Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 9.06 (Ethnicty and Race) From many mountains: Collecting and Disseminating information about White, African American and Cherokee nurses in Knoxville, TN 1900-1965
Session Abstract or Summary
This session will be a discussion of how an interdisciplinary, intercollegiate team collected and is disseminating the history of White, African American and Cherokee nursing in Knoxville, TN before the modern civil rights era.
This panel will explore:
1. How race and ethnicity determined the quality and range of health care available to people in Southern and Central Appalachia in the first half of the twentieth century using Knoxville as a case study.
2. How race and ethnicity impacted the opportunities for residents of Southern and Central Appalachia in the first half of the twentieth to pursue health care careers, using Knoxville as a case study.
- Ways the many histories and stories of health care in Appalachia can be displayed and disseminated through a regional health care museum.
Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to:
- Compare and contrast the health care available to White, African American and Cherokee people in Knoxville, TN. From 1900- 1965.
- Describe the availability of health careers education open to White, African American and Cherokee people in Knoxville, TN, from 1900-1965.
- Discuss at least two methods of disseminating this information to lay and professional audiences.
Presentation #1 Title
Getting started: The Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This speaker (Mrs. Billie McNamara), the daughter, granddaughter and niece of the now defunct Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing (KGHSON), (1902 - 1956) graduates, began a labor of love in 2009. She will describe her challenges and successes in her work recovering much of the history of the old KGHSON. Mrs. McNamara used the internet, social network sites, the telephone and person to person contacts to collect oral histories, documents and photographs. While ehr motivation was primarily giving a gift to her nursing relatives, her work adds to the richness of women's history, health care history and labor history in the Appalachian region. Mrs. McNamara's work has resulted in a website and KGHSON reunion so far. Other plans, which she will describe to session antendees are in the works.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Mrs. Billie McNamara is the daughter, granddaughter and niece of nurses who graduated from the Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing. She is an avid and astounding collector of stories, photographs and documents related to the Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing. She created a website and with the other presenters helped create the opening exhibit for the Health Sciences History Museum on the VA/ETSU Medical College campus
Presentation #2 Title
The history of White nursing education adn practice in Knoxville, TN 1900-1964
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
The establishment of hospitals and the interrelationship of programs to educate physicians and nurses in Knoxville, Tennessee created a hub of health care for the east Tennessee region during the early 1900s. The Tennessee Medical College was established in 1889, providing a program of education for medical students in Knoxville, but lacked a hospital for their students to practice. Although small private hospitals or clinics provided medical care for its residents, Knoxville lacked a hospital that provided nursing education for the region. Of particular interest, the city of Knoxville established Knoxville General Hospital and a Training School for Nurses in 1902 and in 1906, Lincoln Memorial Hospital was established as a partnership between the Tennessee Medical College and Lincoln Memorial University. While Knoxville General Hospital provided a training school for nurses, Lincoln Memorial Hospital provided a site for medical students to practice but also established a training school for nurses in order to provide staffing for the hospital. Both hospitals operated across the street from one another with separate nursing programs until 1917 when Lincoln Memorial Hospital was sold to Knoxville General Hospital. Both nursing programs merged into one as Knoxville General Hospital Training School for Nurses. While other hospitals in the Knoxville area followed with training schools of nursing, the education of nurses continued at Knoxville General Hospital until it closed in 1956 having produced some 900 nurses, many of whom became prominent nursing leaders.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Sharon Loury, RN is an Associate Professor of Nursing at ETSU. Her research interests include the history of nursing in the Appalachian region. She is currently conducting research about Melungeon nursing and then history of the ETSU nursing program.
Presentation #3 Title
The history of Cherokee and African American nursing education and practice in Knoxville,TN 1900-1964
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
The experiences of minority nurses in Appalachia as across the country, from 1900-1964, varied by ethnicity. African American nurses were denied admission to "White" schools of nursing and were banned from employment in White hospitals. African American patients were admitted to small, inadequate "Negro" or "Colored" wards in Knoxville area hospital basements, which were often described a dark, cold and damp, if they were admitted at all. In response to these dire conditions, the first African American hospital in Appalachia, the Eliza B. Wallace Hospital was founded on the Knoxville College campus in 1907. The school added a nurse training program which was the first and for many years the only nurses training available to Appalachian African American women. The Helen Mae Lennon Hospital, a second hospital for African Americans was founded in the 1920s in Knoxville and also had a nurse training program.
During this era,the U S government had an "assimilation policy" of "Americanizing" or "civilizing" Native Americans. Eastern Band Cherokee Indian women could be and were admitted to White schools of nursing including Knoxville General Hospital's program. they could and did join the US Army Nurse corps in WWII.
The experiences of both groups will be examined along side the White nurses experiences.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Phoebe Pollitt, RN is an Associate Professor of Nursing at Appalachian State University. She is working on her second book about Cherokee and African American nursing in Appalachia.
Presentation #4 Title
Collaboration and partnership: building an Appalachian health history museum
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
As a result of nearly two years’ worth of collaborative efforts, the stories and memories of the school and the nurses who graduated from Knoxville General Hospital’s School of Nursing will be preserved forever. Collaboration and partnerships became key in this project. In 2012, a project to present an overview of Knoxville General Hospital and its nursing program was begun by one individual who compiled a list of Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing graduates and researching each one. People in every state were contacted in trying to locate stories, historical documents, and photos . Besides personal communications, connections were also made to look for additional information, and through theses connections a partnership was formed. The connections included nurse historians and archivists at East Tennessee State University, Appalachian State University Lincoln Memorial University, and the Museum at Mountain Home. Research partners included nurse historians and associate professors of nursing at ETSU and Appalachian State University, and institutional archivists at the various schools The research that began with Knoxville General Hospital’s School of Nursing is on-going and expanding throughout the Appalachian region. Through this collaboration between the ETSU College of Nursing, Appalachian State University, and the Museum at Mountain Home, the heritage of nursing in South Central Appalachia will finally be collected, preserved, and shared.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Mrs. Martha Whaley is the Interim Associate Dean of the Quillen Library of Health Sciences at ETSU. She is instrumental in the successful creation and management of the new Health Sciences History Museum on the VA/ETSU Medical College campus.
Getting started: The Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing
This speaker (Mrs. Billie McNamara), the daughter, granddaughter and niece of the now defunct Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing (KGHSON), (1902 - 1956) graduates, began a labor of love in 2009. She will describe her challenges and successes in her work recovering much of the history of the old KGHSON. Mrs. McNamara used the internet, social network sites, the telephone and person to person contacts to collect oral histories, documents and photographs. While ehr motivation was primarily giving a gift to her nursing relatives, her work adds to the richness of women's history, health care history and labor history in the Appalachian region. Mrs. McNamara's work has resulted in a website and KGHSON reunion so far. Other plans, which she will describe to session antendees are in the works.
