Mary Eliza Mahoney

Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first African American professional nurse. She graduated from the New England Hospital and Training School for Women and Children in 1879. Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, started the first nursing program for African American women in 1886, and in 1891 Chicago’s Provident Hospital Training School opened for African American women. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Eliza_Mahoney)

Recognizing that men nurses also needed training, philanthropist D. Ogden Mills provided funding for the Mills Training School for Men that opened at Bellevue Hospital in New York City in 1888. Significantly, the need for men nurses was most acute in psychiatric hospitals, and consequently psychiatric hospitals often had in-house training programs for men. (“American Nursing: An Introduction to the Past,” https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/nhhc/nursing-through-time/1870-1899/)

Isabel Hampton Robb and the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair

The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, often referred to as the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, was a key event for the nascent field of professional nursing for at least two reasons. One was the opportunity to display advances in nursing care through a demonstration exhibit displaying a hospital room, the practices that nurses routinely carried out, and the importance of the nurse’s role.

Second, the Exposition provided a platform for discussions about social issues in a series of Congresses. One Congress was on Hospitals, Dispensaries, and Nursing, where Isabel Hampton organized the nursing section. (Hampton was educated at Bellevue Hospital Training School of Nurses and graduated in 1883. In 1889 she became the first Superintendent of Nurses at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.) Significantly, among those who attended these nursing sessions were eighteen directors of nurse training schools. Two major issues were central to the discussions. One was the need for standards for educating nurses and the second was the need for professional licensure for nurses.

Out of the Exposition came the first national professional association for nurses: The American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses with Isabel Hampton as first president. Eventually this Society spawned three important nursing organizations (with less cumbersome names). First was the National League for Nursing, established in 1893. The second was the American Nurses Association in 1896, specifically for nurses who were graduates of nurse training schools. The third group was an organization that became the International Council for Nursing (ICN), established in 1899. These three influential groups that evolved from this Chicago World’s Fair Congress undergird the nursing profession today. (“American Nursing: An Introduction to the Past,” https://www.nursing.upenn.edu/nhhc/nursing-through-time/1870-1899/)

Licensure remains a basic requirement for maintaining public confidence and professional standards. Around 1901, under the leadership of organized state nurses’ associations, state licensure acts were enacted. By 1921, forty-eight states had licensure requirements. These acts required that only persons with actual degrees could call themselves nurses. This was essential to advancing and sustaining the professionalism of nursing.

Lillian Wald

Another important figure in the early evolution of nursing in the United States was Lillian Wald. Wald attended the New York Hospital Training School for Nurses. She graduated in 1891. Wald was concerned about the care of people living in New York City’s Lower East Side where she worked as a visiting nurse. She coined the term public health nurse. With funding from philanthropists, she established the Henry Street Settlement in 1893, the first family shelter to house homeless families in individual apartments and to provide 24-hour social services. In addition, Wald helped establish the Columbia University School of Nursing. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Wald)