FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

GR Nightingale’s most famous contribution occurred during the Crimean War. On October

21 of 1854, Nightingale and a staff she trained, were sent to care for wounded soldiers at
the Ottoman Empire. During her first winter serving as a nurse the death toll for soldiers
was at an all time high. After the arrival of Nightingale and her staff of 34 volunteer nurses,
there was a significant decline in the death rate of soldiers. Nightingale believed that the
majority of deaths came from poor nutrition, lack of supplies, stale air, and overworked
soldiers. When she returned home she collected data and evidence which she then
presented before the Royal Commission in hopes to resolve these issues. Her experience
while serving as a nurse during the war later influenced her career, as she became a strong
advocate for sanitary living conditions for soldiers. Nightingale gained the nickname “The
Lady with the Lamp” from her hard work and dedication. The Times wrote, “She is a
“ministering angel” without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form
glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow’s face softens with gratitude at the
sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and
darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone,
with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.”

In 1857, the Nightingale Fund was established to train nurses as a form of recognition for

Nightingale’s work during the war. Nightingale used the £45,000 from the fund to open
Nightingale Training School at St. Thomas’ Hospital. The school is now known as Florence
Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery. Nightingale died on August 13, 1910 at the
age of 90 years old.
CLARA BARTON

In her capacity as a nurse during the Civil War, Barton operated independently of all
government or private organizations. That independence meant she was often one of the
very first civilians on the field after most battles. In some instances, as at Antietam, she
actually arrived while the battle was going on. Her unrelenting drive to comfort the
afflicted caused her to write to her dear friend Mary Norton in the summer of 1862 that “I
only wish I could work to some purpose. I have no right to these easy comfortable days and
our poor men suffering and dying thirsting … My lot is too easy and I am sorry for it.”

Barton’s experiences in the Civil War and in Europe taught her the necessity of providing
nursing care and emotional support as well as supplies after natural disasters, and ensured
that the Red Cross was able to care for the health and well-being of the victims as well as
helping with food, clothing and shelter. Providing medical supplies and assisting with the
evacuation of the wounded became core services provided by the Red Cross.
LINDA RICHARDS

Linda Richards was America’s first trained nurse and went on to become one of the most
famous nurses in history by sharing her knowledge. She was a pioneer in starting many
nursing schools throughout the United States and one in Japan.

Following her graduation, Richards became a night supervisor at Bellevue Hospital in New
York. While there, she devised a charting system that eventually was used throughout the
United States and Great Britain. In 1874, she returned to Boston and became the
superintendent of the Boston Training School for Nurses. She improved their program but
felt that she needed more education, so she went to England for an additional seven
months of training. While there, she met with Florence Nightingale and visited several
prestigious hospitals as well./

After returning to the United States, Richards was a pioneer in establishing nursing schools
throughout the country. In 1885, she traveled to Japan where she helped start their first
nurses’ training school. She stayed as supervisor at Doshisha Hospital in Kyoto before
returning to America in 1890. She continued to work for an additional 20 years,
establishing nursing schools and helping with institutions for the mentally ill, before
retiring in 1911.
MARY MAHONEY

Mary Mahoney left a legacy that is just as vital today as it was when she was alive. She
fought not only for women of color but also for educational and professional rights for all
minorities. The numerous awards and honors in her name testify to this fact. In 1936, the
National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses created the prestigious Mary Mahoney
Award to honor those who advanced the welfare of minority groups in nursing. When the
NACGN merged with the American Nurse’s Association (ANA) in 1951, the ANA chose to
continue the award. There is also a Mary Mahoney Medal given annually for excellence in
nursing. In 1976, she was chosen to be in the Nursing Hall of Fame and in 1993, the
National Women’s Hall of Fame.

In 1896, Mahoney joined the newly formed and primarily white Nurses Associated
Alumnae of the United States and Canada, later known as the American Nurses Association
(ANA). Because of their slowness in accepting black members, she helped form the National
Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) and spoke at their first convention in
1909. At that time, she addressed the inequalities for African-Americans in nursing
education and asked for a demonstration at the New England Hospital. The convention
wholeheartedly supported her, elected her chaplain and gave her a lifetime membership.
For many years, she worked to recruit minority nurses to join the organization. Largely
because of her efforts, the number of African-American nurses doubled from 1910 to 1930.
LILIAN WARD

The miserable living conditions of the immigrants affected Lillian so deeply that she moved
to their neighborhood and set up an office to treat their medical needs, becoming the first
public health nurse. As she gained the confidence of the people and managed to obtain
financial support, her staff increased to four nurses. Needing more space, she moved the
office to 265 Henry Street in 1895 where it still is in operation today as Henry Street
Settlement.

By 1906, the staff of Henry Street Settlement grew to 27, and by 1913, there were 92
nurses and other staff members. Lillian called their work public health nursing, and they
not only addressed medical needs but also taught basic sanitation, cooking and sewing. She
saw the need for public school nursing, and her ideas and recommendations prompted the
New York Board of Health to organize the first public health nursing service in the world,
the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. She also convinced Metropolitan Life Insurance
Company to provide nursing insurance, and other insurance companies followed its lead.

Wald reached out to the community in numerous ways. She saw a need for a recreational
and cultural center and opened the Henry Street Neighborhood Playhouse in 1915. She
became active in the labor movement and helped start the Women’s Trade Union League in
1903. Always concerned about the treatment of African-Americans, she was one of the
founders of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Their
first public meeting was held at the Henry Street Settlement.

Wald’s involvement in international humanitarian issues was heightened by a six-month

trip to various counties in 1910. In 1914, her belief in women’s suffrage and peace led her
to protest the United States’ entrance into World War I. She joined the Women’s Peace
Party and helped organize the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

LAVINIA DOCK

Despite objections from other nurses who believed nurses should not be
involved politically, Dock organized and engaged in picketing and
protesting on behalf of the vote for women in the United States, organizing
protests and campaigns for suffrage; she was arrested at least 3 times for
attempting to vote.

Devoted to a wide range of issues in addition to women’s suffrage, including

better housing for immigrants, safe working conditions, state and national
legislation to regulate child labor, pensions and health insurance.
Worked tirelessly for better standards and practices for nursing education; she
wrote, financed and published Materia Medica for Nurses, a nursing textbook
of pharmacology.
Served as a visiting nurse with the House on Henry Street in New York City,
contributing to standards for public health nursing world-wide
MARGARET HIGGINS SANGER

Margaret resumed her nursing career by working as a visiting nurse in some of the poorest
areas of New York where she helped deliver babies and nursed new mothers back to
health. She saw the heartbreak caused by unwanted pregnancies and botched abortions.
The women desperately wanted contraceptive advice but were unable to get it because the
law prohibited contraception. Finally, when a woman died in childbirth after begging for birth
control advice, Sanger decided she had to do something to help women improve their lives
through birth control. Sanger had found her calling and began her lifelong mission. For a
year, she studied everything she could find about birth control and even traveled to Europe
to study family planning. In 1914, she felt that she was prepared to take action. Her plan for
action had three parts. First was education of the public. She started her own
magazine, Woman Rebel, that contained articles on birth control and related subjects. This
created many enemies, including the Catholic Church, politicians and women’s suffrage
groups who thought she should be working for the right to vote rather than family planning.

The 1920s and 1930s were years of great change for Sanger in both her personal and
political life. She and her husband divorced, and she remarried. Her daughter died
suddenly, and her two sons left home to attend college. Perhaps because of all these
changes, she intensified her fight against birth control opponents. She lobbied legislators
and the American Medical Association (AMA), and in 1936, her efforts were successful. The
Supreme Court reversed the Comstock Law that made the mailing of birth control
information illegal, and the AMA ruled that doctors could give birth control information and
devices to their patients. Knowing that birth control was finally legal was a great victory for
Sanger.
Margaret Sanger changed the world for millions of women by ensuring them reproductive
freedom. While the Planned Parenthood Federation still is a controversial issue today,
Sanger dedicated her life to what she believed was right. She never deviated from her
purpose until she effected change. She is one of the most well-known and famous nurses in
history.
MARY BRECKINRIDGE

Her first nursing efforts were directed toward the care of victims of the 1918 influenza
epidemic in the slums of Washington, D.C. The following year she joined the American
Committee for Devastated France and organized a visiting nurse program in France. The
program was so successful that two years later her nurses and midwives were caring for
children and pregnant women throughout France. When Breckinridge returned to the United
States in 1921, she found that there were no schools of midwifery and planned to start one.
She studied public health nursing at Columbia University in New York and later took a
public health survey in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. She found that the women
who delivered babies were mostly illiterate and none were trained in nursing. There were no
physicians in an area that had one of the highest birth rates in the country but also the
highest rate of infant mortality.

Mary Carson Breckinridge devoted her life to creating a legacy much larger than herself.
Many lives in rural America were saved because of her dedication and vision. During her
time with the Frontier Nursing Service, over 50,000 people were treated, over one quarter
million vaccines were given and the rate of maternal and infant mortality decreased
dramatically. She deserves to be included as one of the most famous nurses in history.

As the program grew in stature, it received large donations that allowed it to build a small
hospital, hire a medical director and establish a number of outpost centers. In the 40s when
it became too expensive to send nurses to England to be trained, the Frontier School of
Midwifery and Family Nursing was opened, the first of its kind in America.