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Dorothea Dix
Dorothea Dix served as an advocate for the mentally ill. Her efforts were instrumental in the founding of the first public mental hospital in Pennsylvania in 1851. She was later appointed Superintendent of the Union Army Nurses where her authority was often challenged by physicians. -
Clara Barton
After the First Battle of Bull Run, Barton established an organization that obtained and distributed supplies to wounded soliders. In 1865, President Abrahama Lincoln placed Barton in charge of the search for wounded men of the Union Army. She became known as "little lone lady in black silk". On May 21, 1881, Barton founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. and served as the organization's first president. -
Mary Ann Bickerdyke
Also known as "Mother Bickerdyke", Mary Ann Bickerdyke served as a hospital administrator for the Union Army during the Civil War. She became the best known nurse of the war, and by its end in 1865, Mother Bickerdyke had aided the U.S.Sanitary Commission in building 300 hospitals and caring for the wounded on 19 different battlefields. -
Linda Richards
Linda Richards was the first American trained nurse. In 1872, she became the first student to enroll in the inaugural class of five nurses in the first American nurse's training school at the New England Hospital for Women and Children. -
Mary Elizabeth Mahoney
Mary Mahoney was America's first black professional nurse. She graduated from the New England Hospital for Women and Children Training School for Nurses in 1879 and was one of only three persons in her class to complete the rigorous 16 month program. -
Lavinia Dock
Lavinia Dock is remembered for her contributions to nursing literature. She authored Materia Medica for Nurses, one of the first nursing textbooks, as well as serveral other publications. Dock also served as foreign editor of the American Journal of Nursing. -
Lillian Wald
Lillian Wald is widely regarded as the founder of visiting nursing in the United States and Canada. She founded the Henry Street Settlement which provided healthcare for new immigrants and the poor of New York City. The Lillian Wald houses in Manhattan were named in here honor. -
Mary Adelaide Nutting
Mary Adelaide Nutting was a noted educator, historian, and scholar. In 1894, Nutting became principal of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. When Nutting accepted the chairmanship of the newly developing Department of Nursing Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, she became the first nurse ever to be appointed to a university professorship. She also made significant contributions to nursing literature and published many articles for nursing and health journals. -
Isabel Hampton Robb
In 1896, Isabel Hampton Robb organized the American Nurses Association and served as the first president. She served on the original committee that founded the American Journal of Nursing. Robb was also appointed as head of the John Hopkins nursing school where she became a published nursing theorist. -
Margaret Sanger
Margaret Sanger was an American birth control activist. On October 16, 1916, she opened the first family planning and birth control clinic in the United States. In 1921, Sanger also founded the American Birth Control League which later became known as Planned Parenthood. -
Virginia Henderson
Virginia A. Henderson has earned the title "foremost nurse of the 20th century." She holds twelve honorary doctoral degrees and has received the International Council of Nursing's Christianne Reimann Prize, which is considered nursing's most prestigious award. For more than seventy years,she has advocated humane and holistic care for patients, raised important issues in health care, and authored one of the most accurate definitions of nursing. -
Annie Goodrich
Annie Goodrich served as president of the American Nurses Association from 1915-1918. During her career, Goodrich was also president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Nursing, New York State Inspector for Training Schools, director of nursing service at Henry Street Settlement, professor of nursing at Teacher's College, Columbia University, and dean of the Army School of Nursing. In 1924, Goodrich founded and became the dean of the first nursing program at Yale University. -
Mary Breckinridge
Mary Breckinridge was an American nurse-midwife. After receiving proper training at the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies, she returned to the United States and founded the Frontier Nursing Service which provides healthcare services to rural, underserved populations and educates nurse mid-wifes. -
Ida V. Moffet
Ida V. Moffet became Registered Nurse #1830 in Alabama on June 3, 1926. Throughout her nursing career, Moffet was a pioneer in setting standards for healthcare. She was the first woman involved in achieving school accreditation, in forming university- level degree programs for nursing, in licensing practical nursing, and in starting junior college-level degree programs for nurses. Because of her achievements, Samford University named their nursing school in her honor. -
Hildegard Peplau
Dr. Hildegard Peplau was a nursing theorist who emphasized the client-nurse relationship as the foundation of nursing practice. Peplau defined nursing as ""a significant, therapeutic, interpersonal process". She is most remembered for her development of "Peplau's Six Nursing Roles" and "Peplau's Developmental Stages of the Nurse-Client Relationship". -
Lillian Holland Harvey
In 1948, Lillian Holland Harvey received her master's degree from the Teachers College at Columbia University and initiated the first baccalaureate degree in nursing program in the state of Alabama at Tuskegee Institute. -
Dorothea Orem
Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1914, Dorothea Orem was a nursing theorist and founder of the "Orem General Theory of Nursing". The basic premise of Orem's theory states that nurses have to supply care when patients cannot supply care for themselves. -
Martha Rogers
Martha Rodgers was an American nurse, theorist, and author. In 1970, Dr. Martha Rogers first published her landmark book An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing. Her concepts are derived from the view of the universe as a collection of open systems in which we interact independently and continuously without causality. Many nursing schools still use Rogers' theory as a conceptual framework for their programs. -
Jean Watson
Dr. Jean Watson is a Distinguished Professor of Nursing and holds an endowed Chair in Caring Science at the University of Colorado Denver and Health Sciences Center. She is founder of the original Center for Human Caring in Colorado and the International Caritas Consortium. Dr. Watson is also the auther/co-author of twelve books including "Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring". -
Madeleine Leininger
Madeleine Leininger is a pioneering nurse theorist. She was first published in the early 1980's, and she continues to make contributions to the nursing field today. Dr. Leininger developed the concept of "transcultural nursing" which addresses cultural factors in nursing practice. She has also served as the dean of the University of Washington School of Nursing and has contributed to 27 books.
