DePaul University Via Sapientiae Vincentian Digital Books Vincentian Heritage Collections 2013 Daughters of Charity: Women, Religious Mission, and Hospital Care in Los Angeles, 1856-1927 Kristine Ashton Gunnell Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks Recommended Citation Gunnell, Kristine Ashton, "Daughters of Charity: Women, Religious Mission, and Hospital Care in Los Angeles, 1856-1927" (2013). Vincentian Digital Books. 45. https://via.library.depaul.edu/vincentian_ebooks/45 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Vincentian Heritage Collections at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vincentian Digital Books by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A captivating story, culled from extensive historical research, documents how ingenuity, determination, and faith enabled mission-driven Daughters of Charity to establish, develop, and provide healthcare in Los Angeles. This work contains multiple examples of their flexibility to overcome barriers of culture, religion, language, and scarce resources in the context of frontier politics but without comprise of their faith-based mission of service to persons in need. I highly recommend this work of scholarship which makes understandable how Catholic sisters created a health center on the frontier in a rented adobe without running water, and transformed the city into a medical center, a monument of charity in the city of Los Angeles. Betty Ann McNeil, D.C., Scholar-in-Residence DePaul University, Chicago, IL Kristine Ashton Gunnell, Ph.D., is a Research Scholar at the UCLA Center for the Study of Women. She specializes in the histories of gender and religion in the American West. Cover Photo: A Student Nurse being trained in meal service by a Daughter of Charity, ca. 1901. Courtesy St. Vincent Medical Center Historical Hospital Conservancy, Los Angeles DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY Women, Religious Mission, and Hospital Care in Los Angeles, 1856-1927 IV WOMEN, RELIGIOUS MISSION, AND HOSPITAL CARE IN LOS ANGELES D.C.’S COME TO LOS ANGELES V DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY Women, Religious Mission, and Hospital Care in Los Angeles, 1856-1927 Kristine Ashton Gunnell, PH.D. Table of Contents List of Illustrations 55 Abbreviations xx Acknowledgments xx Introduction xx Chapter 1 The Daughters of Charity Come to Los Angeles xx Sisters and Daughters xx Nurses and Hospital Administrators xx Suited to Work in the West xx Intercultural Encounters xx Conclusion xx Chapter 2 Public and Private Charity: Establishing a Hospital in Los Angeles xx Hospitals as Social Welfare Institutions xx Healthcare in Los Angeles Before the Sisters’ Arrival xx Establishing Sisters’ Hospital, 1856-1860 xx Title Page Image: Sisters’ Hospital, Gardens. Best & Co., c. 1890. Conclusion xx Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection Chapter 3 The Daughters of Charity, the Challenges of Urban Growth, and the Professionalization of Medicine xx The “Boom Years” at the Los Angeles Infirmary xx Gender, State Aid, and the Downside of the Edited by Nathaniel Michaud Boom, 1868-1870 xx DePaul University Vincentian Studies Institute0000000000000000000 Professionalizing Medicine in Los Angeles xx Chicago, Illinois New Competition: The Growth of Medical Institutions All Rights Reserved in Los Angeles xx © 2013 VIII IX Chapter 4 Advocacy for the Sick Poor and a New County Hospital, 1870-1878 55 Chapter 6 Modernization and Mission at St. Vincent’s Hospital The Sisters and Smallpox Epidemics xx School for Nurses, 1899-1925 xx The Daughters of Charity and Advocacy for the Sick Poor xx Nurses’ Training in Los Angeles xx Increasing Public Criticism, 1875-1878 xx The Daughters’ Approach to Nurses’ Training xx Scientific Charity and a New County Hospital xx Conclusion A Monument to Christian Charity”: The New Cost versus Care: The Political Debate Surrounding St. Vincent’s Hospital, 1927 xx Indigent Care in Los Angeles xx Appendix A: Tables xx The Sisters’ Perspective xx Appendix B: Hospital Data Sampling Method and Data Collection Plan xx Conclusion xx Bibliographical Essay xx Chapter 5 Inventing a Modern Charity Hospital: Sisters’ Hospital, Bibliography xx Los Angeles, 1880-1920 xx Index xx Modernizing American Hospitals, 1880-1930 xx Reinventing Sisters’ Hospital, 1884-1907 xx Financial Strategies for Charity Hospitals: Blending the Old with the New xx Railroad Contracts: A New Financial Strategy to Maintain the Mission xx Race and Gender at Sisters’ Hospital xx Oil as a Financial Strategy xx The “Annex”: Modern Design and a Spiritual Setting xx Charity at Sisters’ Hospital xx Conclusion xx X XI List of Illustrations List of Tables Sisters’ Hospital, Gardens xx Annex and Palm Trees xx 2.1 Los Angeles County Expenses for the Indigent Sick, Nov 1855-Feb 1858 xx Los Angeles Infirmary, Map Detail xx Annex Cornerstone xx 2.2 Los Angeles County Expenses for the Indigent Sick, Aug 1858-Nov 1860 xx Annex xx Sisters’ Hospital Free Clinic xx 2.3 Summary of Los Angeles County Hospital Costs, 1855-1860 xx Marchessault Street xx Student Nurses in O.R. xx 2.4 Los Angeles Infirmary Locations, 1858-1884 xx Sisters of Charity School xx The First Graduates xx 3.1 Hospital Patients by Gender, 1872-1878 xx Filicchi Portrait of Elizabeth Seton xx Mary Ann Keating, D.C. xx 3.2 Hospital Patients by Place of Birth, 1872-1878 xx Louise de Marillac xx Nursing Class xx 4.1 Patients Admitted to Sisters’ Hospital, 1873-1886 xx Vincent de Paul xx Training School Graduate xx 4.2 Los Angeles Infirmary Treasurer Reports xx Los Angeles Plaza xx School of Nurses Jazz Band xx 5.1 Improvements to Sisters’ Hospital, 1884-1927 xx Spring Street Adobe xx Emergency Room xx 5.2 Conditions Treated at Sisters’ Hospital, 1879-1907 xx The Second Hospital xx Annex 1902 Fire xx 5.3 Patients by Gender at Sisters’ Hospital, 1872-1907 xx V iew of Los Angeles xx St. Vincent Hospital xx 5.4 Southern Pacific Railroad Patients by Disease Type, 1889-1907 xx Ann Street Hospital xx Sanitarium Patient and Nurses xx 5.5 Age for All Patients at Sisters’ Hospital, 1872-1907 xx Infirmary and Railroad Depot, Map xx 5.6 Southern Pacific Railroad Patients by Age, 1889-1907 xx Sister Nurse xx 5.7 All Patients by National Origin, 1872-1907 xx Sisters’ Hospital, Buffalo, N.Y. xx 5.8 U.S.-Born Patients by State of Origin, 1872-1907 xx Sisters’ Hospital, Sunset Blvd. xx 5.9 Southern Pacific Railroad Patients by National Origin, 1889-1907 xx Sisters’ Hospital, Pastoral View xx 5.10 All Patients by Place of Residence, 1872-1907 xx Sisters Schwartzmiller and Mahon xx 5.11 Southern Pacific Railroad Patients by Place of Residence, 1889-1907 xx County Railroad Engine xx 5.12 Charity for Patients at St. Vincent’s Hospital, 1913-1930 xx Patient Ward xx 5.13 Charity Work for the Poor at St. Vincent’s Hospital, 1913-1930 xx Operating Room xx 6.1 St. Vincent’s Hospital School for Nurses: Graduates, 1901-1924 xx Operating Room Prep xx Chapel Annex xx XII XIII Abbreviations Acknowledgments AALA Archival Center of the Archdiocese of As with any piece of scholarship, the completion of this project was not a solitary Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California endeavor. I am grateful for the assistance of the many curators, archivists, and librarians who pointed me in the right direction, sharing their insights into HM Honnold-Mudd Library Special Collections, their materials when I often sought their help to find seemingly obscure bits of Claremont, California Los Angeles history. I am grateful to my advisors and colleagues at Claremont Graduate University, where I completed my doctorate in 2010. Thank you to LABCS Executive Office of the Los Angeles County Board Janet Farrell Brodie, who encouraged me to embrace new questions and helped of Supervisors, Los Angeles, California me to navigate the dissertation process. Thank you to David Yoo and Hal Barron, whose pointed insights helped to shape the dissertation manuscript. Thank you SVMCHC St. Vincent Medical Center Historical to Beverly Wilson Palmer, who taught me the ins and outs of analyzing women’s Conservancy, Los Angeles, California correspondence through the Florence Kelley Letters Project. John Macias, a Seaver Center Seaver Center for Western History Research, fellow student in my cohort, translated several Spanish newspaper articles for Natural History Museum of me and double-checked my own translations. We constantly bounced ideas Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California off each other when exploring the nooks and crannies of Los Angeles history. Jennifer Vanore, who completed her graduate studies at the University of Chicago, UCLA Special Collections, Young Research Library, University shared her insights into the history of Los Angeles hospitals, and she helped me of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California to better place the sisters’ story in a broader context. Deidre Green seemed to always know just what to say to help me plow through the rough spots. I am also eternally grateful to my husband, Todd Gunnell, and my parents, Bruce and Lucy Ashton, whose constant encouragement and support made it possible for me to survive the challenges of graduate school and completing a book. Institutional histories require institutional support. The Daughters of Charity rarely grant outsiders permission to research in their collections. I am grateful that the sisters were willing to take a chance, trusting me with their story. Thank you to Sylvia Parks, D.C., whose support opened a path that made this research possible. To Joyce Weller, D.C., and the board of the Daughters of Charity Foundation, whose enthusiasm is catching and whose ongoing support for the archives ensured that I would be able to continue the project in a down economy. XIV XV Thank you to past Visitatrix Margaret Keaveney, D.C., and the provincial council, about sisters from the Western Province.