Pioneer Nurse

THE OVERLOOK

By Tom Clavin

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          While doing some research recently into the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, I found information about one of the people buried there, Jane Arminda Delano. If you have never heard of her, that’s good, because you will be especially interested in the following, much of which came from the National Women’s History Museum.

Although Jane Delano was related to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, she made a name for herself as a nurse and health innovator. She was known for her creative ways of taking care of patients and her ability to organize. She held many leadership positions, including the president of the board of directors of the American Journal of Nursing and the first chairman of the National Committee of the Red Cross Nursing Service. Delano also served as the superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps. She dedicated her life to public service and inspired many women to become professional Red Cross nurses around the world.

Born on March 12, 1862, Jane Delano grew up with her mother in Montour Falls, New York. Her father died of yellow fever before she was born while he was serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. After attending school in Montour Falls, Delano moved to New York City to attend the Bellevue Hospital Training School for Nurses. She graduated in 1886 and became the superintendent of nurses at Sandhills Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

As it happened, one of Delano’s main responsibilities was to take care of the patients with yellow fever. She placed mosquito nets over the windows and the patient care area even though scientists did not yet know that mosquitoes were carrying the disease. Her innovation was very successful.

Delano next went west to take care of patients in Bisbee, Arizona, during a typhoid epidemic. In 1891 she was back east, serving as the Superintendent of Nurses at the University Hospital in Philadelphia. This role inspired her to attend medical school in Buffalo, New York. However, Delano decided that she did not want to become a doctor. She continued working as a nurse and supervised a shelter for girls called the House of Refuge in New York City. In 1902, she returned to Bellevue Hospital to lead the training school for nurses.

By 1909, Jane Delano was viewed as an important person in the nursing world. She accepted a position as the president of the Associated Alumnae while also at the American Journal of Nursing. A year later she became the chairman of the American Red Cross Nursing Service and the superintendent of the Army Nurse Corps. Delano had applied to serve the Army in some capacity, and even though she was over the age limit of 45, the Army accepted her application. She helped increase the number of women in the nursing reserves and led the American Red Cross Nursing Service when it became the officially recognized nursing reserve for the Army, Navy, and Public Health Service.

Delano resigned from the Army Nurse Corps in 1912 so she could be a full-time volunteer with the Red Cross. She traveled around the world recruiting women to train as nurses and to volunteer for the Army. By the time the United States entered World War I in 1917, over 8,000 nurses were ready to serve immediately. Thanks to her hard work, by November of 1918 at least 18,732 nurses had volunteered to serve in the war. Quite possibly, without Delano’s help, there would not have been enough nurses to treat the war’s injured solders and refugees.

After World War I, Delano continued to recruit nurses and medical workers. She established the Red Cross Town and Country Nursing Service. She also co-wrote a textbook and created courses in Elementary Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick. She traveled to Europe to visit hospitals and the nurses she helped recruit. Alas, while in France, she became very sick and needed surgery. After her surgery, her condition worsened. She died on April 15, 1919, in Savenay, France, and was buried there. Her reported last words were, “What about my work, I must get back to my work.”

A year later, the Army Quartermaster Corps requested to bring Delano’s body back to the United States, and she was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. She was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal posthumously for her work as the director of the Department of Nursing at the American Red Cross. Eventually, nurses paid for a memorial to honor her and the nurses who died during World War I. A dedication service was held 90 years ago, in April 1934, in the garden at the Red Cross National Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Tom Clavin is the bestselling author/co-author of 25 books, including The Last Outlaws, which was published in November, and (with Bob Drury) Throne of Grace, which will be published by St. Martin’s Press in May. Please go to your local bookstore or to Bookshop.org, Amazon.com, BN.com, or tomclavin.com to purchase a copy.