Windows in Time 2007
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Windows in Time A Newsletter from The Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry Volume 15, Issue 1, 2007 May 2007 A GLIMPSE INTO THE THE CENTER FOR ORA LINE ECHTMANN OLLECTION NURSING HISTORICAL D C F C : INQUIRY STAFF NAVY NURSING IN THE SOUTH SEAS __________________ This collection is a well rounded representation of the experiences of a Arlene Keeling RN PhD nurse in the Navy Nurse Corps serving in the South Seas during World Director War II. The collection contains four scrapbooks of photographs, postcards, [email protected] and correspondence documenting Dora Cline’s training in 1942 at Barbara Brodie RN PhD FAAN Bethesda National Naval Medical Center in Maryland, and concludes with Associate Director the end of her military nursing service in Base Hospital No. 2 in New [email protected] Hebrides, New Zealand in 1944. John Kirchgessner RN PNP PhD Assistant Director Dora Cline was born in 1913 on a farm near Broadway, Virginia. She [email protected] graduated from high school in 1933. Family illnesses in her large family and the influence of two nurses in her childhood inspired her to pursue a Linda Hanson MSM career in nursing. She was trained at Rockingham County Memorial Administrative Assistant [email protected] Hospital Nurses Training School in 1934 and worked for two and a half years as a neuro-psychiatric nurse at a Veterans Hospital and later, as a Maureen Spokes MLS public health nurse for the state of Virginia. She joined the Navy Nurse Archivist Corps in 1942. After seven weeks of military training at Bethesda National [email protected] Naval Medical Center in Maryland, she was stationed at National Naval Aurelie Knapik RN MSN Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland in 1942 and then immediately sent Volunteer Archival Assistant to the South Seas in the Pacific. She served briefly as a nurse at the U. S. Navy Mobile Hospital No. 4 in New Zealand, and then at Base Hospital EDITORIAL STAFF No. 2 in Efate, New Hebrides. Barbara Brodie, Editor Linda Hanson, Assistant Editor One excerpt from Dora’s scrapbook provides a glimpse into the contrasts BRODIE FELLOWS she experienced during her South Seas tour: Joy Buck, RN PhD 2007-2009 Mobile Hospital No. 4 was built in a cricket field fenced Sonya Grypma RN PhD in by a thicket hedge, and 2006-2008 while making rounds one night, I was amused to find CONTACT INFORMATION that the corpsmen and some Center Phone: (434) 924-0083 sleepless patients were being [email protected] entertained by a confiscated little porcupine rolled up on Center Website: the nurse’s desk. www.nursing.virginia.edu/ centers/cnhi While in the process of CNHI Dora Cline Fechtmann Collection (Continued from page 1) being transferred to Base Hospital No. 2 on Efate in the New Hebrides, I enjoyed a fort-night holiday cruising on a refrigerator ship among the South Sea Islands, the most The Center for Nursing beautiful of which I found to be the Fijian group. At last Historical Inquiry we went ashore at Port Villa in the New Hebrides and I found the work there most gratifying and exciting, but quite (CNHI), established at depressing at times, for the heat, body casts, mangled bodies the University of and even jungle rot seemed easier for these gallant souls to Virginia in 1991 to accept than the news reports of industrial strikes at home. support historical scholarship in Our patients came from the Solomon Islands and the most nursing, is dedicated seriously injured seemed to have no time for complaining. to the preservation They were too glad for a second chance at life. Dull moments and study of nursing were rare on Efate. If it were not a coconut falling on the history in the United Quonset huts, it was the roar of a reconnaissance plane or the TheStates. Center The for history Nursing of rumbling and rattling of the huts caused by an earth quake, Historicalnursing in the Inquiry South is and all seemed to be timed for night activity. Another (CNHI),especially established emphasized at impressive sight was one I saw on my first Christmas Eve on theas a Universityfocus of inquiry. of foreign soil, of a little group of Americans huddled together in 1 VirginiaThe goals in of 1991the Center to a tiny shack in Noumea, singing Christmas carols. supportinclude the historical collection of scholarshipmaterials, the in nursing,promo- Dora met and married her husband, Fred Fechtmann, in Auckland, tionis dedicated of scholarship, to the and New Zealand in 1944. In May of that year, she returned to the United thepreservation dissemination and study of States where she continued to practice in Harrisonburg, Virginia as a public health, private duty nurse, and a physical therapist. She retired historicalof nursing historyresearch in in 1977 and lived in Ocala, Florida until her death in 2006. findings.the United States. The development of The collection is fascinating and includes a diary, c. 1935-1937, that advanced clinical contains the specific details of Dora’s training as a nurse at nursing practice, and Rockingham County Memorial Hospital Nurses School. Other the clinical specialty documents of particular interest include correspondence between organizations that Dora and the mother of a slain soldier that she cared for when dying. represent the various There is also a photograph from the Feb. 1944 issue of the Ladies practices, is a major Home Journal of Eleanor Roosevelt and Dora at the bedside of a focus of the Center. wounded soldier. The goals of the Center include the collection of I invite you to contact the CNHI for access to this interesting and materials, the promo- informative collection ! tion of scholarship, and the dissemination of historical research findings. 1. Dora C. Fechtmann , “My Scrapbook: An album of memories,” p. 8. A special thanks to Maureen Spokes, Center archivist, for information related to this collection. CENTER NEWS CENTER’S 15TH ANNIVERSARY FALL 2007 HISTORY FORUMS The year 2007 marks the fifteenth McLeod Hall Room 5044 anniversary of the Center for Nurs- ing Historical Inquiry. Established 12:00-1:00 PM in 1991 by Barbara Brodie, Arlene Keeling and Sylvia Rinker, the Center began its SEPTEMBER 18, 2007 life in one room with several boxes of historical papers, photographs and books. Over the years "Licks the joints but bites the heart" of children: it has grown into a national and internationally Rheumatic Fever. known Center that is recognized for its preserva- tion of nursing history and on-going scholarship. Barbara Brodie, RN, PhD, FAAN The Center’s collections include approximately Madge Jones Professor Emerita 250 linear feet of primary materials and 18000 historical images. The Center serves as a reposi- OCTOBER 16, 2007 tory for almost a dozen professional organiza- tions that represent the advancement of nursing History Matters: Reclaiming and Reframing practice in the 20th century. These diverse collec- China’s Missionary Nursing Past tions include the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties and the Association of State Sonya Grypma, RN, PhD and Territorial Directors of Nursing. The Center Assistant Professor, School of Health Sciences also has many personal collections from nurses University of Lethbridge who served as hospital and public health staff, 2006 Brodie Research Fellow administrators, consultants and educators. To encourage nursing scholarship the Center of- 2007 BICE MEMORIAL LECTURE fers an annual $3,000 post-doctoral research fel- lowship and sponsors a series of nursing history lectures throughout the academic year. Since 12:30-1:30 1994 the Center bestows its prestigious Agnes November 7, 2007 Randolph Award on a distinguished historian of Jordan Hall Auditorium nursing that has significantly shaped the field of nursing history. Nursing’s Ambivalent Relationship with Money In celebration of its anniversary the Center is co- Ellen D. Baer RN, PhD, FAAN sponsoring, with the School of Nursing Alumni, Noted nurse historian the Zula Mae Bice Lecture. Dr. Ellen Baer, a re- Professor Emerita of Nursing University of nowned nurse historian and recipient of the 1998 Pennsylvania Agnes Randolph Award, will present “Nursing’s Visiting Professor of Nursing Florida Atlantic Ambivalent Relationship with Money” on Novem- University ber 7, 2007. A publication, A Good Beginning: Fifteen Years of Preserving Nursing’s Past, is being Reception to follow. developed to mark the occasion. CENTER NEWS NEW BOOK BY ARLENE KEELING NOTES FROM THE ARCHIVIST Each collection that I process in the Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry has a unique story to tell. Some are of individual nurses and character- ize how multifaceted each person is. Through the papers of Myra Clark there emerges a young woman who served as a Navy Nurse during World War II. She trained at the Great Lakes Na- val Training Station in Illinois and served at Aiea Naval Hospital, Hawaii. Later, she received spe- cial training as a medical illustrator at the Na- tional Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Mary- land.( I was surprised to see some of Clark’s signed illustrations appear in the papers of an- other nurse who, as an instructor in Michigan, used them as teaching aids.) Myra Clark was an avid photographer and through her pictures it is easy to see what life was like at Pearl Harbor in the 1940s. Much of her photography focuses on her nursing career as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy. A highlight of Myra’s collection is the set of navy photographs of liber- ated military nurses arriving in Hawaii after be- In March of 2007 Ohio State University Press ing held for 3 years in a Japanese internment published Arlene Keeling’s study on the history camp in Manila in the Philippines.