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Nursing School Students in WWI and Pandemic Era W W IABAA

Women Entering Nursing during the First World War and Influenza Pandemic Era: Album with 184 Photographs of Student Nurses Public Health and Early Aviation circa 1915 to 1920

1915réf. 174731915. Nursing student photograph album circa 1915 to 1920 documenting the training social life and professional formation of fourteen young women entering nursing during the First World War and the public health crises of the period. The album records a generation of women entering a rapidly expanding medical profession while wartime mobilization increased demand for trained nurses across the United States. Its chronology overlaps both with Wold War one smallpox and the 1918 influenza pandemic which reached the United States in 1918 and produced its deadliest wave during the fall of that year. Photo album of 184 silver gelatin photographs multiple sizes ranging from approximately 1.5 x 1 inches to 11 x 8 inches most approximately 4 x 2.5 inches United States circa 1915 to 1920. Many photos have handwritten captions. The photographs are mounted on black pages and center on a class of fourteen student nurses shown in uniform in formal group portraits and in clinical settings including operating rooms. One photograph shows the nurses posed behind a sign reading "Smallpox!" directly recording the infectious disease concerns incorporated into nursing education and public health practice. Other photographs show the women together in informal settings family members and children soldiers American towns and landscapes and early aviation. Several images appear to have been taken from or around a World War I era biplane including views above the clouds suggesting a personal connection to an early aviator. Locations extend across the United States including Michigan San Antonio Texas and mountainous regions of the American West. The album belongs to the period when nursing education was becoming increasingly standardized and the First World War transformed the scale and social role of professional nursing. Following U.S. entry into the war in April 1917 the Army Nurse Corps expanded rapidly while the American Red Cross mobilized thousands of nurses for military and civilian relief. The influenza pandemic then placed extraordinary pressure on hospitals and communities in 1918 and 1919 making the album's nursing training especially relevant to the public health environment in which these women were coming of age professionally. One photo displays the nurses behind a sign that states "Smallpox!" which was a a recurrent and deadly public health issue throughout the first half of the 20th century and pushed many to enter the nursing field. In 1918 Many photos are in San Antonio and at the time Texas public health officials were simultaneously managing smallpox outbreaks and the cataclysmic arrival of the 1918 H1N1 Spanish flu pandemic. While the terrifyingly rapid spread of the flu dominated headlines smallpox was an ongoing deeply entrenched threat across Texas counties By September 1918 the Spanish flu collided with these ongoing localized smallpox containment efforts. Cities like Dallas Houston San Antonio were completely overwhelmed. The combination of clinical instruction nursing class portraits close friendships family life military imagery of Navy officers Also includes early aviation biplane photographs of the era. This nurse seems to have been dating an early fighter pilot with a few photos taken above the clouds in a WWI-era biplane. Locations span the US from Michigan to Texas to a few photos which resemble the alpine regions of the American West. Overall in very good condition. The photo album documents the women within the broader social transformations experienced by young Americans during the First World War. Minor wear consistent with use; photographs show occasional toning and fading. Album with textured black covers black interior pages photographs adhered to the leaves and tight binding. Overall in very good condition. A concentrated visual record of women entering professional nursing amid wartime mobilization infectious disease concerns and the social changes of the 1910s and early 1920s. unknown books