Nursing Education and Practice at Stanford University collection, 1895-1981, bulk 1912-1974

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Summary

Title:
Nursing Education and Practice at Stanford University collection
Dates:
1895-1981, bulk 1912-1974
Abstract:
This collection is comprised of records generated by Stanford nurses and Stanford nursing programs over the course of the Stanford School of Nursing's 79 years of existence, from its establishment as the Lane Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1895 to its closure in 1974. The bulk of this material is from the School of Nursing and includes records related to curriculum development and student life, but the records and artifacts generated and used by Stanford nurses not trained at the School are also represented, as are articles on nursing and nursing-related topics from around the United States.
Extent:
17.6 Linear Feet 11 short archives boxes, 1 long archives box, 6 small flat boxes, 4 medium flat boxes, and 3 large flat boxes. 5W x 12 1/2L x 10 1/2"H (Short archives box), 5W x 15 1/2L x 12 1/2"H (Long archives box), 10W x 13L x 3"H (Small flat box), 12W x 15 1/2L x 3"H (Medium flat box), 14 1/2W x 19L x 3"H (Large flat box).
Language:
English .

Background

Scope and content:

This collection is comprised mostly of records generated by Stanford nurses and Stanford nursing programs over the course of the Stanford School of Nursing's 79 years of existence, from its establishment as the Lane Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1895 to its closure in 1974. The bulk of this material is from the School of Nursing and includes records related to curriculum development and student life, but the records and artifacts generated and used by Stanford nurses not trained at the School are also represented, as are articles on nursing and nursing-related topics from around the United States.

School of nursing administrative and student/alumna-made materials represent the bulk of the collection. These cover a range of subjects including the development and evolution of its curriculum, newspaper and journal articles on its history, minutes of meetings of its faculty, photographs and scrapbooks collected by its students, biographical materials on its alumnae, and items from the alumnae and Friends of Nursing groups. Particular items of interest may include a collection of class photographs dating back to 1908, notes taken by students during class lectures, Kathryn M. Smith's "Ten-Year Plan" for the nursing program's future and materials relating to it, minutes of curriculum committee meetings held by Dean Chander between 1943 and 1952 which discuss wartime innovations, and biographical materials on alumna Linda Collins, who inspired the creation of the MedicAlert Foundation medical information database and identification tag system.

Also represented are materials and artifacts created and used by Stanford-employed nurses as they performed their day-to-day activities. These inlude uniforms, medical equipment, and handbooks which explain how to perform procedures like making a patient's bed and preparing coccidiodin for a skin test. Materials generated by Stanford hospital administration, such as discussions about limiting patient numbers and meetings of the "Pediatric ICU Patient Rooming and Postoperative Care Task Force," are also included.

The handful of articles discussing topics like declining numbers of new nurses across the United States make up their own series, as do the finding aids created for the series which were merged to create this collection.

Biographical / historical:

Stanford University School of Nursing, like the rest of the School of Medicine, had its roots in San Francisco's Cooper Medical College. Lane Hospital Training School for Nurses opened there in 1895 to serve the adjoining Lane Hospital, both of which were established by Dr. Levi Cooper Lane during his tenure as College President, though the former was controlled more by his wife Pauline Lane.(1) The first class of nurses to receive their training here graduated in 1897, having spent the previous two years working twelve to eighteen hour shifts at Lane Hospital and attending classes taught by senior students (the 3-year program that would define the school until its closing was not implemented until 1902, perhaps in part because of this extreme personnel shortage).(2) Mrs. Lane presided over their commencement personally, awarding each of the eight graduates a pin she designed herself.(3) Following cohorts endured similarly rigorous training programs, and received similar accolades. They all went on to give their alma mater a reputation for producing excellent nurses.(4)

Stanford University acquired Lane Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1912 after Cooper Medical College became the Stanford School of Medicine. Renamed the Stanford School for Nursing (then Stanford School of Nursing, then Stanford University School of Nursing), by 1920 its students enjoyed much more sustainable schedules.(5) It was around this time that higher standards for admittance---a character reference, two years of high school experience, healthy teeth, and the like---were established, as was a more formal course of instruction.(6) Student nurses were finally able to learn in a traditional classroom setting from traditional classroom instructors.

Change was also afoot in a more physical sense. From the Nursing School's founding to 1899, students lived inside Lane Hospital itself, in rooms that would later house linen and clothes.(7) They were moved then into a "Nurses Home," a somewhat dilapidated building right near the hospital, on Clay Street.(8) By 1916, this building was razed and the nurses lived instead in homes near the hospital, but this arrangement was too inconvenient to sustain.(9) Dr. George Somers, Physician Superintendent of Lane Hospital and Secretary of the Clinical Committee of the Medical Department of Stanford University, thought it was wrong to make such devoted future nurses live and learn in such an inadequate space. His was among the voices that pushed Stanford to open "The Stanford School of Nursing" in 1922.(10)

This new building, located on the site of the old one, was a great improvement, featuring classrooms and laboratories as well as residential space.(11) Stanford's future nurses would live, work, and learn here until 1959, when the School of Medicine as a whole left San Francisco to join the rest of the University on its main campus in Palo Alto. It was absorbed there quite readily, trading in its status as a "school" proper to become one of Stanford's academic majors. Prospective nurses arriving as early as 1960 were admitted as regular students and had to take general education courses before they could apply for the program itself in their sophomore year. However, program remained high-quality, and its alumnae continued to look back on it fondly.(12)

The 1970s brought financial trouble for the School of Medicine, as well as a need to reevaluate its priorities, leading Stanford to form a committee to examine the nursing program. This committee, headed by Kathryn Smith, presented the University in 1971 with Planning for the Future of Nursing Education at Stanford, known colloquially as the Smith Plan. The plan suggested replacing the nursing undergraduate program with one for a master's degree, the hope being that this would lead to fewer students and better-trained graduates.(13) Unfortunately, the funds to implement this plan never materialized, and in 1974, Stanford University School of Nursing closed for good.(14)

Today, the Stanford Nurse Alumnae group keeps the memory of their alma mater alive, preserving and sharing its history among themselves and with the public at large.

(1) John L. Wilson, University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools: An Historical Perspective(Stanford, CA: Lane Medical Library, 1999), 364.

(2) Wilson, University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools, 365.

(3) Wilson, Stanford University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools, 365.

(4) Wilson, Stanford University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools, 364.

(5) Wilson, Stanford University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools, 366.

(6) ["Stanford University School of Nursing History 1895-1953," c.1950s], Box 5, Folder 5, Nursing Education and Practice at Stanford Collection, Medical History Center, Stanford University Lane Medical Library.

(7) Clara DeForest, History of Stanford University School of Nursing, Volume 1 (Stanford, CA: Stanford Nurse Alumnae, 1987?): 9.

(8) Wilson, Stanford University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools, 365.

(9) Wilson, Stanford University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools, 477.

(10) Wilson, Stanford University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools, 366.

(11) Wilson, Stanford University School of Medicine and the Predecessor Schools, 477.

(12) Kali Shiloh, "The End of the Nursing Education Era," Stanford Magazine, September 2023, https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-end-of-the-nursing-education-era.

(13) Smith, Kathryn M. "A Report to the Executive Committee of the Stanford Medical School: Planning for the Future of Nursing Education - 1971-1981 - A Ten-Year Plan." Stanford University, July 30, 1971 [with Supplemental Reports], Box 4, Folder 8, Nursing Education and Practice at Stanford University Collection, Medical History Center, Stanford University Lane Medical Library.

(14) Amioka, Ann. "Lack Of Funds To Close Down Nursing School." Stanford Daily, May 21, 1974, Box 1, Folder 17, Nursing Education and Practice at Stanford University Collection, Medical History Center, Stanford University Lane Medical Library.

Acquisition information:
Most of the reunion books and scrapbooks were donated by School of Nursing Alumna Eleanor Hedenkamp. Everything else was transferred from the School of Medicine's Office of Communications and Public Affairs.
Processing information:

This collection represents the merging of Eleanor Hedenkamp's donation of class reunion books and scrapbooks wih existing collections S1J1, S1JA, UODJ3, Office of Communications and Public Affairs Box 56, and "Photo File Box 21," all of which already belonged to the School of Medicine's Office of Communications and Public Affairs.

Arrangement:

The records are arranged in four series and twelve subseries:

Stanford University School of Nursing

- Announcements, Newsletters, Press Releases, and Promotional Materials - Friends of Nursing Materials - History and Program Development - Students and Student Life - Post-Closure Press Releases and Publications

Nursing at Stanford

- Equipment and Uniforms - Guides and Manuals - Hospital Management - Stanford Nurses Newsletter - Picture Story of Chyoko's Open Heart Surgery by Claudia and Tess - [Photograph of Nurses in the University Hospital's Refurbished West Nursery, 1979] - Publications

Nursing Beyond Stanford

Legacy Finding Aids

"Stanford Unviersity School of Nursing" is comprised of materials produced and used by the School's administration and students over the course of its existence, including newsletters, promotional materials, correspondence, records relating to the development and evolution of its curriculum, newspaper and journal articles on its history, minutes of meetings of its faculty, photographs and scrapbooks collected by its students, biographical materials on its alumnae, and items from the alumnae and Friends of Nursing groups.

"Nursing at Stanford" is comprised of materials produced and used by all nurses working at Stanford hospitals regardless of where they were trained, as well as materials generated by hospital administration. These include uniforms, procedure handbooks, and publications released by Stanford hospitals.

"Nursing Beyond Stanford" is comprised mainly of articles about nursing and nursing-related topics from around California and the United States.

"Legacy Finding Aids" is comprised of the finding aids which described the collections that were merged into this collection.

Material specific details:
[Class of 1948 Scrapbook (Disassembled)] includes a cutout of Stanford's former school mascot, a caricature of a Native American (Box 13 Folder 4), as well as a photo of a student nurse dressed like a stereotypical Native American (Box 13 Folder 5). [Class of 1953 Reunion Book] (Box 15 Folder 1) also contains imagery of stereotypical Native Americans, as does ["Big Game" Edition of the California Gridiron with Attached Ticket, 1936] (Box 15 Folder 11). ["Old Faces from the Class of '56" Book of Drawings and Jokes] (Box 15 Folder 4) mentions a student "willing my [derogatory term for a worker of Chinese descent]" to someone else. The Stanford Medical History Center collects and makes these materials available to facilitate scholarly research and education, and does not endorse the viewpoints within.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Emily Zinn
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-08-05 16:18:03 -0700 .

Access and use

Location of this collection:
Lane Medical Library & Knowledge Management Center
300 Pasteur Drive, Room L109
Stanford, CA 94305-5123, US
Contact:
(650) 725-8045
Website
Email