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Jane Delano—Organizer and Recruiter of Nurses
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Stamp Vignette
Mayo Clin Proc, September 2001, Vol 76
Stamp Vignette on Medical Science In 1905, after the American Red Cross had been reorganized by nurse Mabel Thorp Boardman (1860-1946), Delano joined the Red Cross Nursing Unit to help Clara Dutton Noyes (1869-1936) solve the problem of providing the right number and type of nurses in time of war or a national disaster. Together, Delano and Noyes endeavored to make the Red Cross Nursing Service the reserve force for the Army Nurse Corps. In 1910, Delano was appointed by US President William Howard Taft (1857-1930) to the position of superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps. As superintendent, she traveled to Hawaii, the Philippines, China, and Japan to obtain firsthand information on the working and living conditions of US Army nurses. In 1911, she resigned from the Army Nurse Corps to devote all her time to the Red Cross. In 1913, the US War Department formally accepted the Red Cross enrollment as the American Nursing Corps reserve. When World War I began in 1914, Delano offered, through the State Department, the services of the Red Cross nurses to each warring nation. Weeks later, American nurses departed for France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Serbia, and England aboard the USS Red Cross. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the Red Cross Nursing Service supplied more than 8000 nurses for overseas duty. In 1918, Delano became director of the Red Cross Department of Nursing, which supplied nurses for the US Army and Navy and the Red Cross. Delano also recruited nurses for the influenza epidemic that swept the United States in 1918. From 1908 to 1911, Delano was president of the board of directors of the American Journal of Nursing. Her greatest literary effort was the American Red Cross Textbook on Elementary Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick, a respected and well-received work published in 1913 with coauthor Isabel McIsaac (1858-1914) for the Red Cross volunteer nurses’ aide auxiliary corps, which Delano had helped establish. After the war (in January 1919), Delano went to Europe to assess how the Red Cross could best help the devastated countries and to plan for future emergencies. During the trip, she encountered severe winter weather and developed a sore throat and ear infection that progressed to mastoiditis. After several unsuccessful operations, she died on April 15, 1919, in Savenay Hospital Center in Savenay (west central France, about 20 miles northwest of Nantes). She was 57 years old. Delano’s name was bestowed on the nursing residence hall at Walter Reed Army General Hospital in Washington, DC, and on numerous American Legion posts. She was honored with memorials in Washington, DC, and Bordeaux, France, and on a stamp issued by the Republic of Mali in 2000.
Jane Delano— Organizer and Recruiter of Nurses
Marc A. Shampo, PhD, and Robert A. Kyle, MD
J
ane Arminda Delano is best known as an organizer of the nursing profession. Her vision, organizational skills, leadership, and tenacity were instrumental in advancing both the American Red Cross and the nursing profession. Her efforts ensured that the Red Cross had sufficient numbers of nurses to care for soldiers during World War I (1914-1918). Jane Delano was born on March 12, 1862, in Townsend, NY. She was the second daughter of a farmer who fought for the Union during the American Civil War (1861-1865). She attended a country school and, from 1882 to 1884, Cook Academy, a Baptist boarding school in Montour Falls, NY. After graduating from the academy, she taught in Montour Falls. Delano entered the Bellevue Hospital Training School for Nurses in New York City in 1884 and graduated in 1886. She became the head nurse in one of the hospital’s large units. In 1887, she went to Jacksonville, Fla, to help during a yellow fever epidemic. When she arrived at Sand Hill Center (hospital) in Jacksonville, she insisted that mosquito netting be installed over the beds in the barrack-type hospital to prevent the spread of yellow fever, although it was not known at that time that mosquitoes carried the disease. In 1888, Delano went to Bisbee in southeastern Arizona to set up a hospital for the care of copper miners and their families during a typhoid fever epidemic. From 1891 to 1896, she was the assistant superintendent of nurses and an instructor at the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In 1896, she left nursing to attend courses at the University of Buffalo Medical School in New York, with the intention of becoming a physician. However, her life took another direction. During the Spanish-American War (1898), Delano joined the New York branch of the American Red Cross and became interested in enrolling nurses in the Red Cross Nursing Service. From 1900 to 1902, she was director of the Girls’ Department at the House of Refuge on Randall’s Island in New York City. From 1902 to 1906, she was director of the School of Nursing at Bellevue Hospital.
Mayo Clin Proc. 2002;77:1026
1026
© 2002 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
For personal use. Mass reproduce only with permission from Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Stamp Vignette
Mayo Clin Proc, September 2001, Vol 76
Stamp Vignette on Medical Science In 1905, after the American Red Cross had been reorganized by nurse Mabel Thorp Boardman (1860-1946), Delano joined the Red Cross Nursing Unit to help Clara Dutton Noyes (1869-1936) solve the problem of providing the right number and type of nurses in time of war or a national disaster. Together, Delano and Noyes endeavored to make the Red Cross Nursing Service the reserve force for the Army Nurse Corps. In 1910, Delano was appointed by US President William Howard Taft (1857-1930) to the position of superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps. As superintendent, she traveled to Hawaii, the Philippines, China, and Japan to obtain firsthand information on the working and living conditions of US Army nurses. In 1911, she resigned from the Army Nurse Corps to devote all her time to the Red Cross. In 1913, the US War Department formally accepted the Red Cross enrollment as the American Nursing Corps reserve. When World War I began in 1914, Delano offered, through the State Department, the services of the Red Cross nurses to each warring nation. Weeks later, American nurses departed for France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Serbia, and England aboard the USS Red Cross. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the Red Cross Nursing Service supplied more than 8000 nurses for overseas duty. In 1918, Delano became director of the Red Cross Department of Nursing, which supplied nurses for the US Army and Navy and the Red Cross. Delano also recruited nurses for the influenza epidemic that swept the United States in 1918. From 1908 to 1911, Delano was president of the board of directors of the American Journal of Nursing. Her greatest literary effort was the American Red Cross Textbook on Elementary Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick, a respected and well-received work published in 1913 with coauthor Isabel McIsaac (1858-1914) for the Red Cross volunteer nurses’ aide auxiliary corps, which Delano had helped establish. After the war (in January 1919), Delano went to Europe to assess how the Red Cross could best help the devastated countries and to plan for future emergencies. During the trip, she encountered severe winter weather and developed a sore throat and ear infection that progressed to mastoiditis. After several unsuccessful operations, she died on April 15, 1919, in Savenay Hospital Center in Savenay (west central France, about 20 miles northwest of Nantes). She was 57 years old. Delano’s name was bestowed on the nursing residence hall at Walter Reed Army General Hospital in Washington, DC, and on numerous American Legion posts. She was honored with memorials in Washington, DC, and Bordeaux, France, and on a stamp issued by the Republic of Mali in 2000.
Jane Delano— Organizer and Recruiter of Nurses
Marc A. Shampo, PhD, and Robert A. Kyle, MD
J
ane Arminda Delano is best known as an organizer of the nursing profession. Her vision, organizational skills, leadership, and tenacity were instrumental in advancing both the American Red Cross and the nursing profession. Her efforts ensured that the Red Cross had sufficient numbers of nurses to care for soldiers during World War I (1914-1918). Jane Delano was born on March 12, 1862, in Townsend, NY. She was the second daughter of a farmer who fought for the Union during the American Civil War (1861-1865). She attended a country school and, from 1882 to 1884, Cook Academy, a Baptist boarding school in Montour Falls, NY. After graduating from the academy, she taught in Montour Falls. Delano entered the Bellevue Hospital Training School for Nurses in New York City in 1884 and graduated in 1886. She became the head nurse in one of the hospital’s large units. In 1887, she went to Jacksonville, Fla, to help during a yellow fever epidemic. When she arrived at Sand Hill Center (hospital) in Jacksonville, she insisted that mosquito netting be installed over the beds in the barrack-type hospital to prevent the spread of yellow fever, although it was not known at that time that mosquitoes carried the disease. In 1888, Delano went to Bisbee in southeastern Arizona to set up a hospital for the care of copper miners and their families during a typhoid fever epidemic. From 1891 to 1896, she was the assistant superintendent of nurses and an instructor at the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In 1896, she left nursing to attend courses at the University of Buffalo Medical School in New York, with the intention of becoming a physician. However, her life took another direction. During the Spanish-American War (1898), Delano joined the New York branch of the American Red Cross and became interested in enrolling nurses in the Red Cross Nursing Service. From 1900 to 1902, she was director of the Girls’ Department at the House of Refuge on Randall’s Island in New York City. From 1902 to 1906, she was director of the School of Nursing at Bellevue Hospital.
Mayo Clin Proc. 2002;77:1026
1026
© 2002 Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research
For personal use. Mass reproduce only with permission from Mayo Clinic Proceedings.