Library: Nursing by Credo Reference: History

Notable Nurses

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910): Topic Page
During her parents' 3-year honeymoon in Europe, Florence Nightingale was born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy. She was named after her birthplace.
Edith Cavell (1865-1915)
From The Palgrave MacMillan Dictionary of women's biography English nurse. The daughter of a clergyman, Edith worked as a governess then trained as a nurse, working through a typhoid epidemic before graduating at the London Hospital.
Clara Barton (1821-1912): Topic Page
Civil War Nurse, Founder of the American Red Cross. Clara Barton was the most famous of many women who worked heroically to provide care and comfort to wounded Civil War soldiers. In so doing, she and others like her raised the nation’s standards for the care of its fallen soldiers.
Mary Seacole (1805-1881)

From The Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women
Mary Seacole is best known for her heroic efforts to nurse wounded British soldiers during the Crimean War.
Margaret Higgins Sanger (1879-1966): Topic Page
Margaret Sanger, feminist and activist, has been identified as the founder of the birth control movement. Sanger believed that women needed accurate information and knowledge about their own bodies.
Dorothea Dix (1802–1887): Topic Page
Dorothea Dix was a renowned social reformer and vocal advocate for the humane treatment of people with psychiatric disabilities.
Ethel (Gordon) Fenwick (1857-1947)
From The Palgrave MacMillan Dictionary of women's biography
When the International Council of Women met in London in 1899, Ethel took the opportunity, through the Matrons’ Council, to organize an International Council of Nurses, the first such organization among health professions, or professional women. She became its first President.

General History

The Nursing Profession
In The Reader's Companion to U.S. Women's History
Modern nursing, a predominately although not exclusively women’s field, began during the Civil War, when those women who volunteered to nurse sick and wounded soldiers proved that careful attention to proper sanitation, nourishing diets, cleanliness, and comfort dramatically cut shockingly high morbidity and mortality rates.
Nursing
From The Companion to British History, Routledge
Nursing was originally in the hands of monastic orders, and declined into disrepute after their dissolution
History of Nursing Research
From Encyclopedia of Nursing Research The first public health policy act was signed on July 16, 1798, by President John Adams.
Nurses on Strike
In The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History
It is this concern for patient safety that over the last several years has had the greatest influence in moving nurses like those in Petoskey from the bedside to the picket line outside hospitals across the country.
The History of Medicine
From The Cambridge Dictionary of scientists The learned Western medical tradition traces its origin to the works of a mysterious Greek physician, Hippocrates.
The Historical Development of Public Health
From Key Concepts in Public Health
The association between human disease and the growth of centres of population has long been observed and the concept of action at a community or population level to influence health is not new;
Hospitals in the Nineteenth Century
In Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century
The nineteenth century was a period of growth and change for American hospitals. Many early hospitals were extensions of public alms-houses, and initially hospitalization was the last refuge of a desperate and needy population.

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