Edith Malleis nursing student scrapbook

Access and use

Location of collection:
George Mason University
2400 Fenwick Library
Special Collections Research Center
Fenwick Library MS2FL
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Mieko Palazzo
Phone: (703) 993-2220
Fax: (703) 993-2669
Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Preferred citation:

Edith Malleis nursing student scrapbook, C0519, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries

Summary

Extent:
.25 Linear Feet 1 scrapbook
Creator:
Malleis, Edith L., 1896-1985
Abstract:
Scrapbook compiled by nursing student Edith L. Malleis from 1924-1927. Contains photographs, ephemera, letters, and cards.
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Edith Malleis nursing student scrapbook, C0519, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries

Background

Scope and content:

A "My Kodak Memory Book" scrapbook compiled by nursing student Edith L. Malleis from 1924-1927. Contains photographs, ephemera, letters, and cards that document Malleis' time as a nursing student at Newman Memorial County Hospital in Emporia, Kansas and Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. The photographs cover a range of subjects including hospital buildings, staff, daily student life, babies born at the hospital, leisure activities, and student accomplishments. Most photographs have identifications or playful captions written in pen on the image itself. The additional items include personal letters, a few still in envelopes, performance programs and other mementos, poems and pledges, buttons, greeting cards, business cards and handwritten notes from classmates, and numerous certificates, programs, and cards related to graduation.

Biographical / historical:

Edith L. Malleis was born on October 22, 1896. In 1924 she enrolled in the nurse's training program at Newman Memorial County Hospital in Emporia, Kansas, two years after the hospital's founding in 1922. Near the conclusion of her three years of training she spent four months working at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri from November 1926 – March 1927, at the end of which she received her Affiliated Nurse Certificate in Children's Nursing on March 15, 1927. Edith graduated from the Newman Hospital Training School in 1927. She passed away on June 24, 1985 at the age of 88 and is buried in Halstead Cemetery in Halstead, Kansas.

Following the British model, nursing in the United States professionalized rapidly after the Civil War in the late 19th century. Nursing schools that attracted young women from both middle and working class backgrounds began forming across the country. Initially, throughout the 1880s-1890s, most of these nursing schools ran independently, overseen by nurses who applied Florence Nightingale's model in designing their training programs. In the early 1900s, control transferred largely to hospitals, replacing formal academic learning with a new emphasis on clinical experience. As a result, nursing students began working for these larger hospitals without pay as a part of and in exchange for their training. The number of practicing, active nursing students rose rapidly over the course of the next 70 years, with 51,000 in 1910, 375,000 in 1940, and 700,000 by 1970.

Acquisition information:
Purchased by Lynn Eaton from Caroliniana Books in 2021.
Processing information:

Processing completed by Meghan Glasbrenner in June 2024. Finding aid completed by Meghan Glasbrenner in July 2024.

Arrangement:

This is a single item collection.

Physical location:
R 71, C 1, S 5
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard