Famous Nurses Who Made History

1. Founder of Modern Nursing (1820 to 1920) The history of modern nursing started in 1849, when Florence Nightingale began her first formal nursing training at the Institute of St. Vincent de Paul, in Alexandria, Egypt. After further trainings in Germany and in France, she voluntarily served as Superintendent at the Establishment for Gentlewomen during Illness in London. The knowledge and skills Nightingale gained from these experiences equipped h .....

Clara Barton

2. Founder of American Red Cross (1821 to 1912) Clarissa Harlowe Barton was a teacher when her feet directed her to tread the more risky life of bringing supplies right in heart of battlefields during the American Civil War, wherein she was rightfully known as the Angel of the Battlefield. Claras nursing journey and philanthropic life dawned amid the dark Baltimore riots, organizing relief program for the soldiers. The need for medical supplies wa .....

Mary Breckinridge

3. Founder of the New Model of Rural Health Care & Frontier Nursing Service (1881 to 1965) Mary Breckinridge came from an influential family and enjoyed a privileged childhood. Unfortunately, though, her 2 own children did not endure childhood. This was the most notable accounts of Mary Breckinridge that are associated with her decision to dedicate her life in improving health of poor women and children in rural areas of America. Breckinridge beca .....

Dorothea Dix

4. Brain of First Mental Asylum in the U.S. (1802 to 1887) Dorothea Lynde Dix was not an excellent nurse in the very sense of nursing. However, the reputation as a famous nurse was earned by her fearless fight for the right of the mentally ill in front of Massachusetts legislators and of the United States Congress. Dix found herself in this battle due to her passion for teaching. She saw with her own eyes the dismal conditions of the mentally disab .....

Margaret Sanger

5. Founder of Planned Parenthood (1879 to 1966) Margaret Louise Higgins blamed the premature death of her mother to the frequent pregnancy, the result of what she viewed as grim class and family heritage. Nursing became her door to liberation from this big family tradition. As she worked as a visiting nurse, Margaret, who was then married to William Sanger and a mother of 3, became attracted to womens pain of frequent childbirth, miscarriage, and .....

Elizabeth Grace Neill

6. Started the System of Nursing Registration (1846 to 1926) Elizabeth Grace Campbell Neil received her nursing education at the St. Johns House Sisterhood in London. She spent her early nursing career as lady superintendent at the Pendlebury Hospital for Children in Manchester, where Ms. Campbell met her husband Channing Neil. She left England for Australia in 1886, and then, treaded a life of a journalist and various government commissions for a .....

Mary Eliza Mahoney

7. First Registered African American Nurse (1845 to 1926) At her teens, Mary Eliza Mahoney began having interest in nursing. That interest led her to New England Hospital for women and children, working as cook, janitress, and laundry woman for 15 years. She also served as an unofficial nursing aid, which became a very significant step in her journey of becoming a professional nurse. In 1879, she was finally admitted into the hospitals nursing sch .....

Mary Seacole

8. Unofficial Nurse to Crimean War Soldiers (1805 to 1881) Mary Seacole was a free black Jamaican who was, at least 4 times, rejected from providing nursing aide to the British soldiers during the Crimean war because of her color. This was despite Florence Nightingales call for support of nursing. Rejections were the least thing that could stand against Mary Seacole from tending to the wounded British and Jamaican soldiers. Seacole funded herself .....

Susie King Taylor

9. First African American U.S. Army Nurse in Civil War (1848 to 1912) Susie Baker King Taylor, daughter of slaves, was freed by their owner Mr. Grest by sending her to her grandmother Dolly Reed in Savannah. While with her grandmother, Susie learned how to read and write with the help of some friends. When Civil War broke, Susie, who was then 14 years old, fled to St. Simons Island with her uncle. They were taken under the custody of Union Forces .....

Isabella Baumfree

10. The Soujourner Truth (1797 to 1883) Born a slave, Isabella Baumfree paddled the cruel truth of black enslavement in the land of white people, and fighting for freedom became the very essence of her journey. Isabella Baumfree, renamed herself as Soujourner Truth, literally travelled across the country, speaking before crowds speeches that have so much to do with abolishing slavery and the advocacy for womens rights. Backed with religious faith a .....

Mabel Keaton Staupers

11. Led Battle to End Racial Prejudice in Nursing (1890 to 1989) Color was the greatest obstacle that had to be faced by every black aspiring to become nurse in the early years. Like Mary Eliza Mahony, Mary Seacole, and Susie King Taylor, Mabel Staupers had to win over her skin color. Mabel Staupers fought hard to finally and fully integrate black nurses into the nursing profession in the U.S., at the time wherein every available medical aid was ba .....

Hazel W Johnson Brown

12. First African American Chief of the Army Nurse Corps (1927 to Present) Named as the first African American Brigadier General of the Army Nurse Corps in 1979, Hazel W. Johnson Brown apparently reached the most honorable rank when she was appointed as the chief of the ANC. She then commanded 7,000 men and women in the Army National Guard and Army Reserves, and overseeing numerous medical centers, free standing clinics, and community hospitals in .....

Virginia Avenel Henderson

13. Developed the Nursing Theory (1897 to 1996) Known as the first lady of nursing, Virginia Avenel Henderson can be considered as the most famous nurse of the 20th century, with all her contributions and influence to American and international nursing education, practice, research as well as its implications. She was the woman behind the development of nursing theory, carefully and clearly defining the roles of nurses in health care. Hendersons th .....

Christiane Reimann

14. International Council of Nurses First Full Time Executive Secretary (1887 to 1979) The prestigious Christiane Reimann Prize, which has been awarded to just a very few achievers in the nursing field yet, was named after her. Christiane Reimann was a Danish born woman who received her nursing degree at the Copenhagens Bispebjerg Hospital in 1916. And in 1925, only 9 years later, she became the very first paid full time executive secretary of the .....

Sophie Mannerheim

15. The Baroness & Instrument to Finlands Modern Nursing (1863 to 1928) A fruit of modern nursing founder Florence Nightingales school at St. Thomas Hospital, in London, Sofia Sophie Mannerheim utilized her gained nursing knowledge and skills in her own country, Finland. Before journeying into the world or nursing, though, Sophie first worked as a bank employee for 6 years, and got into an 8 year long marriage in 1896. Mannerheims divorce gave her .....

Edith Cavell

16. Belgiums Nursing Pioneer & Nurse Hero (1965 to 1915) Edith Louisa Cavell served the Red Cross in the face of death during World War II. Cavell, a British nurse was matron of the Brussels Berkendael Institute, which was then converted into Red Cross hospital, when Central member country Germany invaded Belgium. Her duty was to care for patients, regardless of their nationality, not looking into whether they were from the Central or Allied Forces .....

Linda Richards

17. The First Trained American Female Nurse (1841 to 1930) Malinda Anne Judson Richards, Americas first trained female nurse was moved to enter the nursing profession due to the death of her parents from tuberculosis. Although she already got informal training from her mothers physician, Richards pursued teaching. It was only after the death of her fianc .....

Sarah Emma Edmonds

18. The male nurse (1841 to 1898) Being male was not a dream for Sarah Emma Edmondson, but a life she had to live since childhood to escape mistreatment from her father and to be able to serve her adopted country, the United States of America. Emma left New Brunswick, her homeland, to flee her abusive father who wanted a son, not a daughter. She was in New England, when she answered the call for Union enlisters. After four tries, Emma succeeded to .....

Anna Caroline Maxwell

19. Founder of the Army Nurse Corps (1851 to 1929) Known as the American Florence Nightingale, Anna Caroline Maxwell bravely cared for wounded men, improved sanitary conditions of military hospitals, and trained nurses for care during the Spanish American War. Her intelligence and experience from years in the nursing profession equipped Maxwell for the enormous task during this chaotic time. Anna Maxwell started off at the Training School of the Bo .....

Ruby Bradley

20. Most Decorated Woman in US Military (1907 to 2002) Col. Ruby Bradley of the Army Nurse Corps was the most highly decorated army nurse, receiving 34 medals and citations of bravery for her military service during the Japanese and Korean War, on World War II. Her awards included Legion of Merit Medals, Bronze Stars, Presidential Emblems, WWII Victory Medal, U.N. Service Medal, and Florence Nightingale Medal. Bradley began her service in the Army .....

Helen Fairchild

21. World War I Combat Nursing (1885 to 1918) The battlefield that has become many brave soldiers grave also led Helen Fairchild to her final destination. But compared to those soldiers who were there to fight and kill, she was in the battlefield with the primary mission of saving lives. Fairchild was one of the 64 nurses who left Pennsylvania Hospital with the American Expeditionary Force to France, in 1917. Fairchild was immediately sent to the C .....

Louisa May Alcott

22. Civil War Nurse, Writer & Poet (1832 1888) Louisa May Alcotts service as a nurse during the Civil War was short lived, only on a winter month between 1862 and 1863. She served at the Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown, Virginia. However, while in the nursing service, Alcott contracted typhoid pneumonia and forced to go back home to regain good health. She suffered permanent health damage because of the fever and of the calomel dose or mercuro .....

Diane Carlson Evans

23. Vietnam War Nurse & Founder and President of Vietnam Womens Memorial Foundation (1946 to Present) Diane Carlson Evans served as surgical nurse in the surgical and burnt unit of the 36th Evacuation Hospital in Vung Tau and in the 71st Evacuation Hospital in Pleiku. Before she treaded the risky life of a combat nurse, she was equipped with knowledge of nursing school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After graduation, Evans readily joined the Army Nurse .....

Mary Todd Lincoln

24. The Presidents Wife (1818 to 1882) Mary Anne Todd Lincoln, Former President Abraham Lincolns wife, was better known as a well educated aristocrat with great interest in politics, which actually helped Abraham to the presidential office. Her witty, sarcastic comments, frenzy spending, and alleged mental illness tore into her rather worthy life as wife of a president. At one point of her life as first lady of the United States of America, Mary To .....

Walt Whitman

25. The Egalitarian (1819 to 1892) Born to a working class family, Walt Whitman had to quit formal schooling at the age of 11 and start working as office boy for some prominent lawyers. Walt began self educating, gaining wide knowledge through visits to museums, nonstop reading, as well as engaging in conversations and debates. He learned a lot about literature, theater, history, geography, music and archeology through his informal education. At th .....