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Margaret Shanks, Nurse to Susan B. Anthony Exploring the Extraordinary in the “Ordinary” Nurse

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Margaret Shanks, Nurse to Susan B. Anthony Exploring the Extraordinary in the “Ordinary” Nurse Advances in Nursing Science Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 43–54 Copyright c 2009 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Margaret Shanks, Nurse to Susan B. Anthony Exploring the Extraordinary in the “Ordinary” Nurse Elaine Sorensen Marshall, PhD, RN This historical effort explores the life and professional practice of the relatively unknown nurse who attended the well-known suffragist Susan B. Anthony during the last months of her life. It examines nursing practice in the United States at the end of the 19th century through the life and voice of this nurse. The study affirms the value in social history of understanding ordinary lives and practice of nurses. It analyzes the professional, personal, and social inter- actions between nurse and patient that change each, all within a most significant historical, social, and political context. Key words: history of nursing, Margaret Shanks, Susan B. Anthony EAR the bedroom in Susan B. An- those present at her death “her two faithful Nthony’s house on 17 Madison Street in nurses, Miss M. A. [Margaret] Shanks and Miss Rochester, New York, preserved today nearly Mabel [Mae] Nichols.”3 The life and work of as it was on the day she died, hangs a pho- Susan B. Anthony are well known. Her mirac- tograph of the nurse who cared for her “in ulous vision and untiring efforts provide an in- 1 her last illness.” Miss Margaret A. Shanks is spiring model and global legacy for women’s posed in her nursing school cap and the stiff rights. The unusual prominence granted 2 white aproned dress with mutton sleeves that relatively unknown and perhaps “ordinary” 1,2 she wore while caring for Miss Anthony. nurses at the end of such an extraordinary life The obituary of Susan B. Anthony lists among sparks a drive to discover their personal iden- tities. A study of their lives offers a glimpse of the “ordinary”nurse and professional nursing at the dawn of the 20th century and provides Author Affiliation: School of Nursing, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro. insights for the discipline and practice of nurs- ing today. A version of this article was given as a plenary speech Who were Margaret Shanks and Mae to the American Association for the History of Nursing, September 2008. Nichols? Searches of historical evidence re- veal only that Miss Mae Nichols was employed Special thanks to Deborah Hughes, Mary Ellen Sweeny, and Judy Emerson at the Susan B. Anthony House in as night nurse during the final illness of Miss Rochester, New York, for their generous help and ac- Anthony. For now her identity, like her work, cess to archival documents; to Philip Maples at the remains in the shadows of the night. Records Baker-Cederberg Museum and Archives in Rochester, New York, to Linda Palmer at Brigham Young Univer- are more generous regarding the story of Miss sity for insights, inspiration, and encouragement; and Margaret Shanks. The purposes of this histor- to Nettie Birnbach and colleagues at the American As- ical study are to (1) explore the life and pro- sociation for the History of Nursing. fessional practice of the relatively unknown Corresponding Author: Elaine Sorensen Marshall, nurse who attended the well-known suffragist PhD, RN, School of Nursing, PO BOX 8158, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30460 during the last months of her life and (2) to ex- ([email protected]). amine nursing practice in the United States at 43 44 ADVANCES IN NURSING SCIENCE/JANUARY–MARCH 2009 the end of the 19th century and at the begin- Furthermore, D’Antonio7 asserted that so- ning of the 20th century through the life and cial histories of nursing have followed the voice of this nurse. Such a study affirms the interpretive paradigm of nurses in the la- value in social history and biography of un- bor market focused on the roles of gender, derstanding the ordinary lives and practice of class, race, and social mobility. She noted nurses. The texture of an ostensibly common that “the dominant paradigm may not fully life is enriched by its juxtaposition against the capture the historical experience of nurs- extraordinary life of her patient, and we are ing”8(p1) Instead, she observed that women all enlightened by the reciprocal effects on “actively embrace the gendered meaning of the lives of each other: activist and common nursing,”as it allowed women to create work citizen; erudite and prosaic; and patient and identities that were both outside and at the nurse. same time deeply connected to their personal identities.7(p271) SOCIAL HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, AND Few historians have explored the indi- THE STUDY OF ‘‘ORDINARY LIVES’’ FOR vidual identity of specific representatives of THE DISCIPLINE OF NURSING groups characterized in social histories, thus perhaps inadvertently perpetuating a tradi- Ulrich observed: tion that makes people “anonymous.”4 The History is based on sources, and it depends upon pluralistic approach of social history often dis- what gets saved and preserved. What get saved are courages analysis of singular lives as models primarily public documents. So history as tradition- or explanations for social structures or groups ally taught and celebrated ...is the history of great or as models that may cross the subfields of deeds, the papers of presidents, the statues in town study. Research of ordinary lives or “common squares of the heroes ...it’s the big fat books about people”9 from a biographical perspective, by generals and kings, and a few queens, but it’s usu- telling their personal stories, helps to clarify, 4 ally not about ordinary people. enhance, and enrich models that conceptual- Over the past 50 years, historians “have qui- ize the experience of nursing. etly been revolutionizing their approaches” One important example is Ulrich’s work to history, transcending the traditional study on the life of Martha Ballard, an 18th cen- of famous leaders, affairs of state, and po- tury midwife.10 Noting that “historians need litical scenes. In the history of medicine, to learn more about ordinary life,”11 Ulrich nursing, and healthcare, studies are mov- helped us to understand both nursing prac- ing “beyond the great doctors,”5(p167) toward tice and the context of community life dur- the experiences of “ordinary people.”6(pp1,8) ing American colonial times through the anal- Borchert6(p2) noted that social history “pro- ysis of the diaries of a particular woman as vides us with a sense of where we came a representative case. The analysis moved be- from and how we got where we are.” But yond common issues in social history of gen- at the same time, social history has increas- der, economics, and class, and considered the ingly examined groups, institutions, and so- full life of Martha Ballard that was more than, cial structures including subfields such as fam- and in and out of, her role as nurse or midwife. ily, gender and class, racial minorities, labor D’Antonio challenged scholars of history of economies, and workers. Its focus is the in- nursing to consider “identity rather than work teraction of cultural groups within a society at the center of our analyses,”noting, “Identity often through mixed methods of history, soci- is, and has been, a critical, albeit ambiguous, ology, ethnology, and anthropology. Although variable in nursing.”7(p279) much of social history claims to study com- Ulrich explained: mon lives, it has neglected singular lives as it continues to examine “cohorts, generations, When you decide to write about the life of an or- regions, social structures.” dinary person, you start out with the premise that Margaret Shanks, Nurse to Susan B. Anthony 45 this person is not important because of some thing Margaret Shanks actually lived and practiced. they did or who they were, but because under- Rochester’s nurses were highly active and led standing ordinary life has a value of its own.4 the founding of the New York State Nurses It is the individual identity of Margaret Association, the first of its kind in the United Shanks that enlightens us about culture, so- States. Rochester was home of the American cial class, profession, and person. Neverthe- Journal of Nursing for its first 20 years, and less, in this study of the unknown nurse caring the title of Registered Nurse with its expecta- for the famous Miss Anthony, it is also impor- tions of uniform nursing curricula and gradu- tant to “keep the background and foreground ate outcomes began with the Nurse Registra- 4 tion Act of 1903 in New York, after a heated in balance,” as Ulrich cautioned. The scholar 13,14 must balance the background of the social series of meetings in Rochester. Eva context of the time and singular circumstance Allerton, the superintendent of Margaret with the foreground of the nurse as person Shanks’ alma mater, the Rochester Homeo- and practitioner devoted to care for Miss An- pathic Hospital (RHH) School of Nursing, was a leader in the movement toward nurse thony at the end of her life. Furthermore, the 13 term ordinary is used advisedly and simply as registration. New York state’s first “regis- tered nurse,” Ida Jane Anderson, also gradu- a sort of antonym for an identity that is pub- 15 licly recognized or famous. It certainly does ated from RHH in 1902. not assume the identity to be undistinguished The strong, politically able, and profes- or unexceptional. sionally oriented women of Rochester who persevered toward the professionalization of nursing were themselves interesting models TIME, PLACE, AND CONTEXT of identity and experience in connecting the professional to the personal. They combined The professionalization of nursing the effective use of formal and informal The story of Margaret Shanks and Susan B.
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