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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

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Nurses and the U.S. Navy, 1908-1917

With the 13 May 1908 Congressional approval of a Navy Nurse Corps, the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery moved to implement the legislation and bring aboard the Navy's first female nurses. Applicants were required to be graduate nurses with at least two years' formal training, plus relevant clinical experience. On 8 August 1908, Esther Vorhees Hasson, who had previously served as an Army Nurse, was appointed as the Nurse Corps' first Superintendent. She, and the nineteen others of the first Navy Nurse contingent, received their initial orientation at the Navy Medical School in Washington, DC.

In March 1909, the first twenty Navy Nurses were sent on their first operational assignments: to Naval Hospitals at Washington, DC.; Portsmouth, Virginia; Annapolis, Maryland; and Brooklyn, New York. One nurse at each station was appointed as Chief Nurse, with additional responsibilities and pay. By the end of the year, seventeen more nurses had joined the Corps and the Mare Island Naval Hospital, in California, had received its first women Navy Nurses.

Over the next several years, the Corps expanded to a strength of 160 and Navy Nurses were assigned to additional Navy hospitals within the Continental United States and overseas, with the latter including Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; Canacao, Philippine Islands; Yokohama, Japan; Guam; Samoa; Cuba and the Virgin Islands. In addition to normal nursing duties, Navy Nurses worked in medical specialty fields, and provided training and supervision for enlisted hospital apprentices and native nurses. In 1911, Superintendent Hasson was relieved by Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee. For a few months in 1913, Navy Nurses saw their first shipboard service, aboard USS Mayflower and USS Dolphin.

In 1914, after the outbreak of World War I in Europe, two Navy Nurses requested discharges, joined the American Red Cross and traveled to the war zone to attend to military casualties. Both returned to the U.S. in 1915 and reentered the Navy. Their experience, and that of other Red Cross Nurses who served in Europe and on the Mexican Border, would gain considerable relevance when the United States entered the "Great War" in April 1917.

This page features views related to nurses and the United States Navy from the establishment of the Navy Nurse Corps to U.S. entry into World War I.

For additional pictorial coverage on Nurses and the United States Navy, see:

  • Nurses and the U.S. Navy -- Overview and Special Image Selection.

    For a photographic album containing many photographs related to Navy Nurses during this period, see:

  • J. Beatrice Bowman Photo Album, circa 1908-1915.

    For images of this era's Nurse Corps' Superintendents and individual Navy Nurses, see:

  • Esther Vorhees Hasson, 1st Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps, 1908-1911;
  • Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee, 2nd Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps, 1911-1922;

  • Mary Ella Moffett, who served as a Navy Nurse from 1912 to 1934.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions.

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 52960

    "The Sacred Twenty"


    Group photograph of the first twenty Navy Nurses, appointed in 1908. Taken at the Naval Hospital, Washington, D.C., circa October 1908.
    They are identified in Photo # NH 52960 (Complete Caption).

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 575 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 52970

    Navy Nurses


    At the U.S. Naval Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1914.
    They are wearing the indoor duty uniform.

    Courtesy of the Nursing Division, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, September 1962.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 150KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 52973

    Navy Nurses


    With an officer and a civilian, at the U.S. Naval Hospital, Norfolk, Virignia, 1914.
    Nurse in the front row, immediately to the right of the civilian, is Chief Nurse Elizabeth Leonhardt.

    Courtesy of the Nursing Division, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, September 1962.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     

    For additional pictorial coverage on Nurses and the United States Navy, see:

  • Nurses and the U.S. Navy -- Overview and Special Image Selection.

    For a photographic album containing many photographs related to Navy Nurses during this period, see:

  • J. Beatrice Bowman Photo Album, circa 1908-1915.

    For images of this era's Nurse Corps' Superintendents and individual Navy Nurses, see:

  • Esther Vorhees Hasson, 1st Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps, 1908-1911;
  • Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee, 2nd Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps, 1911-1922;

  • Mary Ella Moffett, who served as a Navy Nurse from 1912 to 1934.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions.


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    26 March 2000