National Nurses United

CE_Sept 10/5/10 2:57 PM Page 20 civil disobedience was motivated by a sense of urgency in securing social reforms for the underprivileged immigrants and impoverished residents of the Henry Street Settlement house. Dock believed that poverty was not a moral failure, and she was adamant that the government was responsible for securing the well-being of all who lived in America. Clara Barton (1821-1912) "An institution or reform movement that is not selfish, must originate in the recognition of some evil that is adding to the sum of human suffering, or diminishing the sum of happiness." Clara Barton became known as "The Angel of the Battlefield" during the Civil War, so named by the soldiers themselves, in gratitude for her tireless nursing of the fallen, even in the midst of battle. In 1862 despite initial opposition from the government's War Department and many field surgeons, she began to distribute first aid supplies to soldier encampments and battlefields. By the summer of 1864 she became the superintendent of Union nurses. At the close of the war she undertook the world's first systematic accounting of missing soldiers and she helped to identify and mark the graves of approximately 13,000 dead soldiers who were buried in Civil War battlefields. Barton's work as a nurse during the war helped overturn the prevailing notion that women were incapable of managerial responsibility. As women had done for centuries, Barton and other suffragists put aside their own interests for those of others. Most were abolitionists whose time had finally come, but as leaders, they understood that winning the war and ending slavery was a huge challenge. They knew that they would be criticized if they diverted time and energy elsewhere, so they accepted a suspension of suffra- gist activity during the war, and there were no more women's rights conventions until it ended. Clara Barton later devoted herself to building and establishing the American Association of the Red Cross. In addition to her work as a teacher, U.S. Patent Office clerk, and humanitarian, she was a passionate supporter of women's suffrage. Barton was a friend of Susan B. Anthony, and she spoke at many suffrage conventions, including the first national women's suffrage convention held in Washington, D.C. in 1869, and the National American Women Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Conventions of 1893, 1902, 1904, and 1906. In the years when she was unable to attend the conventions, she often sent letters of support that were read to the audience. She also wrote many books, including The History of the Red Cross (1882) and The Red Cross in Peace and War (1899). Mary E. Mahoney (1845-1926) Mary Mahoney worked at the New England Hospital for Women and Children (now the Dimock Community Health Center) for 15 years before being accepted into its nursing school. She completed the 16-month training program on August 1, 1879 and is considered to be America's first black professional nurse (the first to graduate from a diploma school of nursing). The training was rigorous. Of the 18 who entered her class, only four actually graduated. At that time, nursing students were still expected to do the laundry, washing, scrubbing, and ironing of hospital linens. In 1908, she cofounded the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN) with Adah B. Thoms. After gaining her nursing diploma in 1905, Mahoney worked for many years as a private care nurse, earning a distinguished reputation. From 1911 to 1912 she served as director of the Howard Orphan Asylum for black References Catt, C. C. & Shuler, N. R. (2005). Woman Suffrage and Politics: The Inner Story of the Suffrage Movement. Buffalo, New York: William S. Hein & Co., Inc. Cooney, Jr., R. P. J., in collaboration with the National Women's History Project, (2005). Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement. Santa Cruz, California: American Graphic Press. Dock, L. L., & Stewart, I. M. (1931). A Short History of Nursing: From the Earliest Times to The Present Day. New York; London: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Donahue, M. P. (1985). Nursing -The Finest Art: An Illustrated History. St. Louis; Toronto; Princeton: The C.V. Mosby Company. Frost-Knappman, E., & Cullen-DuPont, K. (2005). Women's Suffrage in America. New York: Facts on File. Gluck, S. (1975) The Suffragists: From Tea Parties to Prison. Women's Oral History Project, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved July 18, 2010 from http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/suffragist/ Keyssar, A. (2000). The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. New York: Basic Books. 20 N AT I O N A L N U R S E Murphy, N., Canales, M. K., Norton, S. A., & DeFilippis, J. (2005). Striving for Congruence: The Interconnection between Values, Practice, and Political Action. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, (6)1: 20-29. Roberts, J. I., & Group, T. M. , (1995). Feminism and Nursing: An Historical Perspective on Power, Status, and Political Activism in the Nursing Profession. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. Smith, S. M. (2005). Nursing as a Social Responsibility: Implications for Democracy From the Life Perspective of Lavinia Lloyd Dock (1858-1956). Retrieved July 18, 2010 from http://www. http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0903102190634/unrestricted/Smith_dis.pdf Stevens, D. (1920/1995). Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote. Carol O'Hare, ed., Troutdale, OR: New Sage Press. Wald, L. D., (1915/1991). The House on Henry Street/Lillian D. Wald: with an introduction by Eleanor Brilliant. New York: H. Holt, 1915. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1991. Weatherford, D. (1998). A History of the American Suffragist Movement. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G SEPTEMBER 2010

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