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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060
Online Library of Selected Images:
-- PEOPLE -- TOPICS
Nurses and the U.S. Navy, prior to 1908
Nursing, in the sense of bedside attendance of the sick and
injured, has existed in the Navy from the first. Performed by
enlisted crew members, the function was increasingly formalized
during the 19th Century as part of the duties of the emerging
hospital corpsman rates.
Even in the early 1800s, there was a recommendation that women
be employed as Navy nurses. Nothing much came of this until the
American Civil War, when Catholic Sisters of the Holy Cross served
in Navy facilities and on board the pioneer hospital ship USS
Red Rover in the
Mississippi River area. This was part of a great endeavor by Religious
and lay women during the conflict, an undertaking that led to
the post-war establishment of nursing as a real profession requiring
formal training -- a profession both open to and dominated by
women.
During the 1898 Spanish-American War, the Navy employed a modest
number of female contract nurses in its hospitals ashore and sent
trained male nurses to sea on the hospital ship Solace.
At the same time, the U.S. Army put women nurses on board ship,
in its hospital ship Relief,
and in 1901 obtained Congressional approval to establish the U.S.
Army Nurse Corp (Female).
In 1902 the Navy's Surgeon-General proposed a similar arrangement
for the sea service. Five years later, he reported to the Congress
that "The Government supplies physicians and surgeons, splendidly
equipped hospitals, and complete emergency facilities on every
ship. The most serious omission in this excellent establishment
is the want of that skilled nursing which civil institutions enjoy".
This page features views related to nurses and the United States
Navy up to the establishment of the Navy Nurse Corps in 1908.
For additional pictorial coverage on Nurses and the United
States Navy, see:
Nurses and the U.S. Navy -- Overview
and Special Image Selection.
Click on the small photograph to prompt
a larger view of the same image.
Photo #: NH 59652
USS Red Rover (1862-1865)
Line engravings published in "Harper's Weekly", January-June
1863, page 300, depicting scene on board the U.S. Navy's Western
Rivers hospital ship during the Civil War.
The scene at left, entitled "The Sister", shows a nurse
attending to a patient.
That at right shows a convalescent ward.
The middle view is of a lonely grave on the river bank.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 118KB; 740 x 375 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 59651
USS Red Rover (1862-1865)
Line engraving after a drawing by Theodore R. Davis, published
in "Harper's Weekly", January-June 1863, page 300,
depicting a scene in the ward.
Red Rover served as the U.S. Navy's hospital ship on the
Western Rivers during the Civil War.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 183KB; 740 x 545 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 58897
"The Interior of a Sanitary Steamer"
Line engraving published in "Harper's Weekly", 1862.
This may represent a view in one of the wards of USS Red Rover
(1862-1865), which served as the U.S. Navy's hospital ship on
the Western Rivers during the Civil War.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 147KB; 740 x 410 pixels |
 |
Photo #: NH 85812
Mother Angela Gillespie
Founder of the Holy Cross Nursing Sisters.
She was supervisor of the eighty Holy Cross Sisters who served
as military nurses during the Civil War.
Courtesy of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, 1965.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 73KB; 555 x 765 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 85813
U.S. General Hospital, Mound City, Illinois
Main building of the hospital, a converted warehouse, while Dr.
Horace Warnder was Surgeon in Charge during the Civil War, as
sketched by William Groth.
This hospital was staffed by the Nursing Sisters of the Holy
Cross, St. Mary's Convent, South Bend, Indiana. It also served
as staffing base for the Navy hospital ship USS Red Rover.
In 1963, this building was a warehouse of the Cairo River & Rail
Co.
Courtesy of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, 1965.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 550 pixels |
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Photo #: NH 92846
U.S. Army Hospital Ship Relief
Nurses of the ship's complement, while she was serving in Cuban
waters, 1898.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
Online Image: 108KB; 740 x 625 pixels |
 |
For additional pictorial coverage on Nurses and the United
States Navy, see:
Nurses and the U.S. Navy -- Overview
and Special Image Selection.
Return to Naval
Historical Center home page.
12 March 2000