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School of Nursing

Famous Nurses in History

Alcott, Louisa May:

Authored Little Women; volunteered for 6 weeks as a nurse in the Union Army during the American Civil War and wrote a book called Hospital Sketches (pub. 1863) based on her experience; Hospital Sketches received popular and critical acclaim at the time of publication

  • Freely available resources
    • Image:
    • UVA School of Nursing blog:
    • Text of , access provided by Tufts University
  • Subscription/paid resources
    • Choperena, A., & Fairman, J. (2018). Louisa May Alcott and Hospital Sketches: An innovative approach to gender and nursing professionalization. Journal of advanced nursing, 74(5), 1059–1067.
    • Seiple, S. (2019). . Seal Press, Hatchett Book Group.

Cannary, Martha Jane (Calamity Jane)

Cared for the sick in Deadwood, SD during the smallpox epidemic of 1878

  • Freely available resources
    • Rapid City Journal:
    • Black Hills Visitor:
    • Gehrke, K. (2015).
  • Subscription/paid resources
    • Herda, D.J. (2018). . TwoDot.

Lincoln, Mary Todd

Volunteered in the hospitals in Washington, DC after the Battle of the First Bull Run and in the Union hospitals during the American Civil War

  • Freely available resources
    • “,” from OSU
    • , from Lippincott’s NursingCenter blog
  • Subscription/paid resources
    • Baker, Jean Harvey. "." Americans at War, edited by John P. Resch, vol. 2: 1816-1900, Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, pp. 105-106. Gale eBooks

Tubman, Harriet

Having escaped enslavement, she served as a nurse to the Gullah people and in the Union hospitals during the American Civil War

  • Freely available resources
    • “,” from New York State Nurses Association
    • “,” from the UVA School of Nursing blog
  • Subscription/paid resources
    • . (2015). American History, 50(2), 8.

Whitman, Walt

Whitman moved to Washington, DC especially to volunteer to care for the wounded at Union hospitals during the American Civil; many of his works were inspired by his experiences there

  • Freely available resources
    • “,” from the Smithsonian
    • “: Walt Whitman and Washington’s Civil War hospitals,” from the Walt Whitman Archive
    • “,” from the National Humanities Center
    • “,” by Walt Whitman, access by the Poetry Foundation
  • Subscription/paid resources
    • Hsu D. (2010). Walt Whitman: an American Civil War nurse who witnessed the advent of modern American medicine. Archives of environmental & occupational health, 65(4), 238–239.
    • Foley, S., Sofer, D., & Jacobson, J. (2000). I Am Faithful, I Do Not Give out. The American Journal of Nursing, 100(10), 48-49. 2307/3522316">doi:10.2307/3522316