Women Activists and Nursing: Margaret Chanler Aldrich and Mary Gerard Lewis

Time:12:00 PM to 1:30 PM

Location:Claire Fagin Hall, Room 2019, Floor 2U, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

Title: Women Activists and Nursing: Margaret Chanler Aldrich and Mary Gerard Lewis and the American Red Cross Town and Country Affiliation with the Red Hook District Nursing Service, Late 19th and early 20th Centuries

Abstract: This paper explores community women activists, Margaret Chanler Aldrich and Mary Gerard Lewis, and their efforts to support the establishment of the American Red Cross Town and Country in their local rural Red Hook community in upstate New York. Both women came from prominent families in the community and supported the efforts of the American Red Cross in both its service abroad and in its efforts to bring public health nurses to rural settings in the United States. Aldrich served as a Red Cross volunteer and traveled with nurses to Puerto Rico. She also supported nursing’s effort to obtain the Army Nurse Corps legislation. She worked with Mary Gerard Lewis to rally community support in establishing the Red Hook District Nursing Service’s affiliation with the American Red Cross Town and Country Nursing Service. Little is known today about these two women’s efforts or the work of others who also supported nursing efforts to professionalize during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their story deserves further exploration to understand the relationship that seemed to exist between these socially active women and the burgeoning nursing profession.

Bio: Professor Sandra B. Lewenson teaches in the Department of Graduate Studies at the College of Health Professions, Lienhard School of Nursing, Pace University in New York. She teaches courses about nursing history, historical research methodology, decision-making, public health nursing, and primary health care. Dr. Lewenson also serves as a visiting professor of nursing at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York where she teaches historical methods in the doctoral research course. She also serves on the board of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of Nursing History. Her most recent research examines the American Red Cross Town and Country and she currently is working on a co-edited book titled, Nursing History for Contemporary Role Development.