Montana Nursing Students and Women's Social Life in the Progressive Era, Photo Album of 148 Photographs of Montana Nurses in Uniform and at Leisure, circa 1910

Nursing Photo Album

Archive

Montana nursing photo album, circa 1910, documenting the professional training, friendships, recreation, and everyday social life of women entering the expanding nursing profession in the state. The first nursing school in Montana opened at Columbus Hospital in Great Falls in 1900, followed by training schools at Montana Deaconess Hospital in 1902, St. John's Hospital in Helena in 1905, and St. Patrick Hospital and St. James Hospital in 1906. The album's repeated portraits of nurses in uniform, large gatherings, excursions, and informal displays of affection record the social world surrounding this new professional identity rather than nursing work alone. Photo album of 148 likely gelatin silver photographs, 5.5 x 8 inches, 76 pages, Montana, circa 1910. The photographs show nurses in striped dresses, white aprons, and distinctive white caps posing individually and in groups, including large assemblies outside institutional and commercial buildings and smaller groups gathered on porches, in residential neighborhoods, and in outdoor settings. Several photographs show women in uniform working or posing in what appears to be a kitchen or dining room, while others record leisure away from their usual surroundings, including a beach outing in modest early twentieth century swimwear. One image identifies Mt. Helena, and several photographs were made near a building bearing the sign "O.S. Ross Manufacturer of Show Cases and Store Fixtures." Seven photographs carry white handwritten captions, including "Away from home" and "Two flirts." The album also contains photographs of women embracing, leaning against one another, and posing with arms linked, while one staged scene shows a woman aiming a pistol at a man who shelters behind a wooden post. The cloth covers and pages remain securely attached with string binding; a couple of photographs are missing. The photographs date from the period when hospital based nursing schools were establishing professional education for women across Montana. St. James Hospital in Butte opened its nursing school in 1906, with its first class graduating in 1909, while St. Peter's Hospital in Helena operated a training school from 1909 to 1933. In 1912, Montana nurses organized a statewide association, and a dispute over proposed nursing legislation led directly to Montana's first nursing practice act in 1913, which established minimum standards for nursing education and practice and created a Board of Nurse Examiners composed of trained nurses. The album falls immediately before this period of formal state regulation and captures nurses at the point when hospital training, professional identity, and women's social networks were becoming closely connected. Its mixture of uniforms and domestic or recreational clothing also records the boundaries between the disciplined public identity of the trained nurse and the private lives of the women who occupied that role. Light surface wear, toning, occasional fading, and a few missing photographs; cloth covers and pages remain securely attached. Overall in very good condition. A concentrated visual record of Montana women entering professional nursing while maintaining the friendships, recreation, humor, and social life surrounding their training.

Item #18953

Price: $425.00