COLLECTION OF FACTS FOR HISTORY OF NURSING

ALBERTA -- 1864-1942 ALBER'l'A ASSOCIATION OF REGISTERED NURSES Suite 5, 10129-102nd Street Edmonton, Alberta

C 0 L L E C T I 0 N 0 F F A C i:1 S -for- HISTORY OF NURSING { ALBERTA - 1864 - 1942.

\ ! ! I FOREWORD

Grateful acknowledgement is ma.de to &lperintendents of Schools of Nursing; Medical Superintendents and Secretaries of Hospitals for their assistance in procuring material and

giving access to early hospital records; To Alumnae Associations

and the Registrar of the A.A.R.N.; To Dr. Heber Jamieson, Archivist of the Medical Association Library; The Canadian National Railways; and for the help and enthusiasm of nurses throughout the Province. ( KATE SHAW BRIGlfl'Y, Convener, History of Nursing Committee,

Alberta Association of Registered Nurses. F.dmonton, Alberta, December lst, 1942. -2- General:

Records of the Homen's Missionary Society of the United Church of Canaaa, Wesley Building, ~oronto.

Records c£ the Women's Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, 100 Adelaide Street, Toronto.

The Salvation Army Hospital Records, Women's Social Secretary, 20 Abbott Street, Toronto.

Archbishop's Western Canada Fund. "Occasional Paper" October 1913; August 1917. "Fifth Annual Report, 1914.

"~e Canadian Nurse • "

Mount Edith Cavell.

"Place Names of Alberta," published for the Geographic Boa.rd by the Department of the Interior, Ottawa, 1928.

Encyclopaedia of Canada, Volume ll, 1935, page 261. Alberta Government Publications: ( The Registered Nurses' Act - Revised Statutes of Alberta, ch. 306 - 1942. The Public Health Nurses' Act - Revised Statutes of Alberta, ch. 191 - 1942.

The Municipal Hospital Act - Revised Statutes of Alberta, ch. 189 - 1942.

The Health Insurance Act - Revised Statutes of Alberta, ch. 208 - 1942.

Annual Report, Department of Health, 1919.

"The History of the Department of Public Health" - Dr. M. R. Bow and F. T. Cook. \ "History, Administration, Organization and Work of the Provincial Department of Public Health and Boards of Health. 11

"Municipal Hospitals ," by Whiston, Arthur K.

... - r . - .. . - -~ .. - ~ A HISTORY OF NURSINu m ALBERTA

Settled I!llCh later than most of the other provinces of the Dominion, Alberta does not enter into the story of nursing in Canada as early as her more easterly sisters. Her record is

nonetheless one of which to be proud. Unfortunately IlEllY an interesting incident related to

such a subject cannot even now be satisfactorily recorded, so

quickly do early ~vents dim in the me:oory of even the oldest old-timers now living. Nevertheless many fascinating pictures incidental to the development of nursing in the territory that

is now known as Alberta can still be discovered.

In the last century vast distances between western

settlements soon ma.de most imperative the need for hospitals ( and medical ~d nursing services. :a.it the factor of distance also ma.de the regular establishment of such services an almost

impossible feat. There were mny difficulties in the way, des- pite the fact that illness was on the increase as the penetra- tion of new settlers into the north-west grew deeper and deeper. l Among the first white men to venture across the west- em prairies were the traders and employees of the Hudson's Bay

Trail- Company. So the first medical man to practise his profession Breakers in the North-West Territories was an employee of this Company . He was the late Dr. W. M. Mackay, a graduate of &linburgh

University of Scotland.

In 1864 Dr. Mackay arrived at York Factory on fudson's I Bay, to become the first physician to the Company of Gentlemen -2-

Acventurers in the North-West Territories. For thirty-four years he traversed the lonely stretches of land vest of the bay, spending a great deal of his time in what is now- northern

Alberta. In 1898 he retired to F.dmonton.

During the seventies the Royal North-West Mounted

Police had established a number of crude emergency hospitals

Police at their various posts in the north-west. Dr. George Kittson Hospitals and Dr. Barrington Nevitt had been appointed respectively chief surgeon and first assistant surgeon to the force. Both are

known to have reached Macleod, where the first police hospital in what is now Alberta was erected.

It is interesting to note at this point that one of ( the first trained nurses in the north-vest arrived in Macleod some years later. She vas Miss Emmeline Alexander. Graduating from the Montreal General Hospital, she was attracted by the

call of the west. In 1899 she reached Macleod. Here she con­

verted an old frame building on the banks of the Old Man River

into a. hospital, and here began the practise of her profession. Dr. Nevitt had ma.de Macleod his headquarters for four years, retiring in 1878. Like his successors, he ma.de his

first concern the medical ca.re of members of the fo~ce. But

he also treated the white traders and the Indians who came to him for help.

Other western posts to have police hospitals were Fort

Walsh in 1875, and Calgary in 1882. In 1886 Lethbridge had a

) mine hospital, and three yea.rs later the police also construct­

ed one there. Among the later medical members of the force who -3- saw service at the various posts were Dr. Herchmer, Dr. John D. lauder, Dr. George Allan Kennedy, Dr. H. Y. Baldwin and Dr. E. A. Braithwaite.

Soon the building of railways and the enterprise of commercial companies were to make imperative an improved hos­

pita.l service. So the colourful scarlet coat of the police

doctor and the ingeniously but inadequately equipped police

hospital were to give way to quiet civilian clothes and larger

up-to-date hospitals staffed by female nurses.

First of the little settlements in that part of the

North-West that is now Alberta to know such a change lra.s, First -fittingly enough, named Medicine Hat. In this town was built,

( Civilian in 1889, the first regularly-equipped hospital in the ~erritor­ Hosp::i.tal. ies, the first orthodox hospital in all that great lonely sec­

tion of prairie and bush, out of which Alberta and Saskatchewan

were later to be carved.

Several romantic legends account for the name of

Medicine Hat. They all have to do with that fearful, some­ what mysterious personage so important among the Indian tribes,

the medicine 116ll. According to one of these legends, for in­

stance, a mighty gust of wind blew the elaborate head-dress of the medicine man into the swift '-raters of the South Saskatche­

wan river. Shorn of his cro"Wiling glory, the medicine man f led

into the Cypress Hills, there to be heard of no more, and only

the little settlement that grew up on the site of this tragedy

commemorated him by taking the name "Medicine Hat. " -4- Be the legend what it may, this little tovn not only built the first general hospital in the north-west, but here, too, was fostered the first established tradition of nursing in the Territories. Four years after the hospital opened its doors to the public, a carefully-directed school of nursing was begun, again the first vest of Winnipeg. When, in 1894, a young lady entered the Training School for Nurses at the Medicine Hat General Hospital, this was one of Nurses at the rul.es to which she mist subscribe: large. Every nurse will be expected to perform any duty assigned to her, either as a nurse in the hospital, or when sent to private cases among the rich or poor, in any part of the Terri­ tories. Of a long and elaborate list of rules to which the ( prospective nurse in Medicine Hat in the gay nineties mist con- form, this one is the m:>st significant. It is significant of the complex mode of life that was then being more and more rapidly assumed by the north-west prair·· ies, where hopeful settlers, more poor than rich, were streaming in by the hundreds to a territory that had hitherto seen few l vhite men other than traders, trappers and the labourers who laid the first railways. It is significant too, of the vast area served by this first hospital, an area bound on the south by the international border, on the west by the mountain ranges, on the north by the

unknown stretches reaching to the very Arctic. Fast of Medicine Hat, a man in need of up-to-date hospital care had two choices.

He could get that care either in Medicine Hat or in Winnipeg. -5- Incorporated, then, in 1889, the Medicine Hat General Hospital had seen four years of service before the nursing school was opened. Desperate need for caring for the sick had driven a Erected in number of public-spirited citizens of the to\m to press for the 1889. erection of a hospital. Subscriptions to the a.mount of over $13,000.00 were taken, a substantial grant received from the Dominion Government, and lesser ones from the Northwest Legis- lative Assembly, the Northwest Land Company and the Canadian Pacific Railway. Led by Mr. John Niblock, Superintendent of the lccal Division of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the little group of

(Photo­ pioneers pressed forward with their ambitious project. Il'J the graphs) ( end of 1889, a handsome and serviceable structure had been er- ected. Built of cut stone, it had two full storeys with a mansard roof permitting rooms on the third floor for the nurses

and for an isolation ward. On January 9th, 1890, the hospital opened its doors to the sick. A more timely date could hardly have been chosen, for a severe epidemic of influenza held the town in its grip. Unfortunately, however, the grand opening c ereronies had to be postponed. In charge of "this vast enterprise," as the Rev. Mr.

Herald termed it in his dedicatory address, were only two nurs- Staffed by es. They were Miss Grace Louise Reynolds, the Matron, and Miss Only ':Vo. I Mary Ellen Birtles, her assistant. Trained under a matron who had in turn been a pupil of Florence Nightingale, Miss Reynolds was a g=aduate of Leeds in -6- England. Thus she brought to this far western spot something of

the tradition learned from the world's most famous nurse.

Miss Bil"'tles was a graduate of the Winnipeg General Hos-

pital, of which Miss Reynolds ·was also a former staff member.

Both had seen p:..·evious service in nursing in the west, and both

were excellently equipped for the undertaking before them.

From Miss Birtles 1 Olm words one can best picture the

unusual arrangement of the work:

Miss Reynolds and I managed the work between us. She prepared the meals and looked after the d0tm­ stairs work; I attended to the f'urna.ce and did the Shared All upstairs work, sweeping, dusting, etc., besides attending to the patients. When any surgical work the Work. "18.S to be done, we had to arrange the 'WOrk accord­ ingly. Miss Reynolds gave the anaesthetic and I looked after the instruments and waited on the doc­ tors. There w.s no sterilizer, so we had to resort ( to boiling the instruments in a large saucepan with a steamer on it for towels and dressings. This was the only hospital between Winnipeg and Nanaimo, B.C., patients coming from far and near, and a great deal of surgical work "18.s done the:i:-e.

Skill, patience and ingenuity must have been taxed to

the utmost raa.ny times during those early months of the hospital's

existence. One hundred and twenty-four patients were ministered

Patients unto in the first year. Their places of residence included

f rom Far points as far west as Donald, Ba.nff and Field; as far north as

and Kear. Edloonton; and as far east as Moose Jaw, Regina and Winnipeg.

In 1891 that dreaded scourge of the pioneer country,

typhoid fever, attacked a member of the hospital staff itself ,

and Dr. Albert Olver, the medical Superinte~dent, succumbed to it in his thirty-first year.

To ma.intain and enlarge upon the work of the hospital -7- no stone was left unturned by the enthusiastic supporters of the

institution. Donations were solicited untiringly. Among the

illustrious contributors were Their Excellencies Lord and Lady

Aberdeen and the fuke and fuchess of Connaught. Organized in

1893, the Women's Hospital Aid worked ceaselessly in its behalf. ( By no means the least colourful contributor was a cer-

tain bear, whose box gave almost one hundred dollars to the funds

Colourful in the year 1890. This bear, owned by a private citizen, was kept Donors. as a live exhibit, and the charge for seeing her went into the

aforementioned box. On one occasion a special meeting of the hos-

pital board had to be called "to take steps for mking the bear

more secure." According to the minutes of the meeting: ( "The bear's life was in jeopardy for some time owing to the anxiety of some for target practice, the gastronomic proclivities of others and the desire for warm clothing by others. Humane coun­ sels finally prevailed and it was decided to build her a cage."

"We can do a great public good by establishj ng a train- ing school for nurses," urged Dr. J. G. Calder, who succeeded Dr.

Olver as Superintendent, in his annual reports of 1892 and 1893.

Nursing So, in the following year, a school was established. Two young l School ladies, Nurse Hales and Nurse Miller, conwrised the first class.

Opened. In addition, all interested ladies of Medicine Hat were permitted

to attend the lectures. These were of a practical nature, embrac-

ing subjects in the medical, surgical and maternity fields.

Interesting are some of the rules governing the young

lady in training:

"She mst spend at least fifteen minutes in the open air every day, either within or off the hospital grounds, unless excused by the lady superintendent; -8-

she must attend church once every Sunday; and she uay not receive gentlemen friends in the parlour except by special permission of the lady superin­ tendent." No educational qualifications for applicants were

stated in the requirements. !ht they did provide for an entrance

( examination in reading, peruie.nship, arithmetic and English dicta- Examina- tion. Having in mind these elementary educational qualifications, tions it is of interest to examine the examination paper in surgery Stiff. given the first class of 1895. Here is a sample question which

might confound much more learned candidates:

"Suppose a patient to be brought into the hospital vith severe lacerations of the arm involving all structures -- integument, muscles, tendons, bones and blood vessels -- in vhich there is severe ( Haemorrhage both venous and arterial. State what treatment and dressing you would apply until the arrival of the physician, and what palliative treatment you would adopt in the meantime."

Both candidates vere f\llly equal to the test, how-

ever. They passed all their examinations vith excellent n:e.rks.

So, following a two-year training course, the Medicine Hat Hos-

pital graduated in 1897 two of the first fully qualified nurses in the North-West Territories. They were Mi s s M. Kniseley and

Miss A. Andrews.

Nowhere, in the early story of nursing anywhere in

Canada, did the young nurse have a vaster territory in any Must serve pa.rt of which she might be expected to serve. Every nurse on the Anywhere. staff had to be prepared to go to any point in the Territories

west of Winnipeg. Many a hardship they had to endure, many a

situation to face which taxed their resourcefulness and spirit

to the utmost. -9- Five thousand, one hundred and twenty days of chari-

table work, reported Mr. Finlay, the President, to the Board, was Much done in 1896. These patients "include people from all over the Charitable Territories and other parts of Canada, and mmy immigrants for Work Done. whose maintenance we have heretofore been receiving no special

rem.meration whatever."

His report continues as follows: "A large staff of nurses is kept up to do outside nursing throughout the Territories as well as our own hospital work. " "I:uring 1896 fifty-six cases were attended outside the hospital. We supply these nurses at the modest rate of one dollar a day, and in some instances even this a.IOOUnt is not pa.id and the cost has to be borne by the hospital. During the past year our nurses were sent as far away as Regina; Swift Current, Maple Creek, Lethbridge and Donald, B.C., as well as to ( numerous places in and about Medicine Hat."

"Our aim in maintaining a large staff is to fill this (?hotograph vant for outside nursing, to supply skilled mirses to Staff, 1895) persons any place in the Territories at a moderate rate, and we are already doing a large amount of the work which Her Excellency Lady Aberdeen is advocating at ottawa under the name of the ' Victorian Order of Nurses." From these early beginnings the training school ad-

vanced steadily. Sometimes in those first years the graduating

class would comprise only cne nurse. By the end of 1938 more than two hundred and fifty graduates had fulfilled the requirements set

by the training course. '!'heir alumnae record shows that they had

&i'terwards scattered to many parts of Canada and elsewhere. A

number saw service in the first World War and still others in the

(Photograph second World War. Medicine Hat's graduates have rendered notable Miss Auger) service in many places and in many ways. Of them Miss Edna M.

Auger, who graduated in 1908, has a record as illustrious as any -10- in Canada.

HISTORY OF NURSL~G QUESTIONNAIRE

February, 1939· Name of Hospital: Medicine Hat General, Medicine Hat,Alta. Date Founded: Incorporated November 22nd, 1889.

( Fornia.l opening January, 1890. \ Circumstances which led to its establishment: See minutes of first meeting.

Bed capacity at outset: 35. Now: 141 - including bassine~tes. Name of First Superintendent: Dr. Albert Olver. Name of First Superintendent of Nurses: Miss Grace Louise Reynolds. How Hospital was supported then: Federal & Territorial Grants, Member­ ships and subscriptions. ( How Hospital is supported now: . Provincial & City grants, collections and donations. Outstanding persons irho were instrumental in its develop­ ment:

First President: - Mr. John Niblack, Sup't. Medicine Hat Div­ ision C. P. R. Medical Sup't.:- Dr. Albert Olver, until his death, August 3oth, 1891. Succeeded Dr. Ol ver:Dr. J . G. Calder, and was Medical Supt. until 1894. Succeeded by:- Dr. J. B. Peters, in his 31st year. Date Nursing School was es- tablished: - 1894. Lectures commenced August 1st. First Director (any parti­ culars):- Dr. J. B. Peters, Medical Sup't. Miss A. C. Miller, Matron. No. in first class (any par­ ticulars):- Two graduated - Miss G. Hales and Miss J. Miller. -11- Length of Course at that time: - Two years. P-resent Director of Hursing School (any particular s) :- Agnes E. Pederson - 1928 graduate of this school, Post Graduate Training in Sur­ gery, Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Post Graduate Training in Anaesthesia, Univer­ sity Hospital, Cleveland, Operating Room Supervisor here for three years prior to appointment. Length of Course now: - Three years. No. of classes per year:- Two . F\.111-time instructor (s):- One, one part time. Total number of graduate nurses in staff:- 10, including Housekeeper and I.ab. Technician. Total number of student nurses in the school:- 37, and 8 probationers. { Hours of duty for students: - 7 - 7 (3 hours plus class time off) Major services in hospital:- Surgical, Medical, Obstetrical. Affiliations: - None. F.a.ch student spends 8 aftenioons at Child Welf are Clinic.

Total number of nurses grad- uate to Dec. 31/ 38:- 252. Outstanding graduates and Miss F.dna M. Auger, 1906, served with their special contributions C.A .M.C. during Great War, organized t o nursing: - hospital at Grande Prairie. Sup't. of Ifurses 1922-1932. Deceased May 2, 1932. ( See "Roll of Honour" supplied with his­ torical data.

Are pictures avai lable of:- 1. First Hospital? Yes.

2 . First Supt. of Nurses? No.

? (Photo first Supt. of J • First graduating class? Yes. Ifurses of Training School available). 4. Others showing actual nursing situations? No.

Would it be pos sible to secure copies of these pictures at a later

t:uae in order to build up a series relating to the development of -12- nursing in Canada? Yes.

(Signed) 11 A. E. PEDERSOE."

Discovery of the great wealth of coal lying around about

the site of the present city of Lethbridge had led to the earQdev-

( elopment of that district. Some years earlier Fort Whoop-up had been built there on the banks of the Old Man River. When the coal mining

companies moved in, the tcnm that sprang up became fittingly known as Coalbanks.

There a temporary hospital was established in 1886. Di·. ~alt Hospital F. H. Mewburn, who many years later was to become the first professor Fo1U1ded. of surgery at the University of Alberta, was appointed surgeon at

these Galt mines. Three years later a police hospital was also er- ( ected.

Need for improved hospital aid nursing service had become

mst acute, however. Sir AleY..ander Galt, the president of the "Al-

berta Railwa:,r and Coal Compa."lY, 11 was made a·ware . of conditions. One

of the Fathers of Confederation, Sir Alexander uas at this time

Canadian High Commissioner in London. But the need of the far-away

little settlement that had now changed its name from Coalbanks to ( (Photo­ graphs) Lethbridge, uas not overlooked. In 1891 Sir AleY.ander arranged fo:-

the erection of a building ' iith a capacity for twelve to fifteen beds.

A tablet commemorating Sir Alexander, 11 Whose benevolence

and sympa.tly fo1· those in distress vill long be cherished, 11 1ra.s

erected by employees of the COI!lpa.ny, and still bears tribute to his

deed. -13-

In 1903 the hospital became a coIID'.lllnity project. Ensuing

years saw it rebuilt and enlarged on the same site, until now it can

':'raining acconim:>date 100 patients. In 1910 a nursing school was arranged for,

School with Miss Anne Forgie as the first superintendent of nurses. Three

Opened. years later the first class of three were graduated. At the end of the

( year 1938 one lrundred and thirty-five nurses had completed their train- ing there.

Though the institution became a community property in 1S03,

it still bears the name "The Galt Hospital," in honour of its illu-

trious founder.

HISTORY OF NURSING QUES'::'IONNAIRE

February, 1939· ( Name of Hospital:- Galt Hospital, Lethbridge, Alberta. Iate Founded:- 1891. Circumstances uhich led to The R.N.W.M.P. had a small building for its establishment:- first aid to accident cases. In 1391 Sir Alexander T. Ge.lt built the fir st hospital on the present site. ~is ~ras er ected f or the benefit of employees of the Alberta. Railway and Irrigation Com­ pany .

Bed Capacity at outset:- 12 - 15. Now:- 100. ( Name of :first superintendent:·· Miss Chapman, 1894. Na.me of First Superintendent of Nurses:- Miss Anne Forgie.

How Hospital was supported then:- 1903 - by Community.

Ho\l Hospital is supported now:- Self-supporting, and grant from City, i f needed.

Outstanding persons who were instrumental in its develop­ Sir Alexander T. Galt; John Galt; Elliot ment:- T. Galt. -14-

First Board of Management:- E.T. Galt, John Galt, E.T. Galt, Wm. Pamsay, J.L. Shavall, M. Barford, F. H. Mewburn, M. D., C .A. Magrath and P .L. Naismith. !Ste Nursing School was established:- 1910. First Director (any particu­ lars): - ( No. in first class (any par­ ticulars) : - 3 graduated - 13 started. Length of Course at that time:- 3 years. Present Director of Nursing School (any particulars):- Miss A. M. Fallis, R. N.

Length of Course now:- 3 years.

No. of Classes per year:- One.

FU.11-time instructor ( s) : - Yes. ( Total number of graduate nurses on staff:- 24. Total number of student nurses in school:- 28, and 18 probationers.

Hours of duty for students:- 9 hours per day, with one day off each week.

Major services in hospital:- Yes.

A±'filiations:- None. Total number of nurses to graduate to Dec. 31/38 :- 135· Outstanding graduates and t heir special contribution to nursing:- -15- Are pictures available of:- 1. First Hospital? Yes.

2. First Supt. of Nurses? Yes. 3. First graduating class? Yes. 4. Others showing actual nursing situations?

~~uld it be possible to secure copies of these pictures at a later ( time in order to build up a series relating to the development of

nursing in Canada? Yes.

(Signed) "BERTHA CLARKE,"

Galt Hospital, Lethbridge, Alberta.

( Just as the building of a railroad and the subsequent

opening up of the surrounding territory ma.de so imperative the need

for e. hospital in Medicine Hat and in Lethbridge, so it \-ra.s in the

little foothills city of Calgary. The Canadian Pacific Railway was

beginning to reach out tributary feelers into the rolling prairies

lying north of the ma.in line. One of the m:>st important of these was

that being constructed between Calgary and E~1Inonton, another SI!Bll ( centre lying two hundred miles nortrnrard.

From the construction gangs busy at this important work

came a steady trickle of typhoid cases . ibese bad to be cared for in Typhoid entirely unsuitable and inadequate places. Sometimes only a misera­ at ble shack was available for the patient. In 1883 Calgary's first civilian medical man arrived there. He was Dr. Arthur Henderson, a

graduate of McGill University. Of bis trip west he wrote a s follows :- -16-

"Left for the North-West about 1883, arriving at the end of the track ten miles east of Maple Creek on route to Calgary. Dr. Mewburn having already assumed the duties First Doctor of medical superintendent of the Winnipeg General Hospi­ tal during the fall of 1882. The journey from the end Arrives . of the track to Calgary was ma.de by cayuse in spells, and occupied the following six weeks, fording the Saskatchewan at Medicine Hat and t~ Bow River at Calgary. I arrived at Calgary on June 6th, 1883, and at once located on the east side of the Elbow River near the old. Hudson's Bay Fort." In the following year, July 2nd, 1884, the Calgary Hera.la urged the erection of a hospital, in the following words:-

"Benevolence is the handmaid of religion. A public hospi­ tal is a necessity where the majority of a conmunity are single men. lacking the care bestowed on the sick at home, an institution is needed that will as nearly as possible supply this. At present the only pl.ace for the sick is the Police Hospital. Kindly have patients been cared for while there, but ue knou not how soon an order may be issued by the authorities at Ottawa for the non-admission of civil­ ians into the Police Hospital. It is well to prepare for such an emergency."

~ro years later a meeting was called to consider the erect­ ion of a hospital. Mrs . Pinkham, wife of the late Anglican Bishop of

Plan Calgary, realized the need, and had collected certain funds with which

Cottage to start a cottage hospital. However, some thought that this would be

Hospital. an Anglican institution, so the money was turned over to a committee

appointed by the mayor, and a board of provisional directors was • appointed. At last, in 1890, a frame building on Seventh A.renuc was

rented and fitted up for a general hospital. ~·:rs. Nelson Road was

mtron and Mr. Amos Roe the Superintendent. In this building four

patients could be cared for upstairs and four dol-mstairs. On the lower

floor were also an office and a nurses' dining room, the latter being

also used as an operating room. In spite of the fe\T beds, one hundred

and twenty-seven patients were treated in 18$1. -17- Meanwhile, erection of a new hospital was begun at the Corner south-west corner of Twelfth Avemie and Sixth Street east. On Sep- Stone tember 1st, 1894, Hon. S. M. Daly laid the corner-stone of this new I.aid. building. Heeding the call to do pioneering again, in a still further

( w~stern centre, Miss Birtles quitted her post at MeC.icine Hat to take

charge of this first Calgary hospital, predecessor to the Calgary

General Hospital.. She carried on alone for some ti.me, until an assis-

tant could be found. To meet the need for I!K)re nurses, it was decided to estab-

lish a training school. On April 23rd, 1895, the first probationer Opening was admitted. She was Miss Marion Moodie, now of Montreal, whose Training ( three years' training here were to be followed by a long and merit- School. orious record of devotion to her calling. It was not until several

weeks after her admission that the new building was brought into

service, not until the young probationer had crowded her first days

of training with nany and varied experiences.

11 The building, writes Miss Moodie, of Calgary's first hos­ pital, had seen the earlier and rougher days of the t°'m, and when taken over as a bospital had bullet holes through some of the doors. On the ground floor there was one ward holding four beds, an office, a dining-room which lra.s con­ ve11ted into an operating room when necessary, and a kit­ chen. Upstairs there were four small rooms, each holding one bed and, over the kitchen, two small rooms for the staff and the cook. As the first pupil nurse, I entered on St. George's te.y, April 23rd, and \·ra.s sent to get what sleep I could in a vacant bed upstairs. I was to commence my probation b~ ­ ta.king charge lrhile the matron and the nurse got a cha.nee to rest. An hour later I vra.s roused to make room for a new patient. Until the stone building now used as an isolation hospital was ready three weeks later, I occupied 11 the cook's room by day while the cook bad it at night. -10-

As a probationer, Miss Moodie had her hands full. D01m-

stairs, she had to uatch a man with severe bronchitis; upstairs, Had another with delirium tremens; and in a room opposite, one dying of Hands cancer. She had strict orders to see that the first did not choke, Tull. the second did not jump over the banister, and the third got relief

( from pain.

"These orders, she relates, had to be obeyed more in spirit (Photograph than in letter, and all spare moments for some nights were spent sitting on the top step of the staircase by the Miss Moodie) ca.ncer nan's door, in sight of the D.T.'s door, and at any rate, within the sound of the bronchitis ma.n's cough."

Three weeks after Miss Moodie's arrival, the patients were

transf'erred to the new building. Miss Iangerfield, a graduate of ':'ran.sf er London, England, was the f'irst matron in this hospital. funds to To New ·ouild and operate it were raised by grants, subscriptions, fees and ( fuilding. the untiring efforts of the Women's Aid Society. Mrs. Pinkham, whose

husband, Bishop Pinkham, was a member of the first Board of Directors,

was the first President of this hard-working group of women.

First nucleus of the building fund bad been the gift of a

young Chinaman, who, dying in a city hotel, willed the proceeds of

the sale of his property to be used towards the erection of a hospi-

tal.

Keeping pace with the growth of the young city, the Galgary (Photo­ graphs) General moved to another larger new building across the Bow River in

1901. The old building was retained as an Isolation Hospital, where

General students still receive training in communicable diseases. The new

Moves institution was staffed by some twenty-five student nurses, eight

Again. general duty nurses, as well as supervisors and members of the train- -19- ing school office. More than seven hundred young women had graduated f rom the Calgary General School of Nursing at the end of 1938. '!'hey had

scattered to all parts of the world and engaged in many types of

nursing. Encouraged by the efforts of the Superintendent of Nurses, ( in 1936 graduates formed an Alumnae Association, which numbers be-

tween three and four :tnmdred members.

HISTORY OF NURSil G QUE3TIONNAIRE February 16th, 1940.

Name of Hospital:- Calgary General Hospital, Calga.17 ,

Date Frunded:- 1890. Circumstances which led to its establishment:- The existing need of hospital care and ( nursing service, which became argently acute at this time owing to the large number of t~"]?hoid cases to be cared for, the major number coming from the C.P.R. construction camps engaged in building t he Calgary to Edmonton line.

Bed Capacity at outset:- S' Beds.

Now:- 285, including Isolation opened in 1890 - 127 patients treated in 189:.

Na.me of first Superintendent: - Dr. W. A. Lincoln.

Name of first Superintendent of Nurses:- Miss Ellen Birtles.

How Hospital was supported then:- By City grant, private subscriptions and patients ' fees. How Hosp i tal i s supported BJ· taxation and patients' fees . now:-

Outstanding persons who ?he first Committee was appoint ed f or were instru:::n.ental in its hospital purposes at a meeting hel d on development:- November 16th, 1886, consisting of Mayor G. C. King and nine members . In 1889 a Board of Directors was appointed '1it h Aroo s Roe, Esq., as President. This -20-

Board was al·lY assisted by the Hedi ::al men and th2 ladies' Hospital Aid, -.rho gave devoted service over a period of many years . ~e financial nucleus wa ~ assisted by a young Chinaman, who, when dying, willed the proceeds from the sale of his property towards the establishing of a General Hospital.

Iete Nursing School was April, 1895 , when the new building, with ( established:- acconunod.ation for 25-30 patients, was opened. This building is now occupied as the Isolation Hospital where the stu·· dents of today receive t heir training in COil'.lJillnicable diseases.

First Director (a.~y par­ ticulars): Miss Ellen Birtles.

No. in first class (an~' pa.rticula.rs): The first student, Miss Marion Moodie, entered training on April 23rd, 1895, and graduated July 25th, 1898, consti­ t uting t he first cl.ass. ( Length of Course at that t~:- Three years. Present Director of Ifurs­ ing School (any particulars): Sara S. Macdonald, R.N., Graduate of the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.

Length o:' Course now:- Three years.

No. of cl.asses per year:- Two.

F\J.11-time Instructor {s):- Yes - two.

Total numbe~ o; graduate nurses on sta~f:- 14 plus 6 on general duty. Total number of student nurses in the school:- 110 .

Hours of duty f or students:- Students on day duty - 8 hours . Students on night duty - 9t hours.

~ajor Services in P.ospital:- Surgical, Obstetrical, Medical, Pedia­ trics, Dietary and Comm.micable Diseases.

Affiliations:- Students from Provincial Mental Hospital, Pono:~ , Alberta, affiliate for tvo yea:·s ' senio1· service. -21- ':i'otal number of nurses graduate to Dec. 31/38:- 708. Outstanding graduates and Miss Marion Moodie , the first gracllate, their special contribution had brought credit to her School as a to nursing: - distinguished nurse, filling prominent places in private duty, Institutional positions and military nursing service. She ncm resides in i·iontreal, and is still keenl~T interested in the grm.rth and pro­ ( gress of nursing.

Many graduates have been and are success­ fully engaged in various types of nursinG services, and in uorld-wide areas.

Are pictures available of:- 1. First Hospital?

2. First Supt. of Nurses? Yes .

3. First graduating class? Yes . 4. others showing actual nursing situations?

( Would it be possible to secure copies of these pictures at a later

time in order to build up a series relating to the development of

nursing in Canada?

(Signed) "SARA S. MACDONALD" Superintendent of Nurses.

Not longer S.::ter the opening of the General Hospital in ( 1890, there ilas established in Calgary a second institution for the

Holy care of the sick. This was the Holy Cross Hospital. It opened its

Cross doors first to the public on January 30th, 1891.

Founded. To operate it, there bad arrived in Calgary that day four

nuns of the Sisters of Charity, members of the Order of Grey Huns that

bad been founded some 200 years before in i'1ontreal by Marguerite

d'Youville. In charge of the party was Sister Agnes Carroll, who -22-

became the first Superior 01' the Hospital. Accompanying her were Sisters Beauchemin, Valiquette and Gertrude.

~e new building of which the sisters took charge 'ias ::>till

(Photo­ under construction. Twenty-four feet s o,uare, it hac. accommoc.ation for graphs) four patients, with a proposed extension that could take care of eight more.

Need for larger quarters soon became urgent. In 1892 the

Oblate Fathers donated land to be used as a site for the new bt'.ildine;,

giving also 25,000 bricks for its erection. Three storeys high and

(Photo­ fifty feet square, this hospital "as opened on November 20th, 1892. graph) It still forms part of the present hospital organization, which :'!o·,r has an aggregate capacity of 325 beds.

1 ( An important milestone in the hospital s histor.,r was the establishr.lent, in 1907, of a School for Nursing. ~e first graduates, First five in number, received their degrees on February 8th, 1910. Each Class year, from that elate to this, a class of nurses has gone forth from Graduates. the Holy Cross Hospital, betueen five and six hundred having graduated. at the close of 1938.

HISTORY OF NURSING QUESTIONNAIRE

{ February 12th, 194o.

Name of Hospital:- Holy Cross Hns~ital, Calgary, Alberta.

Date Founded:- January 3oth, 189l.

Circumsta.."!ces which led to At the request of the Right ReveTentl its establishment:- Grandin, Bishop of St. Albert, Alberta.

Bed Capacity at outset:- 8 Beds.

Now:- 325 Beds. Na.-ne of First Superintendent:-Reverend Sister Carroll. -23- Na.oe of First Supt. of -fu rses :- Sister D..ic!.. ett. How Hospital was supported then:- By public charity.

Hou Hospital is supported now: By Provincial Grant and paying patients.

C>..itstanding persons who were Reverend Sister Carroll, as foundress, instrumental in its develop­ uas influential in the quick development ( ment: - of the hospital. Late Nu rsing School was established: - 19()8.

First Director (any particu­ Sister Duckett, a gracluate of !iotre Le.me lars):- Hospital, Montreal.

No . in first class {any par­ ticulars):- 5.

Length of course at that The first class only had a two anc. a ti!Ile:- half year course.

Present Director of Nursing ( School (any particulars):- Sister Mansfield.

Length of course nov:- Three years .

No. of classes per year: - Two classes per year. F\.ill-time Instructor (s ):- Two. Total number of graduate nurses on staff:- 27. Total number of student nurses in the school:- 144. ( Hours of duty f or st udents:- 6 hours.

Major services in ;1ospital:- SurgeI"'J, Medicine, Obstetrics.

Affiliations:-

Total number of nurses grad- uate to Dec. 31/38:- 558.

Outstanding graduates and their special contribution to nursing:- -24- Are pictures available of:- 1 . First Hospital? Yes.

2. First Supt . of Nurses? No.

3. First Graduating Class ? 4. Othe:is showing actual nurs­ ing situations?

Would it be possible to secure copies of these pictures at a later ( time in order to build up a series relating to the development of

nursing in C: anada? Yes.

(Signec.) "SR . ST. SIMON : Superior.

HOLY CROSS

January 30th, 1941, will mar!~ the fiftieth anniversary of ( the coming of the Grey Nuns to Calgary. Atwo o'clock in the morn-

ing, four nuns of the Order of the Sisters of Charity i., ·~epped off the

train, accompanied by Father Leduc, 1rho had met them at \..'innipeg. Not

a cab could be found, and into the dark and bitterly cold night they

walked on their way to the Sacred Heart Convent. The Calgary of that

day had no street lights and, indeed, no st:ceets at all between the

Canadian Pacific Railroad tracks and 19th Avenue, where the Convent

was situateO. . The walk, the darlmess, t he cold and the '" eight of

their baggage made their coming memorable i n the annals of the Order.

On this same day, the four Sisters took possession of their neu hospital, an unfinished building tventy-four feet square, two

storeys in height and heated by one small stove. The Superior of the

Holy Cross Hospital in these difficult days 'ras Rev. Sister Carroll;

well kno-.m and beloved by early settlers in the Calgary diGtrict.

AL!E ~ TA -25- Among the first medical men to arrive in the southern part of the Province was the late Dr. Brett, later to become Lieutenant­

Governor of Alberta. He came to Calgary in 1883 as company doctor Brett with the Canaclian Pacific Railway. later he opened a small hospital, Sa.nator- known as the Brett Sanatorium, in the midst of the beautiful natural ( ium. surroundings at Banff, on the fringe of the Rocky Mountains. This

Sanatorium specialized in the treatment of Rheumatism through the utilization of sulphur baths. Linked with the earliest medical records of the North-West

'!'erritories was F.dmonton and its surrounding district. Only the Grey Nuns Royal North-West Mounted Police hospital at Fort Macleod antedated Arrive. the tiny hospital built in 1881 by the Grey Nuns at St. Albert, nine ( miles from the present city of :F.dmJnton. In 1886 on the outskirts of F.dm:>nton stood "The Hermitage, " the first hospital to have a fully trained nurse. Dr. John Richardson, medical officer to Sir John Franklin

on his overland journey to the Arctic, had visited :Edmonton in 1820. Medical Interesting remarks on the health of the community are to be found in E>q;>lorers. an extract from his diary quoted by Sir John in his "Nan~ative of a ( Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea." Goitre, he wrote, uas prevalent there, and was not due to the drinking of snow water. First In 1857 Dr. Hector visited Fort Edmonton as he accompanied Resident the Palliser Expedition. Six years later Dr. Cheadle passed through Doctor this fort on his way to the coast through the Yellowhead pass. Her e Arrives. he attended the chief·factor's child and a number of women and other

children. -26- Then, in 1872, there arrived overland from Fort Garry, in

company with George McDougall, a sen of the pioneer missi onarJ; Edmonton's first medical practitioner, Dr. George Verey. Farming and

school-teaching shared with the practice of medicine his time and in­

terests. A feu weeks after his death in 1881 there was begun the

( hospital building at St. Albert.

Tuenty-two years earlier the Grey Nuns had established them­

selves at Lac Ste. Anne, some sixty-five miles north-west o:l Ft • .Edmonto

Many miles still farther north and west, at Fort P-rovidence on the

shore of Great Slave Lake, another little company of Grey Nuns had

arrived in 1867.

Leaving the shelter of their nx>ther house and hospital in

Montreal, this latter group had reached Fort Providence after endur­ ( Grey Nuns ing untold hardships from their journey by land and water. Here they Nurse in founded the Sacre& Heart Hospital, serving the L~dians, employees of Far North. the Hudson 's Bay Company, and chance trappers and traders. Their

group of neat buildings, with trim picket fences, still stand as a

lancllna.rl~ to the traveller.

Their i.mrk in the far north '\-.'a.s to prevent the massacre of ( the innocents, to spread the Christian religi on, to educate t he Indians and to care f or the sick. Besides caring f or the inmates of

the hospital, they visited the sick in t heir tents and cabins.

In 1863 the little band of Grey Nuns had, at the suggestion Move to of Father Lacombe, moved from lac Ste. Anne to St. Albert. Here th e~' St. Albert. laboured am::mg the poor and sick in a settlement of several hundred

persons, comprised nx>stly of Metis or "Half-Breeds." Then, in 1870;

the terrible sIJE.llpox plague decided them to build a house that '!Oulc'. -27- help to stem the tide of the disease.

Several times d'.lring the last century had smallpox tal~en a dreadi'ul toll among the Indians and the Metis. Dr. Heber c. Jamieson of Edmonton, whose articles in the Journal of the Canadian

Medical Association afford m.ich interesting material on the history ( of medicine and nursing in Alberta, says that a "visitation in 1869

and 1870 spread throughout the whole of the prairie provinces, strik-

ing with particular vehemence the inhabitants of the Edmonton district. "

"Captain Butler, dispatched by the Lieutenant-Governor of

the North-West Territories to report on the situation, gives a vivid

description of the condition:- It is difficult to imagine a state of pestilence more terrible than that which kept pace with the moving parties of Crees during the swmner months of 1870. By streams and ( lakes, in willow copses, and upon bare hillsides, of ten shelterless from the fierce rays of the swmner sun and exposed to the rains and dews of the night, the poor, plague-stricken i:rretches lay down to die -- no assistance of any kind -- for the ties of family were quickl:: loos-· ened and mothers abandoned t heir helpless children upon t he wayside, fleeing onward to some fancied place of safet ~· .

At St. Albert, Dr . Jamieson's account continues, out of a total population of 900 as uany as 6oo uere infected, and before the end of the year over three hundred had n.ied. Oa t he reconunendation of Captain Butler, a Board of Eaalth •..1e.s established at Edmonton, E-nd was composed of ten clergymen ( and two Hudson ' s Bay facto :c~ . This ~•as the first in the Territories. Their first a~t was to prohibit the exportation in that year (1871) of buffalo robes, leather and furs, since it was believed contagion l!8.S commmicated by these co:r:lI!lOdities. ':'hey allowed no person to leave the district who had had smallpox within three months.

Doing what they could, then, to stay the disease, the Gre ~'

lliild to Nuns had erected at St. Albert a hospital, forty feet long by tuenty

Stay feet wide, and costing ten thousand dollars. Lacking an;ir forwal

Plague. training in nursing, and most of the medicine and equipment ~:.ra ilable -28-

Photo­ today> the nuns nevertheless carried on in this building for some graph. fourteen years. Over the rough trails from Fort Edmonton the early doctors travelled back and forth to visit their patients in this hospital. ( Meanwhile, in 1885, the Riel rebellion ma.de the li·i.:.tle fron·- Casual­ tier settlements, among them F.drnonton, look to their defences. ':'hough ties 1-::rrive. Edmonton saw none of the fighting, it did see something of its c.:::ter-

IllC:l.th. Arriving by river steamer, six casualties were placed in a

building knO\m as "The ¥..ili tary Hos:pi tal," and were cared for by D .- ~ . James H. Tofield.

In the following year, 1886, "The Hermitage," a rough lei:;

building eight miles down river from Fort Edmonton, wa.E used as a hos- ( Photo­ pital by :Miss Newton . First trained nurse in this part of the province. graphs. Miss Newton lra.s a graduate of Queen Charlotte's hospital, Londo'1. She had come from England to reside 11ith her brother, Rev. Canon Newton.

According to a newspaper notice at that time, she lra.s a"regularly

Trained trained nurse in the Church of England. ~liss Ne,rton has practised in

Nurse several London hospitals, and she holds diplomas and testimonials of Comes. ( efficiency from the leading physicians. " She advertised that sile ·pas prepared "to treat patients, partict•.la1·ly women and children, and. that her fees \!ere moderate."

FTom its early beginnings as a trading and cupply post,

Edmonton has grown rap::.d.ly, outdista.1cing its two neighbouring settle-

mentE:, Fort Saskatchewan and. St. Albert. So, in 1895, encouraged by

promise of support by F.dmonton's doctors, the Grey Nuns decided to

move from St. Albert to a. new hospital in Edmonton . -29- IXlring the summer of that year, Sister Marie Xavier and Sister Gosselin arrived from Montreal to prepare the plans for the

General building. A block of land on what is now Victoria Avemie between one

Hospital hundred and eleventh and one hundred and t welfth streets had been

begun. purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company, and funds to assist with the

building obtained from the city council. ~he three-storey brick building was not completed until 1898, but the first rooms were ready

in the early winter of 1895.

Then, on December 16 of that year, Sisters Den:e.rais, Dosithe

and St. Leon came from the Grey Nunnery in Montreal to assist with the

nursing. Sister Xavier va.s in charge.

On the following day the first patient va.s ad.mi tted, under

care of Dr. E. A. Braithwaite, a pioneer physician associated with the

First R.N.W.M.P., and for im.ny years now chief coroner of Alberta. Report

Patient has it that the doctor next day announced that another patient was to

Admitted. be admitted for an operation. The Sisters, so the story goes, were

greatly embarrassed, as they had not yet prepared for surgical worl~ .

They prayed to all the saints to help them out of the dileIIIDB. Their

prayers were answered, for the patient-to-be sent word that she could

not come that night, and that she would arrive several weeks later. • Thirty-six beds were provided, few enough to serve a town having a population of l,6oo with an estimated 15,000 in the sur­ Photo­ rounding district. Twelve years later a four-storey addition was graphs. built, while further rooms were provided in 1912. In 1920 west and

south wings were added, increasing the accoillJIX)dation to take care of two hundred patients. -30- 11i.ring each of these later years in the history of the

General Hospital, a class of nurses was graduated from the institution.

As far back as 1908, it bad been decided to establish a training school. Training Sister Ma.I"'J Casey, a graduate registered nurse from Notre Dame Hospital, School Montreal, and now Mother Provincial of the Grey Nuns for Alberta, be- ( Instituted. came superintendent of nurses. Three years later, the first class of

six student nurses graduated. Since that time more than five hundred

-young women have received their training in this hospital.

HISTORY OF NURSING QUFSTIONNAIRE

Feb. 15th, 1939· Name of Hospital: F.dmonton General, Edmonton, Alberta. rate founded: - 1895. ( Circumstances 'Which led to Realizing the necessity of possessing a its establishment: hospital where all patients, irrespec­ tive of race or creed, 'WOl.lld be treated, the doctors of the Colllimlnity sent a peti- - tion to His Excellency Bishop Grandin, asking for Sisters who would take over the administration of that hospital.

His Excellency immediately transmitted the request to the Superior General of the Grey Nuns of Montreal, who granted ( The Superior of the Mission at St. Albert was appointed to negotiate the purchasing of a lot where the hospital would be er­ ected. The site chosen was bounded by lllth and 112th Streets as well as by Jasper and Victoria Avenues. It was here that a three-storey building, with acco­ mmodation for 36 patients wa.s constructed.

Bed Capacity at Outset: 36. Now 100 beds for general care, 130 for Sanatorium. A new building under con­ struction will be ready by spring and will accommodate 100 patients.

Name of the first Superior: Sister ~ia.rie Xavier. -31- Name of first Superintendent Sister Mary Casey, R .N., now Mother of Nurses : Provincial for the Grey Nuns of Alberta, actually Superior Provincial of the Province at St. Albert.

How Hospital was supported By the Grey Nuns Commmi ty. then:

How Hospital supported now: B°'J the Grey Nuns Commmi ty.

( Outstanding persons who The authorities of the Grey Nuns' comm.lil­ were instrumental in its ity with the doctors' support. development:

Date Nursing School was 1908. First school of the City. established:

First Director {any parti­ Sister Mary Casey who was a graduate culars): Registered Nurse from Notre Dame H0s­ pital, Montreal, Q,.iebec . No . in first class (any particulars) : 6 lay nurses.

Length of course at that ~years. ( time:

Present Director of Nursing Sister Alice Bonin, graduate nurse from School {any particulars): St. Vincent's School of Nursing, Toledo, Ohio, B. Sc. from the Unive~sity of Montreal, Quebec. Full time Instructor ( s) : One. Total number of nurses on 19. staff:

Total number of student 75, including 3 Sisters. nurses in school: Hours ot duty ~or students: 8.

Major services in hospital: Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics .

Affiliations: Obstetrics and Nursery.

Contagious diseases. Total number of Nurses graduate to Dec. 31/38: 452. Outstanding graduates and Members of the Alberta Association their special contribution Members of their Alumnae. Some have post -32- graduate course in different specialities; Obstetrics, Surgery, Pediatrics, Public Health.

A:re pictures available of: 1. First Hospital? Yes .

2. First Supt. of Nurses? 3. First Graduating Class? Yes. ( 4. others showing actual nursing situations? Yes.

Signed: "Sister A. Bonin, !1 .N., B. Sc., Supt. of Nurses." In 1905 Alberta became one of the provinces of the Dominion,

with F.Cimonton as its capital. The years following were soon to see an Second ever-increasing flow of nurses graduate from the city's hospitals. The Hospital largest of these, the Royal Alexandra, had its beginnings just at the Planned. turn of the century.

On February 2nd, 1899, a group of physicians and other gentle- men of the City of Edmonton, had met at the home of Rev. H. A. Gray,

later Anglican Bishop of the diocese of :Edmonton, to discuss the advis-

ability of establishing a public non-sectarian hospital within the City.

Two of the others present were Mr. Fran.le Oliver, later Minister of the

Interior in the Federal Cabinet, and Rev . Dr. D. G. McQueen, a pioneer

Presbyterian ?·iinister. The outcome of the meeting was the decision to

build a second hospital in Eenx>nton.

Property was acquired at Boyle Street and Kinistino Avenue,

Photograph. in the heart of the "old11 City, and the construction of a frame two-

Built on storey building was proceeded with. At this same period, a group of

Boyle ladies organized as The Women's Hospite.1 Aid Society. This orga.niza-

Street. tion, which later changed its name to The Women 's Auxiliary of the -33-

Royal Alexandra Hospital, from that day to the present, has continued

to assist with the maintenance and work of the hospital.

On July 1$, 1900, Miss Jessie Turnbull was appointed Matron,

a position which she held for a little mre than a year.

Need for an isolation hospital '1as first discussed at a meet- ( ing of the hospital board on ~ 11, 1$03. Two years later this note

appeared in another entry in the minutes of the board:

"That the board deems the time opportune and the need urgent Plan for the erection of a new building and we do hereby coI!Dllit ourselves to Larger the undertaking. 11 A committee was appointed to get inf'ormation regard- ~arters. ing the matter of a site.

At a later meeting that year the minutes note that "the super-

( intendent was present and outlined a scheme for a training school for nurses." Two .weeks afterward the comnittee on "Rules, etc. for Trai n-

ing School for Nurses" brought its report to the board. The secretary

was then instructed to have the rules and regulations and the necessary

forms printed. He was also to procure equipment for the school and to

advertise in six leading newspapers for probationers.

An excerpt from the Annual Report for the year ending Decem-

ber 31st, 1505, reads:

':'rained "During t he autumn and early winter the difficulty of securing trained nurses led to the establishment of a Nurses training school for nurses in connection with the hos ­ pital. Largely owing to the efforts of the lady super­ Scarce. intendent (Miss Ida Bingeman) the school 1ra.s organized and equipped and four probationers were in attendance at the end of the year."

Photograph. In 1906 Mi ss Mary Mcissac, a graduate of Toronto General

Hospital, became Superintendent of the training school. Under her

leadership the school ma.de rapid strides . The school pi n or medal - 34 - presented to each nurse upon her graduation was designed and instituted

by Miss Mcisaac.

Of interest regarding the nursing situation is another entry

Registry in the minutes of March 8th, 1906. According to this, the mtron was is Kept. granted permission to keep a registry for nurses until such time as it ( took too I!llch of the time of the staff to attend to it.

Succeeding entries indicate briefly the steps in the erection

of the new hospital:

"Jan. 28, 1907: That the name of the old hospital remain as it is but that steps be taken to have the charter changed in order to name our new hospital "The Royal Alexandra Hospital." "Feb. 14, 1907: That the secretary be instructed to correspond with the Lieutenant-Governor re getting per­ mission to use the name 'Royal Alexandra..'" ( ~ een Perznits "July 11th, 1907: A comm.mication from the Lieutenant­ Governor re authority to use the name 'Royal AJ.exandra.' Use of Name . was read. Copy of letter containing Her Majesty's per­ mission, was attached."

Two years later steps were taken to purchase the block

of land on the site where the present hospital now stands.

August 30, 1909: 1-':oved and seconded that "notwithstanding the graduating exercises being held later on in the year, that if Miss Wallis desired her ~.ploma at once the same should be issued. "

Mi ss Wallis \.Ja.S the first graduate of the school. She is now Mrs. Smelli2 of Seattle.

So was built the new hospital, The Royal Alexandra, that

was to be the largest in the City and the la~gest in the Province of Photo- Alberta. Twenty-five beds had been provided in the original hospital. graphs. Five hundred, including those in the Isolation unit, are to be found -35- in the hospital today. It shares with one of Canada's largest air­ fuilt on ports the honour of being on one of the Dominion's ne.jor "curiosities," Portage Portage Avenue, claimed by Ripley to have been for many years the long­ Avenue. est paved street in the world without a single private dwelling built ( on it. In August, 1913, Dr. James Fyshe of Montreal was named Medical Superintendent of the three hospitals at that· time under t he

jurisdiction of the Board and indirectly of the City of F.dmonton, the

Royal Alexandra, the Strathcona and the Isolation. He reported for

duty on November 5th of the same year.

Harry J. Beginning with 1929, the school, as the largest in the

Crowe Province, received one of the Harry J . Crowe scholarships. These

( Scholar­ were, as in the case of the other provinces, to continue for ten ship. years, each being valued at $600. Affiliations are arranged so that students from t he Pr ovin­

cial Mental Hospital may take two years' training in surgery, obstet­

rics, pediatrics and comm.micable diseases. A limited number of stu­

dents from all the other Edmonton hospitals as well as from Vegreville

may also ta~e training in the last-named subject at the Isolation ( unit.

Graduates of the Royal Alexandra Hospital have gone out to

many far-flung parts of the British Empire, carrying the principles

of nursing to native women and establishing training schools for them.

In 1921 the first Scholarship of the Alberta Association of

Registered Nurses was ne.de to Miss Margaret Fraser, a graduate of the -36-

:Margaret Royal Alexandra Hospital, F.dmonton. In that same year of 1921, Miss

Fraser Fraser attended Columbia University, New York, where she later obtain- awarded ed the degree of B. Sc. in Nursing and thus became the first nurse

First Schol- graduating from a.11. Alberta Hospital to receive a degree in nursing. ( arship. Miss Fraser is now Superintendent of the Training School for Nurses of the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Edmonton, and is the first

graduate from her o'm training school to assume such a position.

THE R. A. H. ALUMIJAE ASSOCIATION

'!'he history of this Assoc iation dates back to June 23rd,

1923, when a meeting was called for the purpose of organizing an

Alumnae. A committee was appointed to draft the Constitution and

( By-laws in which the objectives of the Association vere stated as follows:-

The promotion of unity, loyalty and good feeling among the Alumnae; The advancement of the interests and upholding the standards of the profession of nursing;

To keep in touch l!ith our Alma Mater for our mtual help.

~he first President of the Association was Miss A. F. Laurie,

now Superinteadent of the Regina General Hospital.

One objective of the Association has been a Sick Benefi t

Fund for the l!lembers. ':'h:ree hundred dollars for this purpose has been

invested and one hundred dollars has been set aside as an active

Benefit Fund to be used at the discretion of a sna.11 committee.

The establishment of a Scholarship F\ind for the purpose of

assisting some of our graduates to ta2{e post-graduate work, has bee::1

most worth while. The money has been raised in various wa.;:,'s, such as -37- a garden party, donations from the Students' Government and Women's

AuxiliaI"'J, and dances held in the Nurses' Home . The first scholarship

was awarded in the summer of 1934 to Miss Carrie Genek, who went to the Toronto University for the Course in Public Health Nursing.

D..iring the Christmas season a News Letter is sent annually to

keep the members at a distance in closer touch with each other and with • the activities of the Association. A well-established social :£'unction is the Banquet given each

year in honour of the graduating class. This is always well attended

and serves as an enjoyable reunion for the members in .Edmonton and

vicinity and often from far distances.

HISTORY OF NURSING QUESTIONNAIRE

February 27th, 194o. Name of Hospital: Original Hospital - :Edmonton Public. :Edmonton, Alberta, built 19JO. Present Hospital - Royal Alexandra Hospital, built 1911. Iate Founded: March 21st, 1899 - Organization meeting, prior to the building of the original Hospital.

Circumstances which led to Disagreement between the Medical Board its establishment: of the Edm:>nton General Hospital and the authorities of that hospital. • Bed Capacity at outset: 25. Now 500. Name of First Superintend­ Royal Alexandra Hospital - Dr. Fyshe. ent: Name of First Superintend­ Miss Turnbull, July 19th, 1900. ent of Nurses :

Bo\: Hospital is .supported (Amed and controlled by the City of now: F.d.monton; patient receipts; grant frO!'l Pl·ovinc ial Government and City of F.draonton. - 36-

How Hospital was supported Public Subscriptions. then:

Outstanding persons who Bishop Gray; Mr • H. ':' • Henry; were instrumental in its Rev. Dr. McQ.ie en; Dr. Harrison; development: Rev. Mr . Ferrier; Dr. Braithwaite; M:c . Frank Oliver; Dr. Mcinnis. Nr . J. A. McDougall.

Date Nursing School ,.'2.s December, 1905· ( established:

First Director (any parti­ Miss Mcissac . culars):

No. in first class (any One graduated. particulars):

Length of crurse at that Three years. time:

Present Director of Nurs­ Margaret S. Fraser, R.N., B. Sc, first ing School (any particu­ Royal Alexandra graduate to be appointed lars): Superintendent of I·'!urses.

( Length of Course now: Three years.

No. of cl.ases per year: 'l'wo (March and September) •

full-time Instructor (s .i : '!'hree.

Total number of graduate Staff nurses - 30. nurses on staff: General Duty Graduates - 8o (Jan. 194o)

~otal number of student 140, including 7 affiliates (Jan. 191 ~0) nurses in the school:

Hours of duty f or students: Forty-eight hours a week, including ( class time. Major se1""Vices in hospital: Medical, sur gical, obstetrical, pedia­ trics, co:m."!D.lilicable diseases.

Affiliations: Students from P-r ovincial Mental Hospital affiliate f or two years; fiv·e from other schools affiliate f or communicable dis­ ease nursing.

~otal number of nurses graduate to Dec . 31/38: 659.

Q.itstanding graduates and 1. Kate S. Brighty, Director, P~blic their special contribution Health Nursing, Alberta. -39- to nursing: 2. I.aura JUlyn, Superintendent of Ntlr ses, Pithapura.m, India.

3. A. F. Lawrie, Superintendent of Nurses, Regina General Hospital, Regina, Saskatchewan.

Are pictures available of : l. First Hospital? Yes. 2. First Superintendent of ( Nurses ? No. 3. First Gl--aduating Class? Yes. 4. Others showing actual nursing situations ·? Yes.

Would it be possi ble to secure copies of these pictures at a later

time in order to build up a series relating to the development of

nursing in Canada? Yes.

(Signed) "M. S. FRASER," R.N . ,

Superintendent of Nurses, Royal Alexandra Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta. (

Edmonton's third hospital, the Misericordia, 'WB.S also f ound-

ed in the year 1900. '!'hough its beginnings were of the most meagre,

Maternity like the General and the Royal Alexandra, it has grown with the growth

Hospital of the City. From the ini tial four beds in 1900, additions have

Bu~ lt. brought the number up to the present-time to three hundred beds . Up-

wards of five hundred trained nurses have passed through its doors.

Need for a maternity hospital had induced Father Lacombe

at the beginning of the century to appeal to the Sisters of the

Misericorde in Montreal. Four sisters, the leader being Sister St.

Francis d 1As sise, and one secular nurse, Mi ss Margaret Kennedy, res-

ponded to his invitation, arriv:ing in Edmonton in MR.y, 1900. A f ive-

roomed house on llOth Street had been offered them by ~ir. Roderick

McRae. This was used fo~ two months, after which the Sisters moved -40-

to a larger frame house on lllth Street, just south of the present Photographs. location. Again it was Dr. Eraitbwaite who had the first patient in the new institution.

After five years in these cramped quarters, the Sisters

Quarters moved tha.nk:f'ully into a new building, a four-storey brick hospital

Englarged. this is still the nucleus of the present DD.lCh-enlarged institution.

Wings were added as the need arose. The most recent, completed in

194o, is an up-to-date maternity section.

In 1907, the hospital bad been opened to general work, and

Hospital a training school opened in the same year. Sister Ste. Catherine de

Hi dens Sienne had come west to organize the training. A year-and-a-half

Scope . course stressing maternity nursing was offered.

later the course was extended to three years and altered to

meet the qualifications prescribed for training of nurses in all the usual branches of study.

HISTORY OF NURSING ~UEST IONNAIRE

Februar'J 20th, 194o . Name of Hospital: Misericordia Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta.

n:i.te founded: May, 1900. Circumstances which led Need of a hospital for maternity, first to its establishment: realized by Rev . Fr. Lacombe, and in 1900 be asked Sisters of Misericorde to found one in Edmonton . Four Sisters and one Nurse, Miss Margaret Kennedy, arrived in May, 19()0. Mr . Roderick McRae offered the Sisters a small house, partly equip­ ped, to start their work. The Fathers and Priests of the surrounding parishes assisted with various donations, and many other charitable people, and also the so good Doctor Braithwaite, as we all called him. With the cooperation of a number of doctors, the first part of the -41-

present hospita.l '·ras built in 1905· Bed capacity at outset: 4.

N':'lw: 300. Name of First Superin­ Sister St. Francis d'Assise. tendent:

Name of First Superin­ Sister Ste. Catherine de Sienne. ( tendent of Nurses :

How Hospital was supported tonations and collections. then:

How Hospital is supported Government and City Grants, Patients ' now: Fees.

Q.itstanding persons who Dr. J, J. McDonell, having charge of the were instrumental in its maternity work for many years. In 1907 development: the hospital 'ras open to general work. I:ete Nursing School was 1907· established:-

( First Director {any par­ Sister Ste. Catherine came especially ticulars): from the Fast to start the school.

No. in first class (any 1. Miss Mills . particulars) : Length of course at that time: Maternity, l~ years.

Present Director of Sister Ste. Christine. Nursing School (any par­ ticulars):

Length of course nou: 3 years.

No . of classes per year: 2.

Full-time Instructor (s): 1.

~otal number of graduate 22. nurses on staff:

Total number of student nurses in the school: 88.

Hours of D~ty for ztu­ dents: 8 hours . -42- Major services in hospital : Medical, Surgery, Obstetrics, Pediatrics . Affiliations: Communicable Diseases at the Isolation Hospital. ?otal number of nurses graduate to Dec. 31/38: 307.

( Oltstanding graduates and None that I knOi T. their special contribution to nursing:

Are pictures available of: 1. First Hospital? Yes.

2. First Supt. of l\\lrses '? ? 3. First graduating class? No . 4. Others showing actual nursing situations? Yes.

Would it be possible to secure copies of these pictures at a later

( time in order to build up a series relating to the development of nursing in Canada?

(Signed) "Sr. Ste. Christine. 11

Supt. of Nurses.

F\llfilling another role in the nursing field, Edmonton's

fourth hospital, affiliated with the University of Alberta, affords

you..rig women an opportunity to complete n:ore advanced training.

Orginally kn°'m as the Strathcona. Hospital, it had been

f ounded in 1913-14 as a city-directed institution, and was later University taken over by the University. In 15'23 the nursing school ~-ra.s estab- acquires lished. Two courses '1ere offered, a three-year one leading to a Hospital. diplon:e. in nursing; and one of five years for those who wished to

obtain the degree of :Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

All nurses in training at this hospital are af'forded a

particularly varied background for their studies. Preliminary -43- sciences are taught in University lecture rooms. Communicable Dis- Affiliations ease training is obtained at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Psychiatri Varied. training at the Provincial Mental hospital, Ponoka, one month being

spent in each of these, and further experience gained by eight after-

noons spent at the Provincial Child Welfare Clinic. ( Miss Margaret Mco:umnon, a graduate of Montreal General

Hospital and of the School for Graduate Nurses at McGill, was the

first Superintendent of Nurses. Twelve students received diplomas

at the first graduation exercises.

~ £i 1937 the appointment of Miss Agnes J. Macleod as director of the School for Nursing ma.de it possible to complete the degree

r course. Miss }.4£..cleod was a member of the first Bachelor of Science I \ in Nursing class to graduate from Alberta. She had secured her ma.s- ( 1 ter's degree and teacher's certificate from Columbia University. A

course in public health nursing was now added to the curriculum,

enabling students to finish their degree course in their home univer-

sity.

Following their successful completion of the first year at

the University, students taking this course proceed with three years' ( training at the hospital. This training is similar in every way to

that given for the diploma. course. At the completion of this, stu-

dents are eligible for the Alberta Registered Nurses' examinations

and the diploma. in nursing. They my return immediately or later to

the University for their final year.

HISTORY OF NURSING QUESTIONNAIRE

February 8, 194o. Name of Hospital: University of Alberta Hospital, Edmont0!1 Alberta. -44-

!ate Founded: Founded in 1914 as Strathcona Hospital. Circumstances which led to See page 10 of School of Nursing An­ its establishment: nouncement. All records, etc., were tunied over to the City of F.dmonton when University took over hospital and in­ fornstion IIBY be available at City Hall. Bed Capacity at Outset: ( Now: 352 Name of First Superin­ tendent:

Name of First Superintend­ ent of Nurses:

How Hospital vas supported Strathcona Municipality. then:

How Hospital is supported Provincial Government. now:

Outstanding persons vho Dr. H. M. Tory, ( were instrumental in its Dr. A. C. P.ankin, development: Col. F. H. Mewburn.

rate Nursing School 'Wa.S 1923- established:

First Director (any parti­ Superintendent of Nurses - Miss M?.rg~. ret culars): McCa.nmw::>n, Graduate Montreal General Hcs?- 1tal, and School for Graduate Nurses, McGill University. Now Mrs. Jas. AlJ.an, Montreal. No. in first class (any 12. particulars) :

Length of course at that 3 years for diploma course. time: 5 years (2~ years in hospital) for Degree course.

Present Director of Nurs­ Superintendent of Nurses - Helen S. ing School (any particu­ Peters, Graduate Montreal General Hos­ lars: pital and School for Graduate Nurses, McGill University.

Length of course now: 3 years for diploma course. 5 years (3 years in hospital) for Degree course. -45- No. of classes per year: Two. Full-time instructor ( s) : One, with two supervisors, one medical, one surgical, who assist with teaching programme. Preliminary sciences are taught at the University.

Total number of graduate 51 plus 4 acting as technicians in X-Ray, nurses on staff: laboratories, etc. ( Total number of student nurses in the school: 112.

H~rs of duty for students: 46 for preliminary students, 48-52 for other students, including classes.

Major services in hospital: Medical, surgical, gynaecological, ortho­ paedic, obstetrical, eye, ear, nose and throat, children. Aff'iliations: Students go to Isolation Hospital, R.A.H. for Co:am:unicable Disease Training, one month, to Provincial Mental Hospital, Pon .. oka, for 1 month, and Child Welfare Clin­ ics two afternoons each week for one ( month. Students received from Provincial Mental Hospital for 2 years, and from Royal Alexandra Hospital for out patients department - 5 weeks. Total number of nurses graduate to Dec. 31/38: 255. Outstanding graduates and Miss Agnes Macleod, B. Sc., M.A. - Dir­ their special contribution ector of Nursing, University of Alberta, to nursing: and Advisor to Schools of Nursing in Alberta. Miss Margarita Reed, one of the first Canadian nurses to go to South Africa as an exchange nurse. Miss Elizabeth 8age, granted Florence Nightingale Scholarship.

Are pictures available of: 1. First Hospital? Pictures are avail­ able of University Hospital, but I do not know of any of the Old Strathcona Hospital. 2. First Superin­ tendent of Nurses? -46-

3. First graduating class? Yes. 4. Others showing actual nurs- ing situations? Yes.

Would it be possible to secure copies of these pictures at a later

time in order to build up a series relating to the development of ( nursing in Canada? Yes.

(Signed) "HELENS. PErERS,"

Superintendent of Nurses.

One of the factors responsible for the rapid growth of the City of F.dmonton in the early years of this century was the building

of the transcontinental railroad, the Cs.nadian Northern, later part of

Settlers the Caoadian National system. With its coming, settlers flocked into

( Flock the promising stretches of semi-bush and prairie that is known as

North- park land lying to the north-east and east of the City. One of the

East. largest centres of popula.tion on this railroad was Vegreville, in the

heart of a district largely settled by thousands of Europee.o immig-

rants. Needfor adequate nursing and hospital service had become mst

urgent.

So, in 1910, two priests of the tovn of Vegreville, Rev.

Father Bernier and Rev. Father Garnier, sent by way of Archbishop

Legal, a request for assistance to the far-away Superior-General of

the Sisters of Charity of

was granted and thus was another new flavour added to nursing in the

Province of Alberta.

Sisters come Four sisters were sent by the Superior-General to Vegrevill.e.

from Immediately upon their arrival plans were shaped for the constniction France. of a forty-bed hospital. The new building, to be entirely of bri ck, -47-

was to open in the fall of 19ll.

Meanwhile, under Sister Marie Victorie Bruhay, the sisters

improvised a small eight-bed hospital in a private dwelling. on Nov-

ember 2nd the first patient w.s admitted. Others followed so quickly that still further patient-space had shortly to be found in this tem­ ( New Hos- porary establishment. Al.most a year later, on October 4th, 1911, the pital new building w.s formally opened, and became known as the Vegreville

Opened. General Hospital. Pioneering was still the order of the day in the district, and the hospital staff had their share of it. Not for some years was the greatest drawback, and adequate water supply, finally overcome.

A graduate of Le Mans hospital in France, Sister Josephine

( Boisseau arrived in Vegreville in 1915 to open a training school for Photograph.nurses. later, wings added to the building increased the number of

beds to ninety, and mre than that munber of students have graduated Sister from the hospital. Sister Boisseau is still the Superintendent of

Josephine nurses. In her honour the Sister Josephine award has been instituted,

Founds to be given annually to a member of the graduating class showing out- School. standing professional ability.

( Training in isolation nursing for students at the Vegreville hospital is afforded through affiliation with the Royal Alexandra hos-

pital in F.dloonton. Experience in public health work is made available under the supervision of the Provincial District Nurse.

HISTORY OF NURSING QUESTIONNAIRE

February, 1939. Name of Hospital: Vegreville General Hospital, Vegreville, Alberta. -48-

Date Founded: October 6th, 1910. Circumstances which led to Archbishop Legal of F.dmonton at the re­ its establishment: quest of Rev. Father Bernier of Vegre­ ville and of the local doctors, invited the Sisters of Charity of Evron to open a hospital in Vegreville to serve the needs of the conmunity. In 1910, 4 sis­ ( ters started a small hospital in a pri­ vate home of eight beds, while awaiting the erection of a larger building. The nev hospital with a capacity of 4o beds was ready in 1911. Bed capacity at outset: 4o. Nov: 90 beds. Name of First Superintendent: Sister Mary Victorie Bruhay. Name of first Superintendent Sister Josephine Boisseau. of Nurses: How hospitai was supported ( then:

How hospital is supported nov: Outstanding persons who Dr. A. Couillard; Rev. Father Garnier; were instrumental in its Dr. Field; Rev. Father Bernier. development:

n:i.te Nursing School was November, 1915. established:

First Director (any parti­ Sister Josephine Boisseau. ( culars): No. in first class (any 5. particulars) :

LeDgth of course at tbat 3 years. time:

Present Director of Nursing Sister Josephine Boisseau, graduate of School (any particulars): Le Mans, Fnnce. Lenth of course now: 3 years. No. of classes per year: One. Full-time Instructor (s): One. -49- Total number of graduate nurses on staff: 8. Total number of student nurses in the School: 30. Hours of duty for students: 1 hours. Major services in hospital: ( Affiliations: Royal Alexandra Hospital (Isolation) for coDllll.l.nicable diseases.

~otal Number of Nurses graduate to Dec. 31/38: Outstanding graduates and their special contribution to Nursing:

Are pictures available of: 1. First Hospital? Yes.

2. First Superintendent of Yes. Nurses? ( 3. First Graduating Class? Yes. 4. Others shOl.'ing actual nurs- Yes. ing situations? Would it be possible to secure copies of these pictures at a later time in order to bui ld up a series relating to the development of

nursing in Canada? (Signed) "SISTER ANNA IOOHAVE"

Vegreville.

Claiming a distinction unique in Canadian Nursing History is another modest hospital, also built on this same Canadian Northern

Lamont railroad running out of Edmonton. I.qring about half-way between the

Hospital City and Vegreville, the little vi1lage of la.mont was surrounded on

Built. all sides by settlements of Russians and Poles. With the assistance of the Home Mission Board of the Methodist Church, the crying need for -50-

a hospital was fulfilled in 1912 with the building of a. sixteen-bed Photograph. institution. For some years previous, Dr. A. E. Archer and Dr. W. T. Rush had been the "horse and buggy" doctors of a large territory sur­ rounding Lamont. Mrs. Archer, a trained nurse and a trained anaesthe­ ( tist, had assisted her husband on macy occasions. Now Dr. Archer was named medical superintendent of the new hospital, a post he retains to

this day. Recent~ he was honoured by being chosen President of the Canadian Medical Association.

As a mtter of fact, this unimposing little country hos-

Numerous pital has numerous claims to distinction. A training school for nurs­ Claims to es had been started with the opening of the building, and a cosmopolit- ( Distinction. tan atmosphere has alW¥s attended it. Perhaps no other Canadian hos­ pital of its size could claim such a variety of Alma. Me.ters for their

nursiD.g superintendents, nor so 1IBilY graduates vho have scattered so far to practise their profession. In 1925, also, the Lamont Hospital opened its doors to t\ro Oriental students, the first in the Dominion

to establish such a precedent. Most fascinating are the records having to do with the

( Graduates nursing superintendents and the locale of the graduates. Miss V. Travel Far. Shuttle\rorth was the first Matron. A worker of the Women's Missionary

Society of th~ Methodist Church, she had formerly had nursing exper­ Photo­ ience in Japan. First director of the School for Nursing was Miss graph. Sarah c. Slaughter.

Only trainee to graduate in the first class, Miss Purschke of Star, Alberta, completed her training in 1915. later graduatr- -51-

have gone to Alaska, Korea, India and other parts of the Empire.

First in Canada to give the same training and status to Orientals as to "white" girls, the Iamont has, over a period Train of years, graduated ten Chinese and Japanese nurses. First two to enter Orientals. were Miss Grace Oyama and Miss Chyo Kubo. Both, on completing thei r ( training, vent to the Orient to do nursing.

HISTORY OF NURSING QUESTIONNARIE

February 18th, 194o. Name of Hospital: Iamont Public Hospital, Lamont, Alberta. Date Founded: 1910.

Circumstances which led to Need for hospital services am:>ng settlers its establishment: recently coming from Central Ellrope. ( Bed capacity at outset: 16. Now: Bo. Name of First Superintendent: Dr. A. E. Archer. Name of First Superintend­ Miss v. Shuttleworth. ent of Nurses:

How Hospital was supported B..lilt chiefly by local subscriptions. then: Supported by fees and grants from Home Mission Board of Methodist Church.

How Hospital is supported largely fees and ordinary sources of now: revenue. Annual grant Home Mission Board of United Church of Canada, about Outstanding persons who were Dr. w. T. Rush; R. E. Harrison; instrumental in its devel­ Rev. T. C. Buchanan; Dr. A. E. Archer. opment:

Ie.te Nursing School was 1912. established:

First Director (any parti­ Miss S. C. Slaughter. culars):

No. in first class (any One - 2 in the class, but owing to ill­ particulars): ness she didn't complete her course until 1918. -52-

Len~h of Course at that 3 years. ti r.~ :

Present Director of Nurs­ Olga Scheie - Acting (not pernanent). inG School (any particu­ L. L. Wright, Superintendent of Nurses, lars): June 1930 - July 1939· Length of Course now: 3 years. ( No. of cle.sses per yeer: One. F\ill-tiree Instructor ( s) : Yes. (Miss P. L. Brown). Total number of gra.duate 4 Nurses, one Dietitian. nu:i:-ses on staff: Total nureber of student 32. nurses in the school:

Hot.~ rs of duty for students: 8-hour day.

Maje~ services in hospital: Medical, Surgical, Obstetrical, Urological, P.a.diological, Pediatrics.

( Affilj_a· ~ions: None with other hospitals. Nurses receive training in Drs. Outdoor Dept. , and some contact with Public Health Units.

~otal num~er of nurses 148. g:i:-adusti:? to Dec. 31/38:

Outst<>.nding g!'e.d1u:~.tes and Miss Ada Sandell, 1922, Missionary in the::.;.~ spe-: :t~ . 1 cont,:ribution Korea, Superintendent of Nurses at Ham­ to nu:-sin1: heung. Noreen Lum, 1932 (Chinese), Superintend­ ent of Nurses, Happy Valley Hospital, Hong Kong. Vera Boud, 1928, Missionary in India, 1928. Two Japanese nurses graduated for our f irst. Since then, several Japanese and Chinese; of the first, l died in 1934, the other living in Tokyo, Japan. Married to a Japanese Scientific Resea:reh man.

Are p:i.cturei: a.vailE\ble of ~ 1. First Hospital? Yes. 2. First Superintendent of Yes. Nurses? 3. First graduating Class? Yes. -53- 4. Others showing actual nursing situations? Yes.

Would it be possible to secure copies of these pictures at a later

time in order to build up a series relating to the development of

nursing in Canada? Yes, from Dr. A. E. Archer. ( (Signed) "OLGA SCHEIE" per K. S. Brighty. This hospital serves a large :Ellropean group of emigrants - over 50,000 R.issians and Poles.

Pioneering of quite another kind 'Wa.S done in recent

years by Alberta's first mental hospital. Located in a pretty sp.ot

Nurses near the Ee.ttle River between Ponoka and Morningside, some seventy

Needed miles south of Fiimonton, this hospital had grown from the small estab- ( Mental lishment opened in 1911 into a most imposing-looking institution that

Hospital. housed fi~een hundred patients.

Miss E. Locke, tre first matron, was a graduate nurse "Who Photograph had received her training in :England. Only a small proportion of the

staff were qualified nurses and they were not necessarily trained in

psychiatric work. Certain changes 'Were brought about, the most signi- ficant being, after the appointment of Dr. c. A. Baragar as acting ( superintendent, the establishment of a nursing school.

Dr. Baragar, a psychiatrist from Brandon Mental Hospital, Psychiatric was later made commissioner of mental institutions and director of

Training mental health for Alberta. He was until his death in 1936 an out-

Begun. standing figure in mental hospital work in the west. Deficiencies in

the nursing care given in the Ponoka Mental Hospital cballenged him

to find a remedy. An educational progra.Dmle for the staff wuld, he -54- felt, improve the care of the patients by improving the nursing ser-

vice. After considerable negotiation, a three-year course of training

'WB.S arranged. This "W9.S later changed to four years.

"Psychiatric Nursing," said Dr. Baragar in one of his

letters, "has sometimes been regarded as a subsidiary branch of general ( nursing, and on a par with fever, orthopedic, or obstetrical nursing,

Urged to be picked up in a few months, or even weeks. But thoughtful consider-

Psychia- ation of the nature and complexities of the mind and of the peculiar tric Nurs- difficulties and requirements associated with the care and treatment of

ing. mental disorders should, I think, correct such a misconception and

should place beyond a doubt the importance and dignity of psychiatric

nursing as a I1Bjor profession in its own right.

( "As patients suffering from mental illness are not immme to physical ills, in fact usually are prone to them, the psychiatric nurse should

be skilled in the care of such diseases. While it is highly desirable

that the general nurse should have some training and experience in

As well as psychiatric nursing, it is imperative that the psychiatric nurse

General receive training in general nursing. Upwards of half the occupied

Nursing. hospital beds in Canada are in mental hospitals, and even in general

hospitals a certain proportion of the patients are mental cases to a

lesser or greater degree. . "Furthermore, a very considerable proportion of the

health and social problems that conf'ront the district public health

nurse are psychiatric in nature --problems in mental hygiene. The

importance of psychiatric training in nursing can hardly be over-

estiI1Bted. 11 -55- Accordingly, the four-year course arranged for student

nurses at the Provincial Mental Hospital "18.s divided into two parts.

Two years were to be spent in training at this institution, and two

years at one of the general hospitals in either Calgary or F.dm:mton,

with whom affiliation was arranged. ( Miss Catherine Lynch, a graduate of the Winnipeg General

Hospital, became the first Superintendent of Nurses at this school, while Miss Hilda Bennett, B. Sc., in Nursing, University of Alberta, was appointed instructor in nursing.

First class of five students in this combined psychiatric

and general course graduated in 1936. A shadow of sadness was ca.st upon the graduation exercises, for Dr. Baragar had not lived to see this first fruition of his efforts to better the standard of mental

nursing in Alberta.

HISTORY OF NURSING QllSTIONNAIRE

February, 1939· Name of Hospital: Provincial Mental Hospital, Ponoka, Alberta.

~te founded: July 4th, 1911.

Circumstances which led to All Alberta patients had previously been its establishment: sent to Brandon, Manitoba. It vla.S thought at thi s time that Alberta should have its o~m mental hospital. The fire in the Brandon Mental Hospital in 1910 ma.de it imperative that a hospital be built here. Bed capacity at outset: Now:

Name of first Superin­ Dr. T. na.wson. tendent: -56-

Name of first Superintend­ Miss E. K. Locke. ent of Nurses:

How Hospital was supported By Public Funds. then:

How Hospital is supported ~J Public funds. now:

( Outstanding persons who Dr. C. Be.raG ~X - instrumental in develo~ing were instrumental in its nursing school. development: Dr. G. A. Davidson, - instrumental in developing nursing school.

Miss c. Lynch - instrumental in develo~ing nursing school.

Date Nursing School was 1930. established: First Director (any par­ Miss C. I.Qrnch. ticulars):

( No. in first class (any Eight. particulars):

Length of course at that Three years. time:

Present Director of Nurs­ Miss C. N. Jackson. ing School: (any particu­ lars):

Length of crurse now: Four years.

No. of classes per year: One. ( Full-time instructor (s): One.

Total number of graduate Fifty-one. nurses on staff:

Total number of student Seventeen here, seventeen affi liating. nurses in the school:

Hours of duty for students : Eleven - 55 hours per week. Major services in hospital: Psychiatric.

Affiliations: Send student nurses to University Hospital, Royal Alexandra, Edmonton,General, -57- Misericordia, Calgary General, Holy Cros Hospital. Receive students from Unive~­ sity Hospital. Total number of nurses Nineteen. graduate to Dec. 31/38: Outstanding graduates and their special contribu­ ( tion to nursing: Are pictures available of: l. First Hospital? 2. First Superintendent of Nurses? 3. First graduating class? Yes. 4. Others showing actual nurs­ ing situations? Would it be possible to secure copies of these pictures at a later time in order to build up a series relating to the development of

( nursing in Canada:? We have only one copy of the first graduatin~ class picture. (Signed} "C. N. Jackson, " Supt. of Nurses. Dr. Ba.rgar's reference to the work of the public health nurse suggests another important chapter in the history of nursing in Alberta. This is the field of public health nursing. ( In 1918 public health nursing had been inaugurated in the Public Province, when public health va.s a branch of the De~artment of the Health Provincial Secretary. Four public health nurses co~stituted the first Nursing. field staff, under the direction of the Superintendent of Nurses, Miss -58- Christine Smith. They Yere Miss Elizabeth Clark, Miss Gladys '.!'hurston, Inaugurated. Miss Bessie Sargent and Miss Maud Davidson.

Prior to her appointment, Miss Smith bad already bad wide

experience in nursing and administrative work. After graduating from

( the Toronto General Hospital in 189$, she proceeded in 1900 to Dawson City, Yukon, where she was Matron of the Good Samaritan Hospital for

seven years. Afterwards she spent several years as Superintendent of

the Hugh vaddell Meoorial Hospital at Canora, Saskatchewan. Then, in

1917, she joined the staff of the Public Health Branch, of the Govern­

ment of Alberta.

In the following year the Department of Public Health ~! ee.lth Act was passed. Under this Act, the Department of Public Health was :;)epartment. ( given authority and responsibility for administering all the statutes Created. of the Government relating to health.

Alberta was thus the second Province in Canada to set up a separate ministry of health, the first being New Brunswick in 1917.

Alberta's ministry thus was one of the first in the British Empire.

The late Hon. A. G. Ma.cKay, who "'8.s cbiefl:; instrumental in the form­

ation of the Department, became its first Minister of Health.

l In succeeding years the public health nursing staff grad­ 'l'\;o Types ually increased and nursing services greatly expanded. The work Nu::-sing falls into two categories, that confined to central points and that Service. carried on in more isolated districts. The latter is generally knoun

as "district nursing."

In the larger centres, E:dmonton, Ca~· , Medicine Hat,

Drumheller and Vegreville, the work consists chiefly in the operation -59- of baby and pre-school clinics , the inspection of school children, pre- natal and post-natal instruction and general educational work in regard

to child health. n.tring the year 194o, for example, 425 child welfare

clinics were held in these centres, vi.th a total attendance at all

clinics of 13,027 babies and pre-school children. ( In the zoore remo~ communities, medical and hospital

facilities are often many miles distant from the district where the

nurse is stationed. Her duties are therefore of a most diverse nature. District "Courage, skill and sound physique, as well as a high degree of ini- Work tiative anddevotion to service" are the quali ties such a nurse I!llst Diverse. possess. She my be called upon to assume the role of doctor and

dispenser, as well as trained nurse.

( Accordingly, the district nurse maintains an office in her

home. Here she keeps a supply of drugs, medical and surgical and .Photograph. nursing equipment. Chief features of her work are pre-natal instruc-

tion, maternal care, post-natal care and first aid service. Because

these nurses serve a cOllllD.lllity unaided by a physician, they are re­

quired to have special qualifications in obstetrical work. In both types of nursing the general work of child weli'are,

investigation of cases requiring medical and dental care, periodic

school health inspections, inmunization of pre-school children and

many other forms of service centre around the nurse. From her home

radiate m:i.ny forms of cotnm.lility service.

Health In 1919 "The F\lblic Health Nurses Act" came into effect.

Course It now appears as Chapter 59 of the "Revised Statutes of Alberta,

Begun. 1922. 11 The Act outlines certain regulations dealing with a Public -60-

Health Nurse in the execution of her duties. It also states that

"There shall be established in connection with the University of Alberta a special course of study for nurses ••••••••

"The said course shall include sanitation, personal hygiene, ( bacteriology, public health, examination of the eye, ear, nose, throat and teeth, the pre-natal period, infant welfare, child welfare, in­ spection and instruction of school children, conmunicab1e diseases,

preventive medicine and methods, and such other studies as from time to time the senate of the University shall prescribe."

After satisfactory completion of the above course, a diploma is issued. First course in the Province of Rlblic Health Nursing was At TJni.ver- conducted at the University of Alberta during 1919-20 in collaboration s~.ty of ( with the Department of P..iblic Health. Dr. Heber Jamieson, Acting Alh:rta. Deputy Minister, who was instrumental in arranging for the course, gave some of the lectures.

At the time of writing, the !Ublic Health Nursing Staff in Alberta consisted of forty nurses. Thirty-four of these serve rural Public Health Districts.

Still another service rendered by the Nursing Division of ( Travelling Alberta's Department of !Ublic Health is the Travelling Clinic. This Clinic. 'Was first organized in 1924 by the Nursing Branch, under the super­

vision of Miss Elizabeth Clark, then Superintendent of Public Health

Nurses. Lecture courses are also arranged, and general assistance and :?i'otographs • advice given in connection with all child welfare work in the Province.

In Alberta two full-time Health Units were organized in

1930 and put into operation in 1931. The staff consists of a Medical -61- 0fficer of Health; two Public Health Nurses; a Sanitary Inspector and

a Secretary-Technician.

These rural Health Units offer an excellent opportunity for

the B~blic Health Nurse to fulfill the objective of her profession. Public At present the number of Units operating are nine, serving a fair pro­ ( Health portion of the rural population. The results accomplished by these Nurses in rural Health Units have been such that the Department of Health is Health proceeding with a programme under which additional Health Units will Units. be established as the funds are nade available for this purpose, until

all sections of the Province are served.

No review of the development of nursing in Alberta mruld

be complete without reference to the work done by the m.micipal hos­

( pitals. Alberta was the second province in Canada. to adopt legis­

lation providing for the establishment of municipal hospitals. This

was passed in 1917 and 1918, the first hospital being organized at

Ma.nnville, in 1918, with Mi ss Elizabeth Clark as matron, on the basis Establish of the Act passed in that year. Many new trails have been blazed in :tin.mi c i pal developing a minicipa.l hospital scheme that would meet the needs of Hospitals. the Province's many scattered and diverse comm.mities. There are now

twenty-four of these institutions operating under "The llinicipa.l Hos­

pitals Act of 1929." These provide hospital facilities for one-third of the rural population of Alberta.

Diverse interests were also responsible for the founding

of some of these country hospitals.

In 1909, Mrs. Agnes Sorrell Forbes, wife of Dr. Alexander -62- Forbes, a Presbyterian Minister, commenced the work of the Pioneer Started in Hospital at Grande Prairie. A caboose and tent kitchen comprised the Caboose. stzucture of this institution at first. later a log building was

erected. This in turn finally was follcmed by a fully-equi~pcd modern mlllicipal hospital. ( At Islay the m.micipal hospital was formerly known as a

"lady Minto Hospital." It ·was erected with the aid of funds supplied

by Lady Minto.

A gift of the Archbishop of Canterbury, an attractive

little Cottage Hospital was erected at Onoway in 1913 under the Church Gift of of England Mission. It was know as the St. Barnabas Hospital. EB.ch Archbishop. of its first two matrons, Miss Dalton and Miss Storrar, received their

training in the University College Hospital, London, England. ( At Athabasca the hospital there ~in 1922 transferred as

a gift to the M.J.nicipal Hospital Board. It had been established by

the Victorian Order of Nurses.

Altogether there are now ninety-four "approved" hospitals

in the Province. There are institutions which meet the requirements

established by the Provincial Government. These have a total bed ( capacity of 5,143, including cribs and bassinets. There are as well

:forty-four nursing homes and twenty-six baby shelters. Alberta also

bas five mental institutions and a number of special hospitals. They

are the Provincial Sanatorium at Keith, the Junior Red Cross Hospital

in Calgary and the Children's Section of the University Hospital.

Still another interesting phase of nursing in Alberta Registered pertains to the establishment and activities of the Provincial Asso- Nursef;' Act -63- Passed. ciation of Registered Nurses.

In 1916 the profession gained Jmlch added status through the

:passing of a "Registered Nurses' Act." ':'his gave official r ecognition to the Association.

Previous to the organization of the Alberta Association, ( local associations had been formed in :Edmonton, Calgary, Medicine Hat

and I.ethbridge. In 1916 the former two drew together and a committee

was formed to interview the then Minister of Health, the late Hon.

A. G. Mackay. He took a deep interest in the movement and assisted

materially in the drawing up of a constitution and by-laws to be pres­

ented to the Legislature. The Hon. Mr. Mackay personally sponsored

the Bill and used his influence to secure the passing thereof. This

took place, then, in 1916.

Original members of the Association at the time of its in­

corporation were the President, Miss Victoria I. Winslow, and Eleanor

McPhedran, Lottie M. Eddy, Martha E. Morkin, Mary Patterson, Lillian

Armstrong, Edi th Rutherford, Margaret Walsh, Lottie Iimter, Agne s Hurcomb, Hester McKay and Sara Kingstown.

In 1919 an amendment was passec1. to the Act, placing the

Association among other professional associations under the control Act of the University of Alberta. The Association was given the same Amended. standing in University Councils as other professi ons held by repres­

entation on the Senate of the University. The first appointment to

the Senate vas held by Miss Victoria I. Winslov, at that time Super­

intendent of the Medicine Hat General Hospital.

The Association has devoted itself to :f\lrthering the -64-

interests of nurses, both graduates and students. In accordance with Work in the Constitution of the Canadian Nurses' Association, an effort bas T'nree been ma.de to carry on the work throti.gh the three sections, Nursing Sections. :Education, Hospital and Schools of Nursing, and Public Health and

( General Nursing. Chief among the Association's activities have been refresh- er courses held periodically and arranged th:n::>ugh the University of

Alberta. The endeavour is mde to vary the courses sufficiently to be of interest and help to all classes of nurses.

In 1932 a committee was appointed, to function annually, for the inspection of training schools. It is composed of the Regis- h'aining trar of the University, an educationalist from the University of Schools ( Alberta, a representative from the medical faculty and a representative Inspected. from the Alberta Association of Registered Nurses. Miss Eleanor

McPhedran was a member of the first committee.

In the same year the Alberta Government asked for a rep-

resentative from the Association to meet with the Health Insurance

and State Medicine Committee. Miss Fanny Munroe, Superintendent of

Nurses at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, was appointed to do this. ( Four years later the Relations Commit tee, headed by Miss

Phyllis Gilbert, brought in a resolution for the fornation of dis-

tricts throughout the Province under the Association. District In the following year the President, Miss Kate S. Brighty, Organizations was authorized to visit ca..mtry points and organize districts. The Formed. organization took place in the following sequence: -65- District 1 Northern Alberta 11 2 Ponoka " 3 Calgary II 4 Medicine Hat " 5 Drumheller 11 6 Red Deer II 7 F.d.monton " 8 Lethbridge ( A f'urther amendment to the Registered Nurses' Act of 1916

was passed in 1934. This raised the educational requirements to

Grade eleven for entrance to training schools.

Again in 1941 a revision of the Constitution and By-laws Require- took place. This time the educational requirements were raised from mente Grade eleven to high school diploma. with Chemistry 2, Physics 2 or Raised. Biology. This change took place because of the discontinuance of

Grade eleven Departmental examinations.

( In Edmonton, Calgary, Medicine Hat and Lethbridge there are

well established Registries for Private D.lty Nurses. Since 1941 prac-

tical nurses have been registered in Edmonton.

At the Annual Convention of the Association in EdJ:Ix>nton on

March 22nd and 23rd in 1932, Miss Jean Browne of Toronto was a visitor

and guest speaker. She was a member of the joint cormnittee appointed

by the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Nurses' Associa-

tion to arrange for the survey of nursing education in Canada. Survey In Miss Brovme's address to the Convention, she reviewed Originated points of special importance in the Weir survey . During her address in Alberta. she said:

"It is interesting to note that this survey originated in a resolution presented in Calgary in 1926 by the late Dr. H. R. Smith on behalf of the A.A.R.N. and the Alberta Hos­ pital Association." -66- The Administrative authority of the Alberta Registered

Nurses' Act is vested in t he University of Alberta, previously '\-.'i.th

the Senate, but changed in 1942 to the General Faculty Council, on

which the Association bad representRtion.

The Association is interested in advancing the establish-

ment of a centre.lized School of Nursing for prelimin~ry training.

¥dss Rae Chittick of Calga.ry is Wartime President of the Miss Chittick Association. She is well-known in educational circles through her President. publication of articles and text books on health teaching.

In connection with the shortage of nurses caused by the

second World 'War, the Association has focussed its attention on imple-

menting the recommendations passed at a joint committee of the C.N.A.

( and representatives of University Schools of Nursing. These urge an all-out effort to stinlllate young women to enter training schools and

to encourage graduates to av~il themselves of post-graduate cOl.lSes.

Nurses of Alberta generously support the British Nurses' Relief F\lnd inaugurated by the Canadian Nurses' Association.

Since 1932, when Mrs. Harold Vango, R.N., became Registrar Pe't"'m~nent and Secretary of the Association, a great contribution has been made Scc:-:-et~ry through the central office to the advancement of nursing in the Prov- Ap;;>ointed. ince.

Office of the Association is in St. Stephen's College, on the University Campus, Edmonton. ***************¥.-** Interesting to ell members of the nursing profession is the -67- "Act Respecting Health Insurance," passed by the Alberta Legislature

in 1935. The Act, which has not yet been implemented, exemplifies advanced planning in the care of the health of the people, and would ::!:nsurrnce greatly affect the status of nursing. lntrcduced. Briefly, the Act provides for a Health Insurance Commission

to have charge of the formetion end administration of medical districts

thoughout the Province. Districts would be formed only with the con­ sent of the ratepayers or their representatives.

Having been duly organized, such a medical district would

provide free medical, nursing, dental and hospital care to all those

who paid the annual insurance premium prescribed by the authorities.

T'nus, nurses would be in the employ of conmunities, with standardized wage scheme, hours of work, etc. ( -!:--*~- ************

During the years 1900 to 1906, the History of the Private

Dity Group of this Province beg~n to be written. At th~t time there

was a great need for additional graduate nurses to assist in stemming

the epidemic of typhoid that was spreading itself throughout this Prive.te country. Eastern nurses responded to the call of sorely pressed ( physicians and nurses , end came West. Many of this grl)Up today can Gron:i;i tell of the fortitude Pnd ingenuity the.t ·:2.s expressed in meeting ::>:.m~e ered. difficulties and overcoming them. These women coming from the East

~o the Cities of Medicine He.t, I.ethbridge, Calgary E!.!ld Edmonton,

assisted largely in forming the vanguard of our present registration

regulations. Soon after t heir arrival, we find records of the estab­

lishment of local Registrie~, quaint beginnings, sonetimes fOlllld in . -68- the local drug store where the proprietor had generously offered to

keep a record of nurses on and off duty.

In 1906-07 the records of the Edmonton City Hospital (later Registry to become the Royal Alexandra Hospital) refers to the lady Superintend­ Kept in ent keeping the Registry. Throughout the following years, interest in ( 19()6. a local Registry has always been maintained in Edmonton. A deep interest in the Private futy Nurses wa s always

taken by Miss Lilian C. Ma.tthevs, who, coming from Nova Scotia in 1906, First first settled in the Town of Weta.skiwin. later as Mrs. R. W. R. Drafted Armstrong, she resided in Edmonton. Still actively interested in the Act. Private futy Group, Mrs. Armstrong was responsible for the first dre,ft

of the Act that was later to become the "Registered Nurses 1 Act."

( Still another Nova Scotian, Miss Annie L. Sproule, also arrived in Alberta. in 1906, and from 1924 to 1940, Miss Sproule was the faithful and untiring Registrar of the Edmonton Private futy group. The charter

members under the Registered Nu rses' Act are representative of this

early pioneer group to whose foresight and crurage the nurses of this

Province owe so ruch.

fi *lE l! lE lE lE lE "****** Sharing in the records of making nursing se:r-vices available other throughout the length and breadth of this Province are the Victorian Nursing Order of Nurses; The Canadian Red Cross Society; The Salvation Army; Groups. Nursing Orders, both religious and secular, of the Missionary Socie­

ties of Churches in Canada and abroad.

furing the Great War 1914-18, Alberta nurses rallied to

the colours Overseas and at home, serving through the Army Nursing -69- Corps; The Imperial, Canadian and Allied Forces. A full record of Overseas their activities and the establishment of the Overseas Nursing Sisters' Nurses . Association is written wider the caption of their O'Wil Association. *************** ( At the time of writing, the Indian Affairs Branch of the Dominion Government provides a nursing service to treaty Indians. In Nursing this Province, exclusive of the religious orders who give a certain Among amount of hospital care within their institutions, Indian reserves in Indians. Alberta have one travelling nurse, two resident nurses and nine nurses in Indian Hospitals.

The experience of working with the Indian population is a unique one, fraught with interest and adva.nture. To those who have Photograph. ( patience and an widerstanding of huma.n nature such an opportunity

leaves a lasting impression.

In a province where so many have done pioneering ---and in rr.ia.ny fact some may be said to be still pioneering in the out~ing frontier Nurses districts it is not an easy matter to select names of nurses who Pioneered. should head a roster as most outstanding in their profession.

Among those whose contribution stands out in the meIOOry of

bygone years are such women as Miss Mary Ellen Birtles, who helped to

organize new hospitals in Medicine Hat and Calgary; Miss Marion

Moodie, who was one of Alberta's first graduates and whose services

were afterwards in demand in many parts of the Province; and Miss F.dna.

M. Auger, whose claim to fame is pa.rticul.a.rly deserving. -70- Alberta can claim Miss Auger for her very ow, for she arrived in the Medicine Hat district at a very early age. There she received her education. When she graduated in 1908 from the Medicine Miss Auger Hat Hospital, she won the gold medal of the school. After three years' Honoured. ( work and study in New York, she returned to Medicine Hat as Assistant Superintendent and Instructor of nurses. In 1915 she went overseas

with the Canadian Arrey Meci.ical Corps.

For her faithful devotion to duty she was decorated· by King George V with the Royal Red Cross. Then, after five years' nursing abroad, she returned home. Soon she accepted a call to reorganize the Grande Prairie Hospital. This work she left in 1922 to return to Medicine Hat as Superintendent of Nurses, a position she held · until her ( death in 1932. Among Alberta nurses singled out in recent years for special honours are Miss Elizabeth C. Pearston and Miss Eleanor MacPhedran.

A graduate of the Winnipeg General Hospital, Miss Pearston was awarded in 1935 the Order of the British :Empire. The award was Singled Out ma.de in recognition of her splendid work at the Municipal Hospital in For Special Grande Prairie and her achievements in building up a nursing service in Honours. Alberta's North country.

Miss MacPhedran, whose name is well known in nursing circles

throughout the length and breadth of the Province, was presented in 1942 with the Mary Agne s Snively medal. This honour was conferred upon

her in recognition of her long years of service in the cause of i~rov­

ing the status of nursing in the Province.

***** ~· If If If)( )(***** -71- Were space to permit, many a splendid story could thus be

written of the deeds of Alberta nurses who, in the performance of '!'heir Work their duty, have more than fulfilled the pledge they took upon enter- Lives on. ing into their careers. This work is admired and remembered by the

young women now following them in their profession.

( Particularly do the nurses of Alberta thrill to the epic

story of a rrurse whose bravery and devotion to duty is unique in the

annals of nursing, F.d.ith Cavell. For the everlasting memorial to her

stands within the boundaries of this Province.

MOUNT EDITH CAVELL

Mcunt F.d.ith Cavell was named by the Geographic Board of

Canada. by the Department of the Interior.

( It is in Alberta, 14 miles south of Jasper, Jasper Park, in

1 I.at. 52° 4o , Long. 118° 03, and bas an altitude of 11,033 feet.

Mr. H. B. Boreham, Publicity Representative of the Ca.na.dian

National Railways at Winnipeg, Manitoba, writes the following article,

which is quoted in full:-

"Of all the episodes of the Great War 1914-18, none rise to

such heights of sublimity as the herois~ of Nurse F.d.ith Cavell. Even ( now in retrospect when the hysteria and prejudice engendered by con­

flict and enmities are no longer present and one can review without

passion the events which led up to her arrest and execution e.nd her

deameanor throughout her trs.il and up to the mo:nent of her death, all

hearts which are thrilled by steadfastness in the face of danger; all

souls which honour devotion to duty even to the point of human sacri­

fice, mist be moved, almost beyond expression, by the story of this -72- won:an who alone, unflinchingly and unconquerable did that vhich she

considered to be right and honourable, and died for it.

Her story is not the story of an individual. It is the story of an order; of the order of Nursing Sisters founded in the throes of

a ghastly war by Florence Nightingale. This order has '\./'Oven for itself / \ a halo as bright and as pure as that which c~mms the head of any saint.

For more than a centurJ, women have lived and died in its service, giv-

ing all their best that sufferings might be relieved and that others

might live. In the story of Edith Cavell one can see only the story of

the hospital nurse wherever she is and vhoever she is, and the tribute

which the world has paid to her since, is a tribute not so DUch to an

individual woman as it is to an order of women whose worth is greater

( than power of words to express and whose work is the holiest to which a hun:an being can be called.

D.lring the period of the Great War, Canada learned something

of the value and the price of heroism. Canada learned also that man is

no instrument through which to perpetuate those qualities in man which

are not man-ma.de. And so it was, with this thought in mind, the Geo-

graphic Board of Canada decided to perpetuate the memory of a glorious

woDE.ll in a monument which would be not only a symbol of one woman but

of womanhood. It looked not to the sculptors and artists to design that

meI1X>rial. It chose instead a mountain in the west; a mountain that is

draped with eternal snows; whose silvery crmm holds an everlasting

tryst with the skies; that rises in regal splendour above all other

peaks for miles and miles about as the epic of that woman ascends to

heights which it is given few mortals to attain. It names this mountain -73- Edi th Cavell.

Mount Edith Cavell rises 11,073 feet from the floor of the Athabasca Valley in the heart of Jasper National Park, Alberta. It is

as beautiful in its SYlllilletry as it is magnificent in its splendour, and

it commands the entire valley from end to end in this, the largest national playground in the world. Snow crowns its peak year in, year out, and across the breast of it there lies a glacier so like the out­ spread wing of an angel that it bas been named Glacier of the Angel.

The melting snows in summer form at the foot of the mountain a lake that is almost pure jade in colour. To this lake has been given the name "The lake of Forgiveness" to perpetuate the parting words of Nurse Cavell to the commander of the sq_uad that shot her. To the

( right stands a gloomy, almost forbidding JX>UDtain ~ithout ~, snow upon it and no trees. This sombre pile of rock bas been named Mount

Sorrow. Be.ck of it again there is another mighty peak, the face of which nature has sculptured like a coronation chair. This 100untain has been called Throne Mountain. Thus has been evolved a trinity which to those who care to read forms this symbolism:- "That Out of Her Sorrow Edith Cavell Ascended the Throne."

Miss Edith Cavell was the daughter of an Anglican clergyman, the Rev. John Cavell, of Norwich, England, and was Matron of the

Surgical Institute of Brussels vhen war broke out. She tended many German as well as French and Belgian wounded; and, refusing to leave her post when the fall of the city was imminent, she remained and carried on her work of mercy.

She was arrested on August 5th, 1915, on a charge of assist­ ing English, Belgian and French soldiers across the frontier, the -74- evidence against her being ma.de up entirely of information by hersel f

under examination.. Sentence of death was passed, and she was executed

at 2 A. M. on October 12th, after repeated fruitless efforts of

Brand Whitlock, the American Ambassador, to obtain a mitigation of the sentence. ( Fa.ch year on the Sunday closest the date on which Miss

Cavell was arrested, there is held a memorial service. By motor,

guests at Jasper Park Lodge and the townspeople travel twenty miles,

over a road that lifts them two thcusanCi. feet above the valley. They

gather on the moraine, at the foot of the glacier that spreads wt its

arms like an angel in flight, vith the battered copper sides of Mount

Sorrow rising up from one side of them; Cavell itself rearing its

vastness a mile above their heads and through the tangle of stones and ( brilliant fireweed, the glacial streams go roaring down and pour them- ' selves into the glistening jade of the lake of Forgiveness. Whatever

the weather may be, it is a sublime setting. Preceded by his cross-

bearer and followed by the choirmaster, all in full vestments, the

Chaplain of the Church of St. Mary and St. George in Jasper climbs the

rocky ridge to where the flag-pole is planted. Fa.ch year the same hymns l are sung, opening with 11 Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me, let me hide myself in Thee," a psalm is read and a prayer is recited, followed by "Nearer,

My God, to Thee." Then it is time for the chaplain to speak, to recall,

perhaps, the "WOrds of the nurse before she died: 11 Standing as I do in

the light of God and Eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough;

I Ill.1st have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone." The bugler sounds

the last Post and the Sergeant of the Mounted Police, in scarlet

against the sky, slowly lowers the flag to halfma.st. The last hymn -75- is "Abide lrlith Ne. " Standing under the mountains, there is mch to think about. "In life, in death, 0 Lord, abide with me." BIBLIOGRAPHIES

~rly Recoi:_ds:

"Northwest Passage by I.and, 1865" - Cheadle, Walter B. (Cassell, Petter & Galpin - London) "Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1819, 20, 21, 22" - Franklin, Sir John. (John Murray - London.) ( "I.and of Open Doors" - 1914 - - Bickersteth, J. lhrgon. {Wells - London).

"Grey Nuns of the North" 1919 - Duchaussois, R~v . Fr. (McLennan & Stewart) "Life of Father Lacombe" - 1920 - lfughes, Catherine. (McLennan & Stewart).

"A White Passion" - Teetgen, A. B. (Willis, Carbener, ~ton & Co. Ltd.) 3 & 4 Paternoster Bldg., E.C. London Canadian Medical Association Journal, Articles by - Dr. Heber c. Jamieson, Archivist of ( the Alberta Medical Association, Uni­ versity of Alberta. Medicine Hat:

"Pioneers of Nursing in Canada" History of -Nu.rs~ .; Society - \ ;icC-i.V. University, Mont~eal. {The Canadian Nurses' Association.) Files of the Medicine Hat Times; Files of the Calgary Herald; Records of the Standard Printing Company, Regina; Minutes of Board Meetings, Medicine Hat Hospital. Calgary:

Files of the Calgary Herald; Pamphlet, "Souvenir of the Golden Anniversary of the Holy Cross Hospital" 1891 - 1941. Records of the CalgaI"J General Hospital. :Edmonton:

Excerpt from the Grey Nuns' Diary of 186o; Yearbook, 1929, F.dmonton General Hospital; Files of Western Catholic; Files of F.dmonton lhlletin; Minutes of Board Meetings, :Edmonton Public Hospital (Royal Alexandra).