Summary

Creator: St. Luke’s Hospital (New York, N.Y.) School of Nursing
Title: Collection of St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing Records
Dates: 1938-2016
Volume: 7 boxes (29.5 inches)

Provenance

It is unknown when these materials came into the possession of Bolling Memorial Library at St. Luke’s Hospital Center, but it is believed that items of historical interest found around the Hospital’s buildings were brought to the Library for safe-keeping. Materials from the School of Nursing alumnae were donated by individual alumnae. (See ‘Related Materials Note’ for additional information on alumnae information.)

The materials were transferred to the Arthur H. Aufses, Jr., MD Archives in June 2016, after the 2013 merger of the Continuum Health Partners, Inc. (consisting of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Beth Israel Medical Center, and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary) and The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Historical Note

The St. Luke’s Hospital Training School for Nurses opened in 1888 with six students enrolled in a two-year training program. The School’s history, however, predates that opening, tracing its roots to the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion that Anne Ayres, the first Sister, in concert with the Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg, DD, founded in 1845. The Sisterhood – the first protestant sisterhood in the United States - was established to assist with the ministry of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion (established in 1844).

Ayres, an Englishwoman employed as a governess to Mary Muhlenberg Roger’s children at the time, heard Muhlenberg preach on the subject of the blessedness of a life of total self-dedication to God, for men and women. At that prompting, she felt the stirrings of a call and approached Muhlenberg to discuss it. She was formally consecrated to the ministry by him in November of 1845 and was soon joined by a few like-minded women. Desiring to differentiate between their religious formation and Roman Catholic religious women, or nuns, they chose to call themselves a Sisterhood. They were a voluntary group, taking no permanent vows, and they took on responsibility for running the parish school and caring for the parish’s sick poor.

In 1853, in anticipation of building a Hospital, the sisters opened an infirmary in a house adjacent to the Church building (fondly referred to it as “the Infant St. Luke’s”). When the construction of the Hospital’s building on West 54^th Street at Fifth Avenue was finished in 1858, infirmary patients were transferred there, as the Hospital’s first “guests.”

At the new Hospital, Ayres became the House Mother in charge of both nursing and nurse training, and housekeeping services. Daily care on the ward was directed by a Sister who supervised the work of students and paid nurses.  But as the number of patients increased and medical care became more complex, and as applicants to the Sisterhood decreased, that arrangement was no longer sustainable.  Laywomen, who functioned essentially as assistants to the Sisters, were hired, but in time, that system, too, became inadequate.

When Muhlenberg died in 1877, Sister Anne retired. Shortly after that, the nursing and housekeeping staffs separated into their own departments and nurses who had trained under the Sisterhood took charge of the nursing staff. Acknowledging the desirability of well-educated nurses, several hospitals in the City established nursing schools as early as the late 1870s, allowing St. Luke’s to employ professionally trained nurses. In 1888, the St. Luke’s Board of Managers decided to establish St. Luke's Hospital Training School for Nurses, fulfilling an objective of the Hospital’s Act of Incorporation: “A further object of the Society [of St. Luke’s Hospital] shall be the instructing and training of suitable persons in the art of nursing.…” The head of the nursing department became the director, and principal teacher, of the Training School.

Regarding the school’s opening on July 2, 1888 the Board noted: “A carefully digested system of teaching and practice of the art of nursing has been introduced from which excellent results are to be anticipated…. The [six] young women who have joined the school are enthusiastic in their calling and faithful in their work. “

Students did not enter in classes at a set date at first, but individually or in small groups, according to the needs of the Hospital at the time. Instruction took place primarily on the Hospital wards, although lectures, recitations, and examinations on practical points of nursing were given from time to time. Students were graded on their performance, and at the end of a two-year course of study were awarded a diploma and pin. By 1893, as plans to build a new, larger hospital were moving forward, forty-two nurses had graduated.

In 1896, St. Luke’s moved to Morningside Heights, to West 113^th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive. The nursing staff and students were housed in the Vanderbilt Pavilion, commonly referred to as ‘the nurses’ residence’, (a gift of Cornelius Vanderbilt, a St. Luke’s Board member between 1875-1899). At the new location, the training period increased from two to three years, and soon after, an obstetric nursing affiliation with the New York Infant Asylum was added, as was a course in the operating room for selected students. Textbooks and mannequins were introduced. In 1897, the Alumnae Association was organized. Its incorporation came in 1898, with these objectives:

• to promote the interests of St. Luke’s Hospital Training School for Nurses;
• to raise the standards of nursing generally, to cultivate social intercourse among the Alumnae of said school;
• to assist the members of such corporation obtaining professional employment;
• to aid them in promoting and protecting their rights and interests;
• to provide a fund for the benefit of sick, infirm or disabled graduates of said school.

The curriculum continued to evolve in keeping with advances in medicine and nursing. As course instruction increased, so, too, did the nursing faculty and the length of the training period. In 1905 the School was approved for registration with the Regents of the University of the State of New York, demonstrating that it was graduating well educated nurses.

In 1917, to fill the gaps left by enlistment of nurses into World War I service, forty additional probationers were admitted to the Training School. In order to make room for these students in the Vanderbilt Pavilion, graduate nurses were offered a room allowance to live outside the Hospital. At the close of the war, a survey done by the Alumnae Association shows that 197 graduates were engaged in war service in 12 countries, and 48 graduates were enrolled in the St. Luke’s unit of Red Cross Home Defense Nurses.

In the following years an entrance fee for students was instituted, hours on duty were shortened, and course lectures in mental and nervous diseases, communicable, skin, and venereal diseases were added to the curriculum. Attention to the physical condition of the students improved with regular chest x-rays and immunizations against typhoid fever, smallpox, scarlet fever, and diphtheria. The fourth floor in the Travers Pavilion, which was erected in 1911 to house outpatient services and dormitories for ‘servants,’ was turned over entirely for instruction of students and faculty offices.

In 1921, the course of study was shortened to two and a half years. The system of theoretical instruction was reorganized in 1928. An education director was appointed, and a teaching dietitian and a full-time instructor in the sciences were hired. In the Hospital, a program of employing graduate nurses for general duty, was instituted, first on the private floors and then on the wards. At the same time “ward helpers” were introduced. These women performed non-nursing duties previously done by the nurses: brass polishing, caring for the patients’ flowers, sorting and storing linen as it came from the laundry, carrying food trays, etc.

In the early 1930s, student entrance fees rose from $25 to $50, and the training period was again extended to three years. Specialty affiliations were added to the curriculum. For example, a three-month course in psychiatric nursing at the Bloomingdale Hospital in White Plains, New York, (later named “The New York Hospital, Westchester Division”), or at the Neurological Institute, New York City; and three months in communicable disease nursing at Willard Parker Hospital in Manhattan or a two-month course with field work at the Henry Street Settlement, New York City. In the later 1930’s the National League for Nursing Education began nation-wide accreditation of nursing schools, and St. Luke’s Hospital Training School for Nursing was accredited by that organization.

On December 16, 1937, the Eli White Memorial Residence opened as a new, modern residence for nurses. Erected at a cost of $1,600,000, it was a memorial to the late Eli White, a New York City merchant, out of a bequest given by his daughter, Mary Ann Fitzgerald. Facing south on 114^th Street, the residence extended through to 115^th and offered 355 rooms for students, graduates, and faculty. A tunnel connected the residence to the Hospital for use in inclement weather. Health and social-physical education directors were added to the staff of the school by the end of the 1930s.

At its March 28, 1938 meeting the Board of Managers decided, in keeping with current nomenclature, to change the name of the School from the “St. Luke’s Hospital Training School for Nurses” to the “St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing.” At the same time, as a new Directress was taking the reins of the School, the name of that title also changed to “Director.” In February 1942, the Alumnae Association followed suit and changed its name to “The Alumnae Association of the St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing.”

During World War II, many students enrolled in the United States Public Health Service’s Cadet Nurse Corps, and throughout the war hundreds of alumnae participated in government nursing services. The Class of 1947 published the School’s first yearbook, Triennium, dedicated to the Second Evacuation Hospital Unit, composed of doctors and nurses recruited from St. Luke’s Hospital that served in the European theater. Student fees increased to $350 for the three-year training period; a student loan fund was developed and supported by graduates of the School.

In 1953, an obstetric affiliation began at St. Luke’s Hospital's newly incorporated Woman’s Hospital Division. In 1954, the Hospital’s nursing department and the nursing school were reorganized into two separate departments - the School of Nursing and the Nursing Service – both under one director of nursing. This division was solidified in 1959, when each department received its own director and, for the first time, students were no longer on the staffing roster of the Hospital. Following that, a two-week tour of duty (later extended to a four-week tour) in the recovery room was added to the students’ rotations, and the privileges for all students were liberalized, including the marriage policy. By the late 1950’s only one class was admitted each year and a student received her cap after ten months instead of after six.

By the early 1960’s the faculty and staff of the School had grown to 30. Following tradition, freshmen were still introduced to ward duty soon after entering the School, with their on-duty work correlated with classroom instruction. Junior year focused on obstetrics, the operating room, pediatrics, and psychiatry. The senior year brought night and evening duty; advanced medical-surgical nursing; special surgery, i.e., orthopedics; urology; and ear, nose and throat; the emergency room; and the outpatient department.

In 1957, the School created the Muhlenberg School of Practical Nursing, an 18-month program designed to train licensed practical nurses. However, the program was not successful and was closed in 1959.

In April 1972, due to changes in the profession and the growing availability of four-year bachelor’s degree programs, the decision to phase out the School was announced. The School’s last class was accepted in 1972 and graduated in 1974. During its more than 80 years of existence, the St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing educated 4,000 graduate nurses.

Sources:

• Alumnae Association of the St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing, St. Luke’s Hospital Historical Review.
• History of the St. Luke’s Hospital Training School for Nurses, New York. Fiftieth Anniversary 1888-1938. St. Luke’s Alumnae Association, 1938.
• Sister Anne: Pioneer in Women’s Work by Harry Boone Porter, Jr., The National Council, New York, 1960.
• Minutes to the Board of Managers Meetings from March 1938.

Arrangement Note

As indicated in the Provenance note, the original order of these records is unknown, and the Archivist has imposed the current order.  The materials are arranged into five series and include two appendices:

• Series I: St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing Records
• Series II: The St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association Records
• Series III: Alumnae Papers
• Series IV: Artifacts
• Series V: Photographs
• Appendix I: Heads of the Nursing Department and the School of Nursing
• Appendix II: Full list of St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Bulletins

Scope and Content Note

This small collection has five series: School of Nursing records, the Alumnae Association records, Alumnae Papers, and Artifacts. The School of Nursing series is 14 folders of basic information about the School, the highlights of which are the annual announcements catalogs (folders 2-5) outlining the entrance requirements and the curriculum, and the Triennium, the class yearbooks for 1955, 1957,1968, 1973, and 1974 (folders 12-14). The proposal by the New York Infant Asylum to provide obstetric training is also of note as it provides a detailed list of areas of instruction for 1895 (folder 9). Student transcripts from 1941-1974 are also included in this collection; please see note under that series for details.

Significant records in The Alumnae Association series are the annual reports for the Association and a nearly complete run of the Association’s Bulletin, providing news of its members and of the Hospital. (Note that a number of annual reports are published in particular Bulletin issues, which are clearly noted in the container list.) Also of significance are the three volumes of Alumnae Rosters, the first of which contains a short history of the School. These books and the two volumes of the Alumnae Association annual reports are behind all the folders in box 2. Photographs of Alumnae are also included in the collection; however, they are filed in the larger St. Luke’s Hospital series of the Photograph Collection.

The Alumnae Papers consists of materials donated by the School’s graduates and may include bulletins, pamphlets, yearbooks, artifacts such as uniforms or graduate pins, invitations and other materials. This series is arranged by donation date.

Artifacts include a complete student nurse’s uniform, with its distinctive wool cape, and a graduation pin.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on access to these materials.

Related Materials

The St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association records are held at The Foundation for New York State Nurses’ Center for Nursing History. Further information and a collection guide are found here. 

The Church of the Holy Communion records, held by The Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. MD Archives, contains more information on the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion.

Muhlenberg School of Practical Nursing records are also held by The Arthur H. Aufses, Jr. MD Archives.

A diary kept by Ferebe E. Guion while a nursing student at St. Luke's Hospital Training School for Nurses and at Sloane Maternity is held by the New York Academy of Medicine, in its “Miscellaneous physicians' diaries, 1791-1946” collection. Additional information can be found here.

Container List

Series 1: St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing Records

Series 2: St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Association Records

Series 3: Alumnae Papers

Series 4: Artifacts

• Student nurse's uniform, which includes a blouse and skirt in the St. Luke's blue and white plaid, two aprons, bibs, collars, cuffs, caps (student and graduate), and extra buttons; worn by Miss Gertrude Currier Kilburn.
• Two blue wool nurse's capes, one with the initials "K.E.P." sewn into the collar, and another belonging to Doris Hachenberger, Class of 1955.
• SLHSoN student mailbox door, mounted on wood
• SLHSoN graduation pin (Doris Hachenberger, Class of 1955)

Series 5: Photographs

A number of images were included with the materials; they were removed and added to the Archives’ photograph collection under the St. Luke’s Hospital series and the main heading of Nurses – School of Nursing - … with the following titles*:

Administrators: Mabel Clarke; Ann Louise Morse; Elsie L. Burke; Cora Wheeland; Carrie Bath; Florence E. Carling
Alumnae:

• Myrtle Fitzpatrick, Class of 1931
• Eleanor Amerman Harr, Class of 1933
• Catherine Marie Sanders Pell, Class of 1950
• Carrie Bath, Class of 1900

Alumnae: 50th anniversary celebration, Las Vegas, NV, Class of 1950
Capping, June 1961
Graduation pin
Graduation cap
Welcome tea for new students, September 1963

* note that the St. Luke’s Hospital photograph collection also includes images of the Eli White Memorial Residence (under ‘Nurses’) which may include images of nursing students. Photographs are also included among the Alumnae Papers, box 6.

Subjects

• Annual Reports
• Archives
• Correspondence
• Clippings
• Hospital Administration
• Invitations
• Minutes
• Newsletters
• Photographs
• Programs
• Reports
• Schools, Nursing
• Students, Nursing
• St. Luke’s Hospital Center
• St. Luke’s Hospital (New York, N.Y.) School of Nursing
• St. Luke’s Hospital (New York, N.Y.) Training School for Nurses
• World War, 1941-1945
• Yearbooks

Appendix I: Heads of the Nursing Department and the School of Nursing

• Jessie Read (1888 - 1889 May 1), a graduate of Boston City Hospital Nursing School
• Anna C. Maxwell (1889 - 1892 January 1), a graduate of Boston City Hospital Nursing School; title changed to “Superintendent of Nurses;” left to establish the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing.
• Walstein M. Thompkins (1892 - 1894 June 15), taught nursing at St. Luke’s Hospital prior to establishment of its School; passed examinations with Class of 1890 and so is considered a graduate. (Class of 1890)
• Florence C. Cottle/Annie E. Jarvis (1894 - 1895 Sept 1). Duties of the office were split into First and Second Supervising Nurse, Cottle being the First and Jarvis the Second; these women were graduates of the Arnott-Ogden Hospital in Elmira, NY. They resigned together to return to Elmira to take charge of a private Hospital.
• Charlotte Edith Thompson acted as an interim “Supervising Nurse” and then became Miss Quintard’s assistant. (Class of 1895)
• Lily W. Quintard (1896 Jan 1- 1900 March 1), a graduate of the Connecticut Training School at New Haven Hospital; established the Alumnae Association in 1897, incorporated in NYS 1898. She was called upon by the government to organize and direct nursing for the Red Cross during the Spanish American War; Assistant Directress Mary A. Mitchell (Class of 1893) supervised in her absence.
• Mary D. Barnes (1900 March - April) was interim Directress for two months. (Class of 1900)
• Annie W. Goodrich (1900 May 1 – 1902 May 26), a graduate of New York Hospital School of Nursing
• Mabel Wilson (1902 - 1909 Sept 1) (Class of 1898)
• Carrie E. Bath (1909 – 1924 May 31) Assistant Directress 1900-1909 (Class of 1900)
• F. Evelyn Carling (1924 June 1 – 1938 Feb 1); Carling was one of the first nurses to receive a BS from the newly formed Nursing Department at Columbia University. (Class of 1909)
• Helen Olandt (1938 Feb 1 – 1946 July 31), a graduate of Bellevue Hospital Nursing School
• Ruth K. Moser (1945 Aug 1 – 1954 Feb 20)
• Kathryn Helm (1954 Feb 21 – 1959 March), a member of SLHSoN Class of 1926; Principal Chief Nurse at 128th Evacuation Hospital in World War II and landed in Normandy on D-Day +4. She served as Associate Director of Nursing at St. Luke's from 1947-1954.
• Evelyn Peck (1959 April – 1967 June); in 1959 the Nursing Service and School are separated and Peck becomes Director of Nursing School; in June 1967, Peck moved to an Associate Director position in the Hospital and later became Vice President for Hospital Administration.
• Frances Avella (1967 June – 1968 August)
• Ruth Elizabeth Dittmar (1968 Sept – 1974 April)

Appendix II: Full List of St. Luke's Alumni Bulletins

Processing and Description by:

Nancy Panella, PhD - Summer 2014

Revised and expanded by Michala Biondi - August 2018; February 2020