life as a boarder in a household she shared with two music teachers, mother and daughter; the whole household took their meals at a restaurant nearby.60 Illness in such circumstances, or in hotels for similar reasons, posed obvious

and ye visited me" follows "I was a stranger, and ye took me in." Yankee San ta Barbara was, in a way, a city of strang ers. Almost everyone had come from somewhere else, usually leaving extended family thousands of miles behind. Al though the leaders of the Hospital Society were among Santa Barbara's long-term residents, long-term meant ten years, twenty at most.

WOMEN’S WORK: COTTAGE HOSPITAL How it felt to be alone in an environ ment physically and culturally foreign, brutally distant from their Eastern homes, must have been a vivid memory. It does not seem surprising that the notions of be ing visited when ill, and taken in. would strike a deep chord.

In Eastern cities in the lace nineteenth century, the middle class perceived hospi tals as a resource for the poor, for these California women far away from kinship support networks, the prospect of needing hospital care themselves was hardly incon ceivable. When the Morning Press sug gested that the hospital was organized to serve, among others, "residents unable to have the best of nursing care in their own homes, it made that point clear.

The hospital's architectural design indi cates chat it was conceived as an institu tional source of the comfort and care avail able in middle class homes of the time.

Between one-half and two-thirds of the beds were in private rooms. Since the di rectors set fees based on the size and at tractiveness of the accommodations, as in a hotel, it seems evident that they envi sioned serving a paying population. While from the beginning they were committed CO maintaining "free beds," and initially set the amount required to endow one for a year at $200, they never discussed hav ing more than one or two. Raising the funds for even chat modest number was an on-going challenge.

In terms of the health care the hospital was created to offer, widely accepted be liefs about health at the time emphasized sunshine, cleanliness, fresh air. quiet, and rest. Although Harriet Belcher may well have urged the importance of a hospital in part because of her understanding of the need for asepsis in surgery( she had done post-graduate clinical training at the New England Hospital for Women, where

65

asepsis was practiced long before it was accepted elsewhere),^2 there is nothing in the record to indicate this was an issue the directors understood. On the contrary, in November 1892, the directors voted to in stitute a $10 charge for use of the operat ing room "where it was necessary to make the room aseptic. clearly reveal ing chat asepsis in surgery was considered optional.

The notion chat the directors did not sec the hospital as an institution commit ted to scientific medicine is reinforced by their insistence that the practice of medi cine not be confined to any school, and by their decision to allow patients to choose their own physicians. At the time, there were some fifteen to twenty physicians practicing in Santa Barbara.64 as well as a

This building at 927 State Street served as headquarters jor the campaigns to transform Santa Barbara into a "dry ” toivn. Member ship in the W.C.T.U. and the Cottage Hospitat Society often overlapped.

66

NOTICIAS

variety of visiting physicians who took rooms at the Arlington Hotel and adver tised in the newspapers their ability to cure all manner of iils;65 a wide spectrum of medical philosophies were represented.

Writing about late nineteenth-century women philanthropists in Chicago, Kath leen McCarthy observes that. "Medical charity seemed to be a logical extension of women’s natural sphere, a public version of the informal nursing practices of the home.”66 The home, for women in Santa Barbara as for women in Chicago, was where women were culturally based. Mrs. Barclay Hazard, who attended the Cottage Hospital Society’s earliest meetings and was a life member, observed many years later that in the mid-1880s. "I should have felt it necessary to [offer] an elaborate de fense of women appearing in public life at ail, I should have felt it imperative to express a belief that it would not unfit them for their domestic duties.”67 Their domestic duties, both in reality in a pre-electric era, and in perception, were rigorous. An excerpt from the fron tispiece of an 1888 cookbook published by the women of Santa Barbara's First Con gregational Church, several of whom were active in the Cottage Hospital Society, is revealing: To be a good cook means hjiowledge of all fruits, herbs, balms,and spices;and ofall that is healing.... It means usefulness, inventiveness, watchfulness, willingness, and readi ness of appliance; it means the economy of your great-grandmothers and the science of modem chemists; it means English thorough ness, French art, and Arabian hospitality; it means, in fine, that you are always and per fectly ladies 68 For many women, especially those without servants, meeting such exalted

John Steams, builder ofSteams Wharf, sold the lumber to build Cottage Hospital at cost.

This photograph ivas tak.cn dwing his tenure as mayor, 1888-1890.

domestic expectations was a job that left little time or energy for outside activities.

For affluent women like the directors of the Cottage Hospital Society, charitable work offered welcome exposure to a wider world, exposure that was sanctioned by social support for the civilizing influence of the values of "true womanhood" on the community.

The Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Society's Grand Carnival had been a dra matic demonstration of the strength of the directors' organizational skills, and the breadth of public support they could com mand. Enshrined as moral guardians by a cult of domesticity, they used their guard ianship to organize a cast of thousands on behalf of Cottage Hospital.

67

WOMEN'S WORK: COTTAGE HOSPITAL Yet this event, memorialized in dozens of photographs for which costumed par ticipants posed in the studio of a local photographer, stands as a monument to the paradox these women embodied. On the one hand, the organizational compe tence they displayed in producing the car nival was stunning. On the other hand, the project to which that competence was applied was the ultimate celebration of tra ditional femininity.

These were women in a transitional time, and they themselves had varying in terpretations about what their participa tion in projects like the founding of Cot tage Hospital meant, or ought to mean, about their role in society generally. This debate was framed by the issue of woman suffrage.

Santa Barbara was a stronghold of ac tivism for temperance and suffrage, activi ties with substantial overlap because of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union’s

commitment to suffrage, Tc mperance workers succeeded in getting Santa Barba ra County to go "dry" in 1874, a victory that was short-circuited by a court ruling that found the relevant statute unconstitutional. The

W.C.T.U., when

it

re

organized in 1883 with several Cottage Hospital activists among its officials, opened a reading and coffee room to offer men an alternative to the saloon, and in 1888 opened a Women’s Exchange where needy women could earn money by selling their handicrafts.69 After suffrage failed in 1878, it was seventeen years until there was another suffrage campaign in California. Never theless, when suffragists Julia Ward Howe and Mary Livermore visited Santa Barbara in 1888 and 1889, respectively, the newspapers reported that they drew overflow crowds.70 In 1896, it was a Cottage Hospital So ciety Advisory Board member and Santa

Cottage Hospital, ca. igoo. T^Jotc the solatium ivhich has been added onto thefirstfloor, on the right.

●●e y

’● t’

a.

68

NOTICIAS

Barbara legislator, J. E. Barker, who intro duced in the state legislature the measure that put suffrage on the ballot7l During that campaign, the leaflet Mary Ashley wrote in 1878 outlining the reasons wom en should be granted suffrage was promi nently displayed on the front page of the Daily Independent.

In 1878, she had written that one of the many reasons women should be en franchised was "Because the well-being of the State demands that thousands of hard working women, who add greatly to its wealth and intellectual and moral worth, should not be crippled in their power of usefulness.”72 Not all those who believed women be longed in the public sphere agreed that women were "crippled in their power of usefulness" without the vote. Mrs. Barclay Hazard, for example, was deeply commit ted to women’s participation in public life, but opposed suffrage because she believed women's moral guardianship would be im periled by involvement in partisan politics, something she saw as the inevitable conse quence of suffrage,73 Supporters of suffrage, rather than fearing the weakening of their moral influ ence by politics, believed politics would be

purified by their participation, and fur thermore saw such participation as an ab solute right. The fact that Mary Ashley, pre-eminent local suffragist, was for ten years president of the Santa Barbara Cot tage Hospital Society, suggests that Soci ety leaders were supportive of suffrage.

This suggestion is reinforced by the links between the Hospital Society and the W.C.T.U. and by the prominence in the Society of Unitarian women (somewhere between one third and one half of all Cali fornia suffragists were Unitarian),74 Pub lic positions were taken on behalf of suf frage during California's second suffrage campaign in 1896 by Society founding di rector Mary Bond, a director for two dec ades, by Martha Stearns, a director elect ed in 1890 whose husband, John, builder of Stearns Wliarf, had provided at cost the lumber with which the hospital was constructed,75 and by Judge Wright, the Society’s legal advisor.76 In the face of this evidence, it seems likely that most leaders of the Hospital Society agreed with Mary Ashley that women ought to be able to vote.

Because alljust governments derive their powers from the consent of the governed.

Transition. CoUageHospital'snciv facility opened next door to the original building in 2913.

69

WOMEN’S WORK: COTTAGE HOSPITAL woman is governed by laws to which she gives no consent.

Because woman has the same inherent de sirefor and power ofself-government as man, and the same natural right to exercise that power.

Because the ignorant and intemperate are enfranchised and entrusted with the privilege ofmaking laws to govern her, and ofemploy ing their vested powers in restraining herfrom exercising a citizen s highest prerogative, the right of ballot.

Because woman is taxed, and taxation

sometimes crypco-fcminist context for the provision of carc.”^0 Speaking more gener ally. he acknowledges that women planned and raised funds for numerous new hospitals—activities he passes over in a phrase—but emphasizes that they were not regarded as being capable of managing established institutions. He concludes with the

observation

that, "Male

trustees

might be occupied elsewhere during busi ness hours while their wives and sisters could be an annoying presence in wards and corridors."^!

without representation is as muck tyranny in iSySasin iyj6.

Kathleen McCarthy describes the inter est of Chicago women in medical charities

Because it is a citizen s right to be tried by ajury ofhis peers, and woman is not so tried in California.'^

during the late 1880s in some depth, al though she focuses on the development of schools of nursing,^2 The board members she describes are much younger—most were under fifty—and much richer, with "a full complement of butlers, maids, cooks, and governesses'’ than the directors of the Cottage Hospital Sociecy.83 The impression she conveys is that these women were rather distant, although committed, philanthropic benefactors.

Neither the portrait painted by Rosen

She concluded by asserting that, ... with the ballot in the hands ofall good citizens, the honor ofour State would be as serted and the perpetuity of our government assured;for a nation s injustice is a prelude to a nation’s decay.

In the one hundred-plus years which have passed since the Santa Barbara Cot tage Hospital Society first met. the injus tice of women's disenfranchisement has

berg nor the one developed by McCarthy seems to have much in common with the

Rosenberg is referring principally to hospitals for women and children, which

directors of Cottage Hospital. They seem most remarkable for their competence at the daily grind of creating an institution for the community at large in an era when men and women occupied rigidly segre gated spheres, and even feminists believed women lacked economic ability.^4 Their organizational strategydrawing on a broad membership base for human and fiscal resources, with promi nent persons in advisory roles and a core group of directors to do the administrative work—was brilliant. The success of the Grand Carnival demonstrated their ex

he characterizes as presenting an "atypically and overtly pious, controlling, and

traordinary skills as community organiz ers. Directors handled administrative

been righted; the injustice of women’s in visibility in history has not.

Most historians who have written about late nineteenth century general hos pitals barely mention women trustees.

Charles Rosenberg notes that. "The hospi tal provided one of the few contexts in which middle-class women could play a le gitimate and, to an extent, autonomous role outside the home."79

70

NOTICIAS

casks, including auditing cheir o'wn fiscal records, as well as bidding and negotiating contracts, with acumen. While they were willing CO accede to the request of cheir members for a male Advisory Committee, they apparently saw no need to rely on it.

The question arises, were these unusual women? On one level, of course, the an swer is yes; cheir achievements would be impressive in a twentieth-century context, and must have been even more dramatic one hundred years ago. On another level, I suspect the answer is no.

The terrain represented by the work of women trustees in the founding and devel opment of non-profit community hospi tals remains uncharted. My suspicion is chat when this history is explored, the women of the Santa Barbara Cottage Hos pital Society will be found to typify the leaders whose unrecognized work has created the hospitals on which our con temporary communities depend.

10. This descriptive information was compiled from the following- Nciv Directory. 1888; Jesse D. Ndason, History ofSontiJ Barbara County, California, u ith //lustrations and Biosrapkical Sketches ofits Prominent Men and Pioneer.s(Oakland, Calif..: Thompson & West. 1883); James Miller Guinn. Historical and Biographical KecordojSouthern California (Chicago: Chapman Publishing Company, 1902); Stella Haverland Rouse, "Montecito." A'oticios 24(Winter 1978h and the daily newspapers. I he Daily Independent and Morning Press.

11, The Da^ Independent(Santa Barbara), 3 January 1888. This was a special edition published to promote the citv. It opens by noting chat "most residents are from the East." Specifically, we know that Mary Ashley was from Vermont. Sec Walker A. Tomp kins. Santa Barbara I iistory Makers(Santa Barbara; McNally and Lofton. 1983). 245. Lucy Brinkerhoff came from New England, see her obituary in Moming Pre.ss(Santa Barbara), 1 November 1^1. Caroline Tallant was from Virginia, see Guinn. 505. Accord ing to her gravestone, Jane Woodbridge was from Connecticut.

12. Ages were derived principally from the records of the Santa Barbara Cemetery Association, which note dace of internment.

13. Both Mason and Guinn describe the organization of Santa Barbara churches, including lists of officers.

The Neiv Directory, 1888 lists churches and their trus tees. Both Samuel Brinkerhoff and Henry Tallant were trustees of Trinity (Episcopal) Church.

14. SuntJ Barbara Hgeipes (Santa Barbara: First Congre gational Church. 1888).

15. Archive of the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara. In terestingly. during the early years of the Society, both men and women served as trustees. By the mid1880s. ail were male.

16. Spiritualism involved communication with the spirits of the dead. The widespread interest in Spiritualism in Santa Barbara in this period is discussed in detail in Mason, 218-223. Ronald Schaffer. "The Problem of

CIOTOS 1. Harriet Belcher is one of the graduates of the Class of 1879 at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylva nia profiled in Ruth J. Adams, cd., ’§md Us a Lady Physician" Woman Doctors in America. 1835-1920 (New York. W. W. Norton and Co.. 1985), 133-34, 140.

2. Hannah C. Moor, ’’Reminiscences.’’ Aoticias 21 (Spring 1985): 8.

3. "Report of Meeting for Organization for a Cottage Hospital, ” 16 April 1888 in the archives of Santa Bar bara Cottage Hospital.

4. Alomins Press(Santa Barbara), 30 December 1921, quoted in Santa Barbara Cottage Ho.spital Annual ReJx)rf, HistoricalNumher, il.

5. "Report of Meeting for Organization,"

6. Ibid.

7. Articles of Incorporation of the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in the archives of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

8. Occupational information is from A’eio Directory ofthe City ofSanta Barbara, Co/.(Santa Barbara: Indepen dent Pub. Co.. 1888).

9. Information about the activities of the Cottage Hospital Society is from the Board AUniUes, 1888-91 in the ar chives of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital labeled.

"1888 Plan for Organization and Board Minutes.

1888-1900."

Consciousness in the Woman Suffrage Movement; A California Perspective," Pacific Historical l{evieiv 45(November 1976): 471-2. notes chat i2% of lead ers of the California suffrage campaign 1897-1911 identified their religious afiiliation as Spiritualise.

17. Stella Havcrland Rouse. "Olden Days," SantaBarbaraNetvS'Press, ISJunc 1969.

18. Tompkins. History Atakers, 24^-6.

19. Receni Proceedingsofthe Santa Barbara Society ofNat ural Histor\, Bulletin h'o. i (March 1887); Bidlctinof theSantal^arbaraSiKietyofA'aturalHistory 1 (Octo ber 1890).

20. Aloming Press(Santa Barbara),6 April 1888.

21. David Myrick, "Summcrland, The First Decade."

A'oticias24(Winter 1988); 73.

22. The Daily Independent(Santa Barbara), 24 October 1896.

23. There were at least two hospitals in San Francisco at this time organized as women’s membership organi zations, California Women’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital. See Biennial Rep.art. State Bureau of Labor Statistics. 1892 in Resa D; avis. California Women:A CJwide to Their Politics, 1885-iyii(San Francisco: pri vately printed, 1967). 68. In Southern California. Pa sadena Hospital, Children’s Hospital. Lutheran Hos pital, and Scripps Memorial Hospital all had membership arrangements in the early twentieth cen tury that likely dated from their inceptions. See ar chives of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

24. A reference to involvement of Advisory Board mem ber Rowland Hazard appears in Caroline Hazard’s bi ography of her parents. Precious Pleritage:An Ac-

71

WOMEN'S WORK: COTTAGE HOSPITAL count ofthe Life ofHpiiiond l ldZM>^^nd His Wife,Mdrgdret Anna Rpod, Who tiscablished Their Home, Oak' u-oods, m Peace Date, RJiode Island, Dale, R.I.: privately printed, 1929), 134, She reports that her father attended Cottage Hospital board meetings and reviewed building plans in the spring of 1889, While he may have been consulted by tnc board’s Building Committee, directors attending each board meeting and guests arc carefully noted in the AfinHies; neither he nor any other member of the male Ad visory Board is mentioned.

25. Tlicrc were no female attorneys in Santa Barbara at this time.

26. Although the yV/mutesomit reference to them, a set of Hospital Regulations as well as a list of directors, offi cers, and members of the Finance Committee were in cluded in this document when it was printed. The male advisors were not mentioned, nor were the mem bers of the Board of Counselors. A copy of this pamphlet appears in the front of the bound volume of hospital records entitled,Santa Barbara Cottage Hosjntal Annual Reports, 27. The election results were reported in the Mnming Press(Santa Barbara). 4 April 1888.

28. Minutes. 21 July 1888.

29. John D. Thompson and Grace Goldin. The Hospital:A Social and Architectural History(New Haven and Lon don: Yale University Press, 1975). llSquotcdin Charles Rosenberg. The Care ofStrangers: The Rise of Amen'eu's Hospital System(New York; Basic Books.

1987). 128.

30. Ibid.

31. Walker A. Tompkins, Cottage Hospital: The First I kindred years (Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara Cot tage Hospital Foundation, 1988), 18-19 32. Ibid. This amount was equivalent to SIOO.OOO in 1980’s dollars.

33. Ibid.

34. Aloming Press(Santa Barbara). 16 February 1889.

35. Tliis description of the Grand Carnival is arawn from coverage in the Aloming Press.

36. Aloming Press(Santa Barbara), 12 April 1890.

37. Aloming Press(Santa Barbara), 9 April 1890.

38. A/omiug Press(Santa Barbara), II April 1890.

39. Fiscal records in the archives of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.

40. Tompkins. Cottage Hospital, 19.

41. Information about contributions is from fiscal records in the archives of Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, supplemented by references to the contributions in the A/iniites and reprints of articles in the Santa Barbara A'avs-Press which originally appeared on 12 Novem ber and 12Dcccmbcr 1891.

42. Tompkins. History Atakers. 233-35.

43. Relercnccs in the records to this contribution arc some what enigmatic, perhaps because the donation may have been intended to be anonymous.

44. Archives ol the Unitarian Society.

45. Hazard, Precious Ideritage.

46. Tompkins, History Alakers, 255.

47. Alinutes. 12 December 1891, 48. Ibid.. 21 November 1891.

49. According to Rosenberg, 257, prevailing wisdom in the late 1880s was that one bed was needed for every one thousand inhabitants. The fact that Cottage Hos pital had more than double that number (although the Federal Manuscript Census for 1890 was destroyed by fire, the newspapers estimated the population be tween nine and ten thousand) probably reflects its status as a health resort.

50. This description of the hospital is based on the account

by Stella Haverland Rouse. "The First Cottage Hospi tal." 5jntaBcJrbcjruA'cu’.s-/’n;.s.s, 18 March 1979.

51. Regulation I! in Santa Batixira Cottage Hospital Annu al Reports, 10.

52. Regulation IV, Ibid.

53. Regulation VII. Ibid.

54. Alinutes. 5 December 1891.

55. Tompkins, Cottage Hospital. 24.

56. Spencer C. Olin, California Politics jd^6-iy2o:7?ie Emerging Corporate State(San Francisc<5: Boyd and Fraser Publishing Co., 1981). 5.

57.

Dates when Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Society leaders came to California were derived from voter’s records, obituaries, Unitarian Society records, and lo cal histories. In some cases, the only information available was abtiut the women’s husbands; I assumed they came together.

58. Aloming Press(Santa Barbara), 1 November 1901.

59. The Americanization ol Santa Barbara is dLscussed in detail in Albert Camarillo. Chicanos in a Changing So ciety: Tram Alexican Pueblos to American Barrios in Sontti Barbara and Southern Calijomia, 18^^-1930 (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1979).

54-81.

60. Letter. Harriet Belcher to Eliza Johnson, 18 June 1882.

Copy in collection of Gledhill Library. Santa Barbara Historical Society.

61. See note 4.

62. Abram. 191.

63. /Vfimitei, 19 November 1892.

64. This number was arrived at by counting physicians in the Aeu'Directory, 1888, and adding to that number physicians who, although not in the A'eic Directory. advertised regularly in me local newspapers.

65. For example, see advertisement for the National Surgi cal Institute in Aloming Press(Santa Barbara). 10 April 1888.

66. Katlilcen D. McCarthy. A’ablesse Oblige: Charity and Cxdtural Philantlmn^y in Chicago, 1899-1929(Ciiicago. University of Chicago Press, 1982). 38 67, Mrs. Barclay Hazard. "How Women Can Best Save the State." An Address Before the State Federation of Women's Clubs. Troy. New York, 30 October 1907, published by the New York State Association Op posed to Woman Sufirage.

68. Santa Barbara Recipes. Quote trom John Ruskin on ti tle page. Directors Belle Franklin, Almira Austin, and Nettie Morrison, as well as Vice-President Mrs. C. P. Low and Board of Counselors members Mrs. John Rice and Mrs. C. W. Woodbridge all contributed recipes to this cookbook.

69. Rouse. Santa Barbara A'ais-Press. 15 June 1969.

70. Aloming Press(Santa Barbara). 13 May 1888 and 9 April 1889.

71. Ihe Daily Independent (Santa Barbara). 24 October 1896.

72. Ibid.

73. Hazard. "How Women Can Best Save the State.”

74. Rev. C. W,Wendte, Pacific Unitarian. 1896, quoted in David, lOl; Schaffer, 471-2.

75. Tompkins. Cottage Hospital. 19.

76. 'Ihe Daily Independent(Santa Barbara), 24 October 1896.

77. Ibid.

78, Ibid.

79. Rosenberg, 270-1.

80. Ibid.

81. Ibid.

82. McCarthy. 37-46.

83. Ibid.. 45.'

84, Charlotte Perkins Stetson (Gilman), who lived in Pa sadena, 1888-91, wrote chat "the present condition ol women [lorbids] the development of economic ability . . . " in the intrtxluction to her work. Women and Tconomics (Boston: Small. Maynard, and Co.,

The Santa Barbara Historical Society wishes to thank and acknowledge with pride the following individuals, businesses, and institutions for their most generous contributions to the Society’s

19Q7

I^iescA EApcy V

ane Rich Mueller

Santa Barbara Bank and Trust Starbuck, Tisdale & Associates

Steven Ainslcy Andria's Harborsidc Antique Alley Arlington Gallery Baccio Sally Bailey Barbara Beall Etcetera Victor Bartolonae Bikini Factory Borders Books and Music Richard Breza Casa de Sevilla Kathy Chalfanc Marilyn Chandler Channel Paper Company Chaucer's Books Lee Chiacos Christian Tevis Antiques Citronclle Barbara and Dick Cleveland Alexandra Crisssman

Jean Smith Goodrich Neal GralTy Gustafson Dance Theater Lawrence Hammett Robert Hansen Hotel Upham Jedlicka’s Saddlery Kaleidoscope Flowers Keeper's Lighthouse Kerwin Galleries Louie's

John Reynolds Barbara Robinson Ron Wolfe & Associates Andrew Roteman, Architect Monroe Rutherford San Ysidro Ranch Santa Barbara Airbus Santa Barbara Civic Light Opera Santa Barbara Frame Shop Santa Barbara Illumination

Main Antiques Crec Mann McDonald's

Santa Barbara Jet Boats Santa Cruz Island Foundation Marlene Schulz Ruth Scollin

Mr. and Mrs. Hugh A. Merrill Warren Miller Montecito Cafe

Sea Landing and Stardust Sport Fishing Saundra Smith

Elly and Jack Nadel

Spencer’s Limousine Stampa Barbara Starbuck’s Coffee Sullivan & Goss

Pacific Traveller's Supply Paddle Sports of Santa Barbara Pan's Garden

Leslie Douglas Peabexly's El Encanto Hotel & Garden Villas Pendleton of Santa Barbara Fess Parker's Doubletree Resort Peregrine Galleries Fillmore & Western Railway Co. Primeau’s on Brinkerhoff Avenue Tina Foss Printing Impressions The Four Seasons Biltmorc Rancho Oso

The Gentlemen Antiquarians Donald and Jo Beth Van Gelderen Villa Rosa

Dr. and Mrs. George Frakes

Chancellar Henry T. Yang

Cynthia Reid

Eric Watts. D.C. Cicely Wheclon Wine Time

SANTA BARBARA HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF TTIUSTEES Lani Meanley Collins .

Jo Bech Van Gelderen , Jane Rich Mueller. . . .

Ruth Scollin Warren Pullman Miller

Victor H. Bartolome Marilyn B. Chandler Barbara Cleveland Alexandra Crissman Dan Cross Oswald J. Da Ros George E. Frakes Richard Glenn

President . . First Vice President Second Vice President Secretary Treasurer

Lawrence Hammett Robert G. Hansen Jack Overall John Pitman Barbara Robinson Michael Rodrigue Marlene Schulz Cicely Wheclon

Jean Smith Goodrich

George M. Anderjack, Executive Director

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NOTICIAS Quarterly Magazine of the Santa Barbara Historical Society P.O. Box 578 Santa Barbara. California 93102-0578

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CONTENTS Pg.49: Women’s Work; The Founding of Cottage Hospital