A Nurse's Story From 1913

Nurses With Babies by Harris & Ewing (between 1916 and 1919)

Today’s post features the story of a maternity and surgical nurse from Toronto, Ontario, Canada named Ruth Webster, as related in The Modern Priscilla, November, 1913. As a nurse myself, I have respect and admiration for the strong, intelligent, ambitious and compassionate women like Miss Webster who came before me and paved the way for the professional and educational opportunities we have today. In those days, nurses’ training was notoriously difficult. Student nurses were required to leave home and work long hours at hospitals.  Miss Webster knew from an early age what she wanted to do with her life, was determined to work hard, and fought against her own doubts and the opposition of others to achieve success in her profession. Although there are no known pictures of Ruth Webster available, I am featuring photographs of nurses and babies from the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. All photos are courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Nurse Feeding baby by A. Jackson Co., Baltimore , MD (1912)

Where There's a Will

There are many girls who prove the truth of that old saying, "Where there's a will, there's a way." Here is the story of how one girl got what she wanted by use of brains, grit, determination, perseverence:

"The only part of my education I really enjoyed was a course in domestic science at the Toronto Technical School. I think the smattering of hygiene and dietetics we got there made me determined to enter a hospital. So at seventeen, I put my hair up and made application at the Toronto hospitals. Two superintendents wasted no time with me, but told me curtly I was too young. The following day, I put my hair up at least two inches higher, borrowed a longer skirt, added three years to my seventeen and applied at Grace Hospital (Toronto).

Hospital Nurses With Babies by Harris & Ewing (Between 1915 and 1923)

"My troubles just commenced when I was accepted, a week later. Mother and dad strenuously objected, but when they realized I earnestly wanted to have something besides parlor tricks to my credit, they consented, consoling themselves that a week would be my limit. The superintendent greeted me with, 'I never take girls in so young. The work will be much too hard for you, but I'll give you a good hard training and sicken you of it.' Encouraging, wasn't it? I had been wanting home and Mother pretty badly, but that acted like a tonic, and I made up my mind to grin and bear everything.

Nurse With Babies by Harris & Ewing (Between 1916 and 1919)

"I was sent on duty to the Maternity Ward, where some of the mothers were girls of my own age. I do not think I can ever tell any one just what those first few days were like. Knowing as little of that side of nature as the newest baby in the ward, it all seemed horrible to me. The thought of all I had seen and heard and the regret that I had never appreciated my mother half enough kept me from sleeping for a great many nights--but soon the sweetness of the babies made me see things very differently. 

Nurse Weighing Baby at the Cincinnati Pure Milk Station from the Bain Collection (1908)

 

"During the first few weeks, the superintendent's positiveness about my giving it up and the dread of  'I told you so' from all my friends, made me stay at all costs. My three years passed very quickly, and I am always glad my training was mostly surgical and obstetrical.

Mrs. Lamont's Baby (Nurse and Baby) by C.M. Bell Studios (Between 1894 and 1901)

"By this time my father and mother were reconciled to my being away from home, and although they rather demurred at my striking out for myself before I had reached twenty-one, they were glad when I procured a position as head nurse in the Grace Operating Room for a year."

Nurses With Babies by Harris & Ewing (Between 1916 and 1919)

This story may give courage to many girls who wish to take their places with the workers of the world. What Ruth Webster did, they can do. To-day she is employed by the Toronto Board of Education and is of the greatest influence in teaching children and their parents the value of cleanliness and the worth of health. She is a woman who is proving daily that the right to be useful to her fellows is the only right she wants, By being useful she will get what she wants when she needs it.

Hospital Nurse and Doctor With Baby by Harris & Ewing (Between 1915 and 1923)