nursing history Archives - Off the Charts

10 Lessons from Clara Barton’s Life for Living and Making an Impact

Oil painting of Clara Barton by Mathilde Leisenring, 1937.

Clara Barton lived an amazing life with extraordinary accomplishments, as a group of us recently learned on a tour retracing her steps (this will be the final post in the series). But it was an unlikely, even improbable, journey. She was painfully shy, suffered from anxiety and depression, and had to endure discrimination due to her gender, marital status, and age.

Out of these challenges, she became a teacher and started the first public school in New Jersey; was among the first women appointed to government work, serving in the U.S. Patent Office; served as a Civil War nurse; opened an Office for Missing Soldiers after the war; and remained an avid suffragette and abolitionist throughout her life.

She then started the American Red Cross at the age of 59 and convinced the International Red Cross to expand their services to disaster work. Resigning at age […]

Guest Author2024-06-12T15:40:21-04:00June 12th, 2024|Clara Barton Tour 2024, Nursing, nursing history, Public health, volunteering|0 Comments

‘Follow the Cannons!’: Clara Barton’s Pioneering Battlefield Nursing at Antietam

Antietam battlefield, seen from the observation tower. Photo credit: Lewis Sandy.

As it happens, this summer’s #1 best-selling book is Kristin Hannah’s The Women, which tells the story of Frankie, a young idealist nurse who volunteers to serve in Vietnam. This harrowing tale takes her fresh out of Army basic training to the Thirty Sixth Evac Hospital, where she and her fellow nurses triage the wounded, provide care for the dying, and stabilize soldiers for further treatment at other hospitals, while coming under attack.

Women at the front? The concept of battlefield triage? The idea of a “field hospital”?

All come from the Civil War, where Clara Barton became known as “the angel of the battlefield.”

Today our tour exploring the career and legacy of American Red Cross founder Clara Barton visited the Pry House Field Hospital Museum, the Antietam battlefields, and the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. As a physician, I can only marvel at the advances medicine and nursing have made since then—and note (with mixed feelings) that war often brings on great innovation […]

Guest Author2024-06-07T11:31:53-04:00June 7th, 2024|Clara Barton Tour 2024, Nursing, nursing history|0 Comments

At Red Cross National Headquarters, a Vision of Past and Present Priorities

The author speaking to the Clara Barton tour group before the Tiffany stained glass windows at national Red Cross headquarters.

“Because of the climate crisis, the Red Cross launches nearly twice as many relief operations for major disasters than it did a decade ago.”

Today a group of us tracing the career and legacy of Clara Barton arrived at the ornate national Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C., a building I have been at countless times over my last 48 years of volunteering. Every time I enter, it reminds me of the people who have worked so hard to help millions of people have better lives—whether through disaster or war recovery, aid for military families, or donating the gift of blood.

Built as a memorial to the women of the Civil War with U.S. and private funds, the headquarters features exquisite architecture. The building’s showpiece—the Tiffany stained glass windows—are designed to “symbolize reconciliation following the Civil War and are reputed to be the largest suite of Tiffany windows created for a secular environment.”

A Brief History

We learned how the Red Cross initially focused on domestic and overseas disaster relief efforts, assisted the U.S. military […]

Guest Author2024-06-05T10:44:05-04:00June 5th, 2024|Clara Barton Tour 2024, climate change, Nursing, nursing history, Public health|0 Comments

Mahoney, Thoms, Franklin: Black Nurses and Reformers to Remember

Nursing is a challenging profession that requires expertise, dedication, and compassion. Black nurses have made significant contributions to the field, yet their stories often go untold. In this second post in a four-part series for this Nurses Month (here’s the first post), I continue to highlight the achievements of Black nurses who have worked to provide quality care despite discrimination and prejudice. This post will focus on Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845-1926), Adah Belle Samuels Thoms (1870-1943), and Martha Minerva Franklin (1870-1968) as well as on the collaboration among them.

Mary Eliza Mahoney

One of the most prominent Black nurses in history, Mary Eliza Mahoney, was born in 1845 to parents free from slavery. She became the first Black registered nurse in the United States in 1879 after completing a rigorous training program at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. She was the only Black student in her class and one of only four out of 41 who completed the rigorous program.

Hospitals did not hire Black nurses, nor did public health agencies, forcing her to work as a private duty nurse for mostly wealthy white families. Mahoney spent the next 40 years in clinical practice while fighting for acceptance of Black nurses into the larger nursing community. Her advocacy inspired many other Black women […]

Guest Author2023-05-08T16:01:18-04:00May 8th, 2023|Black nurses, Nursing, nursing history|2 Comments

In a Formidable Nursing Career, Bernardine Lacey Faced and Overcame Racism

Her story is important to know, because it offers an opportunity to learn from the not-too-distant past and explore some of the difficult truths about racism in nursing, the role of the profession in this history, and the effect of these accounts on current diversity and inclusivity efforts.

Lacey meeting with first lady Barbara Bush in the White House in the 1980s.

So write Sandra Lewenson and Ashley Graham-Perel in their article in the August issue of AJN, ‘You Don’t Have Any Business Being This Good’: An Oral History Interview with Bernardine Lacey. In the article, they recount Lacey’s upbringing in the South and the many racial barriers that made it difficult for her in getting an education and pursuing her career—which became a formidable one. As a result of her many accomplishments in education, practice, and leadership, she was named a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing in 2014.

Racial barriers remain.

Shawn Kennedy, MA, RN, FAAN, editor-in-chief (emerita)2020-08-17T09:38:48-04:00August 17th, 2020|career, Nursing, nursing history|0 Comments

10 Lessons from Clara Barton’s Life for Living and Making an Impact

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‘Follow the Cannons!’: Clara Barton’s Pioneering Battlefield Nursing at Antietam

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At Red Cross National Headquarters, a Vision of Past and Present Priorities

A Brief History

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Mahoney, Thoms, Franklin: Black Nurses and Reformers to Remember

Mary Eliza Mahoney

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In a Formidable Nursing Career, Bernardine Lacey Faced and Overcame Racism

Racial barriers remain.

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