Phoebe Evans Letocha
September 28, 2013
Researchers from around the world contacted us this year seeking biographical information on nurses including Olive Berger, Louise Cavagnaro, Lavinia Dock, Caroline Hampton, Ellen LaMotte, Lucile Petry Leone, Adelaide Nutting, Dorothea Orem, Isabel Hampton Robb, Ellen Wood, and Lillian Wu. This year we continued to see use of the archival holdings by various nursing staff for histories of Psychiatric Nursing at Phipps and Ophthalmological Nursing at Wilmer.
New material has been added to the Johns Hopkins and Church Home nursing collections at the Archives this year from a variety of sources. Institutional records include material from Martha Hill and the Dean’s office, the flipbooks of class photos that had been on display at the School of Nursing, back issues of the Hopkins Nurse: A Newsletter of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and records from the Alumni Association and the Development office, particularly from Jackie Gray before she retired. Collections from individual alumni include a nursing cape from Anna Mary Stull Snyder (Class of 1945), materials from Eleanor Crawford (JHH 1945), Mildred E. “Bunny” Barnard (JHH 1950), materials used in the creation of the Class of 1962 memory book, including from Judith Bush Carlson, the Class of 1967 memory book, and student lecture notes from Martha Rabicoff Schlenger (JHU 1993, 1997). We received additions from the family of Louise Cavagnaro (JH Hon) to her collection. Church Home highlights from our accessions included materials from Anita Cabello Shauk (CHH 1942) and a nursing cap from Dorothy Twigg Grumbine (CHH 1938). The Archives continues to welcome additional donations to the Church Home and Johns Hopkins nursing collections.
Betty B. Scher, Class of 1950, continued volunteering at the Archives this year indexing nursing publications. Betty completed the index of all the articles and alumni news notes in the Johns Hopkins Nurses Alumnae Magazine from 1901 to 2003. Betty then turned her skills to indexing the articles in the School of Nursing’s newsletter, Nursing News, which was published from 1985-2002. Once she completes the publication description, she will move on to yet another indexing project.
The Medical Archives has continued to add new nursing content to its website (http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu), including a complete finding aid to the Alice Fitzgerald Collection.
Outreach activities this year included a presentation at the Fourth Annual Johns Hopkins and Church Home Alumni Spring Tea in May. Archives Director Nancy McCall and Material Culture Archivist Andrew Harrison coordinated the commission and presentation of Martha Hill’s portrait. The Medical Archives also continued its work on an exhibit on the history of the buildings on the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions campus, including those of the Hospital and School of Nursing.
In closing, let us thank all of the other members of the Alumni Association Archives Advisory Committee for their work this year, Lindsay Dorrance, Sue Culp, Lois Hoffer, Betty Scher, Phyllis Naumann, Deb Kennedy, and archivists Nancy McCall, Marjorie Kehoe, and Tim Wisniewski.