Pace University Re… · Web viewcalled the Town and Country Nursing Service. The Town and Country, which began in 1912, helped rural communities organize their nursing services

Historic Red Hook Sandra B. Lewenson

Sunday, January 31 @ 3pm at Northern Dutchess Hospital, Rhinebeck, NY

Public Health Care Comes to Red Hook and Rhinebeck

Sandra B. Lewenson, EdD, RN, FAAN

(Opening slide of Red Cross volunteers) I want to thank

Historic Red Hook, Rhinebeck Historical Society, Northern Dutchess Hospital, and the

Thomas Thompson Trust for inviting me today to share my work on public health nursing

in this area during the early twentieth century. My journey here today started with my

discovery of the Red Hook Nursing Association – an association that brought public

health nursing into the Town of Red Hook by 1916. At that time community leaders, two

of whom I will speak about today, sought affiliation with the American Red Cross’s

efforts to provide rural communities - especially during peacetime- access to health care.

It’s a story that explores the intersection of community activism, public health,

philanthropy, a nascent nursing profession, and national interests. It’s a story that

resonates with many of us who care about the community in which we live and the

context in which shapes a broad primary health care response to the needs of that

community.

INTRODUCTION (Slide of Volunteer Nurses at Chapman’s house)

“Our doctors cannot be our nurses,” wrote Margaret Chanler Aldrich in her Letter to

the Tivoli Times published on April 6, 1916. Aldrich implored her neighbors to join

in a community wide effort to start a rural public health nursing association. (# 3

Town & Country Nurse) She along with others in the community, like Mary Gerard

Lewis, organized this effort to affiliate with the American Red Cross’ new venture -

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called the Town and Country Nursing Service. The Town and Country, which began

in 1912, helped rural communities organize their nursing services - offering them

advice and support about structure, hiring of a trained Red Cross nurse educated in

rural public health, and raising sufficient funds to hire such a nurse.

In this presentation, I will speak about two local women - Margaret Chanler

Aldrich and Mary Gerard Lewis, and their efforts to organize the Red Hook Nursing

Association in 1916. Their work in organizing the town, collaborating with various

stakeholders, raising funds, and communicating with national organizations and

media outlets resonates for me when studying nursing’s historical public health

initiatives. Understanding the links between activists at a local level and the

nursing profession – can inform today’s primary health care efforts that require

collaboration, advocacy, and intersectoral relationships.

SOME BACKGROUND

(# 4 Woman Suffrage march) The relationship between nursing and

women during the late 19th and early 20th century is of interest (to me). My own

dissertation completed in 1989 lead me to examine nursing’s earlier relationship

with women’s groups – specifically related to woman suffrage. The earlier struggle

of the American Nurses Association (ANA) efforts to establish an Army Nurse Corps

found strong allies among the women activists from wealthy and often politically

connected backgrounds (Armeny, 1983). (# 5 photo of Aldrich Chanler in news)

These early collaborative efforts grew as a result of experiences that many women,

like Margaret Chanler Aldrich had while serving in the Red Cross – specifically in

this case -as a member of the New York Auxiliary 3.

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The alliance between the philanthropic women and nursing continued in

peacetime as the American Red Cross began an experiment in providing a (# 6

Town & Country) Rural Nursing Service (later called the Town and Country) to

communities throughout the United States. The brainchild of public health nursing

leader, Lillian Wald, the Town and Country received funding from philanthropists

Elizabeth Mills Reid – “Mrs. Reid Whitelaw” who, along with Jacob H. Schiff, donated

money to establish this peacetime nursing service.1 The Committee on Rural Nursing

began in December 1911. Its members consisted of socially minded activists –

philanthropists including Mabel Boardman who served as chair, Elizabeth Mills

Reid, Mrs. William Draper, John M. Glenn, and Wickliffe Rose (educator and

executive secretary of the Rockefeller Sanitary Commission); nursing leaders, Jane

Delano (Vice-Chair), Lillian Wald, and Annie Goodrich; and physicians, Dr. Winford

Smith and Surgeon J. W. Schereschewsky (from the Public Health Service). By

February 1912, a subcommittee, made up of only nurses Jane Delano, Annie

Goodrich, Lillian Wald and Fannie Clement, established the standards for rural

nursing practice and education (Dock, et. al., 1922, p 1216). Clement was appointed

Superintendent and used her position to support communities interested in this

new service.

The Red Hook District Nursing Service and the ARC Town and Country

I first “met” Margaret Chanler Aldrich and Mary Gerard Lewis in (# 7 Slide of

Red Hook Box in library) while reading a two-year correspondence between Mary

1 She, along with Lena Potter Cowdin (“daughter of a Bishop Potter and wife of a textile manufacturer” Armeny, 1981, p. 20), and Anna Roosevelt Cowles, sister of Theodore Roosevelt, supported professional nursing’s effort to use graduate trained nurses during the Spanish American War.

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Gerard Lewis who was the Corresponding Secretary of the Red Hook Nurses Association

Nursing Committee, with Fannie F. Clement, the Superintendent of the Town and

Country. The letters archived at the Adriance Memorial Library in Poughkeepsie,

provide only one side of the story – where Clement writes to Lewis (I did not find any of

the letters Lewis wrote to Clement). (# 8 Slide of Historic Red Hook) Other

documentation included local newspaper clippings that gave accounts of the community’s

effort to affiliate with the American Red Cross. And, a trip to Historic Red Hook,

provided some of the local data about Lewis and Chanler Aldrich.

Description of the Red Hook Community. [# 9 show map]

In 1915 the town of Red Hook included two villages (Red Hook and Tivoli) and

three hamlets (Barrytown, Annandale and Upper Red Hook) – Red Hook is located in

the northwest part of Dutchess County that lies 85 miles north of the New York City

metropolitan area (j five homes realty, 2010). Rhinebeck is one of the neighboring

villages adjacent to Red Hook. In 1910 the population in Red Hook was about 3,705

(Zimm et.al., 1946, p. 355). During the early twentieth century, the population

surrounding Red Hook included wealthy, landowners, many of whom built large estates

along the Hudson River that bordered this town. (# 10 Slide of Rokeby) The estate in the

photo is Rokeby in Barrytown where Margaret Chanler Aldrich was raised and continued

to live even after her marriage. Her estate and others like them usually over 300-400

acres provided a source of employment for others living in the community. O’Neill Carr

(2001) wrote that “many of the estate owners, following the tradition of their class in the

19th and early 20th centuries, sought to ‘improve’ the lives of their workers, and the

surrounding community…” (p. 45). (# 9 photo of farm)The rest of Red Hook’s

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population and its environs included farmers, and tenants of those farms who worked the

land for their livelihood. Others worked in the county’s industries that included the

tobacco, cocoa, violet growing and other seasonal type industries like fishing and apple

farming (Allen, 1925, State Charities Aid Association, 1915).

Community Effort to Establish the Red Hook Nursing Service

(# 12 Slide from survey) Red Hook’s action to establish the rural nursing service

was influenced by a 1915 door-to-door health care survey that was funded by the Thomas

Thompson Trust and the State Charities Aid Association. This survey was designed to

systematically identify the county’s health care needs and was considered to be the first

of its kind. Chanler Aldrich was one of the members of the county committee that used

this data to establish the nursing service in Red Hook. (At this point, I’d like to take a

moment to introduce background about the Thomas Thompson Trust and it’s influence

on rural public health nursing and specifically the Red Hook Nursing Association.)

The Thomas Thompson Trust & Evidence to Determine Community Health Needs

(# 13 Slide of Thompson House) Thomas Thompson established a trust in 1899 in

honor of his wife to help “seamstresses, needlewomen, and shopgirls” in the town of

Rhinebeck (as well as to Brattleboro in Vermont) (Wetzel and Tremper, 1940, p. 40). By

1903 the fund had opened a facility called the Thompson House, which served as a

“nursing headquarters and as a home for indigent sewing women” (State Charities Aid

Association, 1915, p. 5 – Section I FOREWORD). The Thompson Trust was interested in

expanding its facility and based its new goals on an earlier report by Miss M. E.

McCalmont, a “hospital expert”, who advocated that a hospital of a small size be

established with the understanding that “as the work should be largely educative, as much

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nursing as possible to be done in the homes, a minimum in the hospital” (State Charities

Aid Association, 1915, p. 5). McCalmont recommended that a visiting nurse center be

established where the nurses spent the morning addressing emergencies and obstetrical

cases and the afternoons they would visit homes and schools where they would offer

community health teaching.

(# 14 Repeat Slide of the Survey) The Thompson Trust collaborated with the State

Charities Aid Association’s Committee on Hospitals to embark on the 1915 door-to-door

survey. The survey lasted a year and half between 1912 and the early part of 1913.

Families in five districts within Dutchess County including – Rhinebeck, Poughkeepsie,

Amenia, and Beacon were queried about health and illness and the adequacy of the care

they received. This door-to-door inquiry was considered to be “the first systematic

attempt to secure direct and detailed information concerning sickness in the home” (State

Aids Association, 1915, p. 8). Nursing services along with medical care was examined

from the point of what existed, what the community health needs were, and what could

be offered by additional community based health care services. Published in 1915 titled,

“Sickness in Dutchess County, New York: Its extent, Care and Prevention” this report

highlighted the health care needs of the various districts within this northern New York

State county. The findings showed that over “1,600 cases of serious illness” were found

in the five districts evaluated (State Charities Aid Association, 1915, p. 3), and how this

caused adults to miss work and children to miss days at school. As a result of illness, an

overall cost to the community for loss of these services (both adult and children) was

roughly estimated at $412.000. Based on these findings, it was believed that public

health nurses could improve these outcomes– the report noted that “of the 1,600 patients

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whose care has been analyzed in this report, 72% (1,158 patients) could have been cared

for adequately in their homes had there been available medical and nursing service”

(State Charities Aid Association, 1915, p. 3). (Slide # 15 of Recommendation for

visiting nurse – p. 93 of Sickness survey).

The data from this report was used by community leaders, like Margaret Aldrich

Chanler to convince others of the need for a public health nurse in Red Hook. She wrote

in the local newspaper (The Tivoli Times) (# 16 news clip) of the appalling health care

conditions found published within Dutchess County the need for each resident to

subscribe at least one dollar a year to hire a Red Cross nurse. She wrote “Unless

everyone takes part… by fighting disease, and by keeping an expert on the spot, Dutchess

county will lag behind…” (Aldrich, 1916, April 6, 1916). She called for nurses to be

hired in the community writing, “Our doctors cannot be our nurses” (Aldrich, 1916, April

6, 1916). Aldrich (1916) and hoped for an “immediate demand for the Red Cross

Rural Nurse” (1916, n. p.)

What the Correspondence Showed

– (# 17 Slide: COMMUNITY ACTION of Dec. 17th letter & Jacob Schiff)

Community action. On December 17, 1915 Fannie F. Clement wrote to Mary

Gerard Lewis, acknowledging her earlier letter sent to Jacob H. Schiff, philanthropist and

on the board of the American Red Cross (ARC), where she inquired about the new rural

public health nursing service called the Town and Country (Clement to Lewis, 1915

December 15). Schiff had forwarded Lewis’s request for information to Clement,

assuring Lewis that Clement would send both the application and a questionnaire for her

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to complete in order to place the appropriate public health nurse in her town. (# 18 Slide

of Fannie F. Clement) In her letter, Clement thanked Lewis for offering her home to

the Red Cross nurse to live as well as, “in starting what would be a Community Center or

a Neighborhood House for the surrounding county” (Clement to Lewis, December 15,

1915). One month later Clement expands on this idea writing that now the Red Cross

advocates the establishment of “Red Cross Stations which will merge the development of

health centre [sic] idea and in conjunction with it various activities of the work of the

American Red Cross” (Clement to Lewis, January 4, 1916). Clement suggested that the

public health nurse would be housed in this center as well as a room for First Aid Work

and classes in Home Care of the Sick.

Fannie Clement was a 1903 graduate of Smith College and later graduated from

Boston City Hospital School of Nursing. In her role as the Superintendent of the

American Red Cross Town and Country, she transmitted the professional ideas about

public health nursing - the art and science - to the lay public – and to Red Hook in

particular.

(# 19 volunteers ) Although little is know about the background of Clement, even

less is known about the background of Mary Gerard Lewis. She was born on September

28th, 1858 and died on May 4, 1932 at the age of 73 (Death Certificate of Mary Gerard

Lewis). According to her death certificate, her occupation was listed as “housewife”, she

was single, and had lived in Red Hook for 45 years. Her parents were Charles Lewis and

Harriet Gerard.

In 1932 two local papers, described Lewis as:

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“… the first person in the vicinity to be interested in a Nursing Association for

Red Hook and credit is due her for Red Hook now having a town nurse in connection

with the association” (Historic Red Hook about Mary Gerard Lewis, n. p.). Her long

time commitment to nursing was seen through her role as the secretary of the Red Hook

Nursing Committee as well as her legacy she hoped to leave to nursing. In her will, she

asked that her cousins would let the house they would inherit from her, be used as the

home and headquarters of the Red Hook Nursing Association. She also left the bulk of

her estate to six friends – including Margaret Chanler Aldrich (Poughkeepsee Eagle

News, October 18, 1932). It’s not clear to me whether her cousins (heirs of John Lewis)

actually gave the house to the Red Hook Nursing Association – as few records existed of

this organization as well as few memories, if any, were left in Red Hook. (# 20 Maybe

slide of nursing house – could be Mary Gerard Lewis’s?) Patsy, one of the volunteers

at Historic Red Hook, researched the lineage of Mary Gerard and located Lewis’s

tombstone at the Red Hook Lutheran cemetery. (SLIDE # 21 of TOMBSTONE) and

had to clean off the small, flat stone in order to find it. A newspaper account noted, “Miss

Lewis was the last surviving member of her family and left no close relatives” (Historic

Red Hook, Local Red Hook Paper, May 6, 1932, n.p.). The newspaper also recalled that

Lewis befriended cats and her house in Annandale was a “veritable hospital” (Historic

Red Hook, Local Red Hook Paper, May 6, 1932, n.p.).

Mary Gerard Lewis had a cousin – a Mary Elizabeth Lewis 2who became a public

health nurse following nurses’ training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School,

2 Mary Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry Lewis who was noted as the “cousin” of Mary Gerard Lewis in my notes from Historic Red Hook. She is also listed as a sister of Jane Nelson Lewis who traveled as an educator to China and I have a copy of her correspondence to Mary Gerard dated January 10, 1926- also in the documents from Historic Red Hook.)

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graduating in 1916. She volunteered in the US Army Nurse Corps during WWI and

when she returned home she worked at the Red Hook Nursing Association until 1920

when she became a “field representative and supervisor for the American Red Cross in

Washington, DC.”

Margaret Livingston Chanler Aldrich

(Slide # 22 of Chanler & Bouligny) Better known than Lewis, Margaret

Livingston Chanler Aldrich received national recognition and public acclaim for her

volunteer activities with the Red Cross (One of the War Nurses, January 13, 1899). The

account of her sailing off to Ponce, Porto Rico with Anna Bouligny to establish a hospital

for nurses seemed legendary in the newspapers of the time. The account leading up to

her receiving a Congressional Gold Medal is as follows:

Entire charge of the nursing was soon in their hands. Miss Chanler hired a house

for use as a hospital. It was too small and she hired a larger one, to which she

afterward added another. Misses Chanler and Boullgny [sic]remained until Sept.

7, caring for officers and men with no assistance except that of untrained sol-

diers and Porto Rican servants. Trained nurses arrived on Sept. 7, and the

hospitals turned over to them, Miss Chanler providing means for continuing the

rental and running expenses. (One of the War Nurses, January 13, 1899)

Chanler Aldrich (1870- 1963) spoke Spanish and served as an interpreter for the Red

Cross in Puerto Rico as she established the hospital there for nurses to practice. She had

a long history of supporting the Red Cross, specifically nursing’s effort to standardize

practice and raise the level of education for that practice. In an e-mail communication

with me, Wint Aldrich recounts hearing about his grandmother, noting she

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“ -- was a lifelong resident of the town and had been inspired to take an interest in

nursing by her great-aunt, Julia Ward Howe, who was active in the Sanitary Commission

during the Civil War (and became a vocal opponent of war in the later years of her life).

As a young woman Margaret Chanler worked with Clara Barton and operated a field

hospital in Puerto Rico for the Army during the Spanish-American War; later she helped

pass the bill creating the Women's Army Nursing Corps” (personal communication in

email dated January 27, 2015).

Chanler Aldrich’s interest in the health care needs of others, whether during war

or peacetime, resonated with her work in her local community of Red Hook as well in

work in New York City (which she refers to in her memoir). She actively pursued the

start of Red Hook’s rural nursing initiative - perhaps as a result of her work and

proximity (or friendships) she established with other laywomen and professionals when

lobbying for an Army Nurse Corps. Chanler-Aldrich (1958) writes in her memoirs that

she was “asked to take on the chairmanship of a nation-wide movement to establish an

Army Nurse Corps. This appointment on a strictly non-partisan basis gave me my own

footing in Congress from which to work for the measure” (Chanler Aldrich, 1958, p.

122).

(#23 Slide of her and her family)

Even before she married, Margaret Chanler’s family and friends included wide

array of political figures. Her father held a political position in New York and her eldest

brother William was later elected to Congress. Aldrich Chanler moved with him to

Washington where they entertained congressman, senators, and notables, including

Theodore Roosevelt and their aunt, Julia Ward Howe.

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(Slide # 24 of 1903 photo of Chanler Aldrich) Chanler Aldrich’s Red Cross

experiences in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Japan, and later in Washington informed her work in

Red Hook. She acknowledged the value an educated rural public health nurse would

bring to the community and she participated in the collaboration and coalition building

efforts to accomplish this goal.

Collaboration and coalition building. The citizens of Red Hook recognized that a

concerted community effort was needed to bring public health nursing into their

community. (Slide # 25 of Tivoli Times) On February 11, 1916, the Tivoli Times

published an article explaining the plan to start a nursing service and inviting the whole

community to attend the planning meeting. The article stressed community support for

this venture stating that, "If this project is to succeed, the public must co-operate"(Tivoli

Times, February 11,1916, np). The nursing association would be responsible to care for

those chronically ill in their community, as well as provide access to health care in a local

dispensary. (Minutes of the Red Hook Nursing Association, April 4, 1916).

(# 26 Slide of handwritten minutes)The nursing committee met monthly on

every first Tuesday of the month to discuss the plans to establish a Red Hook Nursing

Association. Names listed in the meeting minutes included men and women from a

variety of professions that committed, time, energy, and money to support this venture.

(# 27 Slide of Margaret Chanler Aldrich) Margaret Chanler Aldrich along with other

community leaders Dr. C. A. Prichard (identified as the president of this committee), Mr.

O. D. Lewis, Rev. J. Parks, and Mary Gerard Lewis (Red Hook Nursing Association

Minutes, May 2, 1916) served in one capacity or another.

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(# 28: I hearby subscribe) The Red Cross required each town to pay the salary for

the rural public health nurse. To raise funds, all families in the Red Hook Township

would be given an “opportunity to subscribe” to the “R. H. N. A.’” (Minutes of the Red

Hook Nursing Association, April 4, 1916). Families could buy subscriptions (usually

one or two dollars) that gave them a membership to the services of the Red Hook Nursing

Association and supported the hiring of the public health nurse. The town held fund

raising events, including “bag sales,” “a strawberry festival,” “camp fire girl’s bake sale”

(Red Hook Nursing Association minutes, undated and unpaginated page in the brown

minutes book).( # 29 Slide of Rokeby fundraising sign) “Fetes” like the one given by

Chanler Aldrich on May 27, 1916 on her estate, Rokeby, raised over $300 (Red Hook

Association, Minutes of Meeting in Annandale, June 2, 1916).

(# 30 T & C Red Cross nurse) Aside from fundraising events, the nursing

committee organized town meetings to learn about the rural red cross nursing service and

what nurses could do for their community. At one such meeting, the town met a Town &

Country nurse – Esther Harrison - from Purchase in nearby Westchester County to speak

about the work of the Red Cross. Harrison spoke to the community about her

experiences in nursing. (# 31 Slide of Motion Picture) She showed the “moving picture

film” that had been developed by the ARC to illustrate the work of the rural public health

nurses (Clement, January 4, 1916). (Tivoli Times, March 3, 1916).

By the fall of 1916, the nursing committee had completed the necessary

paperwork (#32 Slide of Affiliation paperwork) to affiliate with the Red Cross and

agreed to the Red Cross’s stipulation that would assure the hiring of a permanent visiting

nurse to a rural community. For example, both salary and housing had to be arranged so

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as to attract and retain a Town & Country nurse. Clement (1916, January 4) informed the

committee that they would need to guarantee at least six month salary and at least three

months had to be deposited in the bank. In addition, a central location for the nurses’

residence was important so that the nurse be “within easy access to the greatest number

of families.” (# 33 Slide of nurse and horse & buggy) Aside from location, the nursing

committee also had to consider the best kind of transportation the visiting nurse would

need that would give her the most access. Clement (1916, April 12) wrote, “Your nurse, I

am sure, will need a horse and buggy to visit her cases or else a horse, and then it will not

make such a great deal of difference as to where she is located.” The Red Hook

community eventually collected enough funds and by the fall of 1916 they hired the

Town and Country nurse, Margaret E. Ruba as their rural public health nurse (District

Nurse Now Engaged, n.d.). (# 34 Slide of Announcement in AJN).

(# 35 Slide of PHN from Dutchess County ) Health care outcomes. Ruba stayed

in Red Hook for one year. Within that time, Ruba had made a total of 131 home visits

and 16 health related talks to a variety of schools, organizations, and businesses (A Large

Field for Our Red Cross Nurses’ Work, December 8, 1916). Her success led the town to

consider hiring an additional rural nurse as well as participate more fully in the Red Cross

nursing service. (# 36 Slide of Red Hook ARC WWI nurses)3 The war in Europe by

this time had led several health care providers, nurses and physician’s alike, to leave their

communities and serve in the war effort. The necessity for a healthy population became

even more apparent as the need for more public health nurses at home were needed.

Volunteerism in the community continued – as did the work of Mary Gerard Lewis and

3 (she was followed by another nurse – and by 1918 until about 1920, Mary Elizabeth Gerard – Miss Mary Gerard Lewis’s cousin and Johns Hopkins Graduate – joined the RHNA).

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Margaret Chanler Aldrich.

Conclusion

(Slide of Chanler Aldrich) Margaret Chanler Aldrich and Mary Gerard

Lewis’s relationship with nursing can be seen within the context of their work in

establishing the Red Hook Nursing Association in Northern Dutchess County. The

town used the findings from the Thompson Trust’s door-to-door survey, rallied the

community to collaborate, raise funds, and affiliate with the nursing’s - American

Red Cross Town & Country - I believe that understanding the history of Red Hook

Nursing Association and the Town and Country provides us with important lessons in

primary health care as communities and health care professionals – nursing – in this case

support each other in achieving its goals.

Thank you.

Open for Questions:

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Read, C. S. (1916, January 31). Letter from Caroline R. Read to Miss Mary Gerard Lewis. Red

Hook Nursing Association Records, Box 362.104 R. Adriance Memorial Library,

Poughkeepsie, NY.

Red Hook Association, “Minutes of Meeting in Annandale” dated June 2, 1916, Box 362.104 R

Box Red Hook Nursing Association, Scrapbook, 1916-1917. Adriance Memorial Library,



O’Neill Carr, C. (2001). A brief history of Red Hook: The living past of a Hudson Valley

community. New York, NY: Wise Family Trust.

State Charities Aid Association. (1915). Sickness in Dutchess County, New York: Its extent, care,

and prevention (Book No. No. 136) (pp. 1–119). New York, New York: State Charities

Aid Association. Retrieved from https://babel.hathitrust.org/shcgi/pt?

id=mdp.39015068561045;view=1up;seq=1

19

https://babel.hathitrust.org/shcgi/pt?id=mdp.39015068561045;view=1up;seq=1







Tivoli Times (February 11, 1916) The Red Cross Rural Nursing Service, n.p. Located in

Adriance Memorial Library, Poughkeepsie, New York, Box 362.104 R Box Red Hook

Nursing Association, Scrapbook, 1916-1917. (Worldcat database,


%20hook%20n%20y/)

Tivoli Times (March 3, 1916) Address delivered at Red Cross Meeting. Located in Adriance

Memorial Library, Poughkeepsie, New York, Box 362.104 R Box Red Hook Nursing

Association, Scrapbook, 1916-1917. (Worldcat database,


%20hook%20n%20y/)

Wald, L.D. (1913). Address by the president of the National Organization for Public Health

Nursing. American Journal of Nursing, 13(12), 924-926.

Wald, L. D. (1915). The house on Henry Street. New York, New York: Henry Holt and

Company.

Wald, L. D. (1921). Address at the Red Cross Convention, Columbus Ohio, October 6, 1921.

The Henry Street Nurse, 2(10-11), 1–5. New York Public Library, Lillian Wald Papers,

Reel 25.

Waters, Y. (1912). Visiting nurses in the United States, 2nd ed., p. 224-225.New York, New

York: Charities Publications Committee.

Weber, J. J. (1917). A county at work at its health problems: A statement of accomplishment by

the Dutchess County Health Association during the sixteen months August 1916 to

December 1917 inc. New York, NY: State Charities Aid Association. Retrieved from


20







Zimm, L. H., Corning, R. A. E., Emsley, J. W., & Jewell, W. C. (1946). Southeaster New York:

A History of counties of Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, and Putnam (Vols. 1-3,

Vol. I ). New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company.

What does this mean for nursing now?

Armeny’s (1981) argues that the relationship between nursing and the

philanthropic society women of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

21


resided more in “Sanitary ideals” rather than social feminism or bureaucratic

thought (p. 17). She supports her ideas with the example of nursing’s success in

advocating the Army Nurse Corp in 1899 – where laywomen spoke and supported –

in alliance with professional nursing (the first two professional nursing

organizations had just formed) – lobbied for this bill. Margaret Chanler, identified

by Susan Armeny in her opening paragraph in 1981, was one of those “laywomen”

who was allied with nursing at the time.

Although I had read Armeny’s work when I was working on my own doctoral thesis

in 1989, it was not until I began work on the Red Hook Nursing Association and the

Affiliation with the American Red Cross Town and Country did I recognize who

Aldrich was, her outspoken response to health care in the community, and her

activism that coincided with nursing’s effort (via the American Red Cross) to bring

public health nursing to rural communities. Aldrich was a member of the “leisure

class” that supported nursing’s efforts. And while Armeny explains nursing during

WWI still received support from women in this class, they also received political

support from others – including “militant suffragists” as well. Nursing also sought to

align their political support with physicians and other professionals.

Margaret Chanler Aldrich:

Born in October of 1870 (no date given in her memoirs) – dies in 1963.

Active suffragist –

22


Newspaper accounts of Margaret and her sister, Elizabeth, speaking in

Albany about suffrage:

Jun 1, 1894; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York Times pg. 2 (I’ve downloaded this article.)

Photo caption:

“Miss Margaret Chanler does so much more that the usual young woman whose

family and personnel shares (?) give her that right to claim every pleasure of the

social world. She went with the Red Cross Society to St. Petersburg; has been

associated with Clara Barton in her work; will be ______________for her philanthropic

work in Pekin (?) and started the hospitals for soldiers in the Philippines. She is the

sister of Mr. William Astor Chanler.”(Margaret Chanler, 1903, New York Public

Library).

References

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Armeny, Susan (1983). Organized nurses, woman philanthropists and the

intellectual bases for cooperation among women, 1898-1920, pp. 13-45. In E. C.

Lagemann, Ed., Nursing history: New perspectives, new possibilities. New York:

Teachers College Press.

Chanler (1903, January) The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and

Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. Margaret Livingston

Chanler. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47de-7e1b-

a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

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Documents

Pace University Re… · Web viewcalled the Town and Country Nursing Service. The Town and Country, which began in 1912, helped rural communities organize their nursing services