CNHI: Alice Burford Booth Papers

Scope and content:

Alice Burford Booth, RN, graduated from Blackstone College in 1940 and from the diploma program in nursing at the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) in 1943. In 1944 she received the bachelor of science in nursing from MCV, based on her course work at other institutions. From 1943 to 1944 she was head nurse on the psychiatric unit, then moved to New York City for post-graduate studies. Returning to MCV in 1945 as clinical instructor in psychiatry, by 1948 she had been promoted to associate professor of psychiatric nursing. After a career hiatus, she returned to MCV from 1965-1967 as instructor in psychiatric nursing in the associate degree program, which closed in 1967, then worked in the Student Health Department at MCV until her retirement in 1982.

Arrangement:

The Burford Booth collection consists primarily of lecture notes, exams and educational pamphlets related to mental health and psychiatry (1940-1960), and curriculum guides for MCV. It comprises psychiatric nursing material from her days as a student and from her career as an instructor. Of some note are two 1944 letters from Johns Hopkins Hospital and Traverse City State Hospital regarding "electroshock convulsion syndrome;" pamphlets on depression, alcoholism, mental hygiene and adjunct therapies in the burgeoning field of psychiatric nursing; and the histories of Eastern State, Central State (Va.) and St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., and of the Virginia Treatment Center for Children. The papers are a useful source of information on medical treatment of the mentally ill in the World War II era, and on changing attitudes toward mental illness in the medical community and society at large.

This collection has been arranged into one largely chronological series.

Physical description:

2 boxes, .8 linear feet

Access and use

Contents