A new exhibit at Penn’s Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing documents the long trajectory of nursing in America, going back to the Revolutionary War.
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Curator Jessica Martucci, left, and guest curator Meg Roberts discuss the “Nursing the Revolution” exhibit at the Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing.
Despite the perception that the history of modern nursing began with Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton, nursing in America can be traced back to the Revolutionary War era.
Penn Today spoke with Bates Center curator Jessica Martucci and guest curator Meg Roberts about the highlights of the exhibit and what the research revealed. Roberts, previously a dissertation fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, was invited to return to Penn as a Fellow at the Bates Center in spring 2025 to produce the exhibit.
“Nurses of the American Revolution laid the foundation of American health care,” Roberts says. “There were these moments when the nation needed nurses, and each time you see a little bit more of the modern structure of our health care system taking shape. The Revolutionary War was kind of the first moment.”
Tracing the paths of invisible women
Early nursing has little visibility in the historical record, especially from the histories of the Revolutionary War. Even so, sources from the Continental Army show generals asking, “Why can’t we get enough nurses? Why does no one want to nurse?” Roberts says.
“There’s so little archival evidence of nursing and women in general during this time period,” Martucci says of the Revolutionary era. “How do you piece together what their contributions and roles were on the little evidence that we have?”
(Top left) Images and many archival records of nurses’ work stem from the post-Revolutionary period, as the traditional “women’s work” was not highly regarded during that period. (Top right) One of the earliest surviving examples of an advertisement for Revolutionary nurses, seeking a “woman to wash & nurse.” It is dated three days after the Battle of Bunker Hill.
One fruitful source which came to light during Roberts’ fellowship with the McNeil Center was the collection of local nurse Chris Foard. Foard’s collection doubled the available material that focused on Revolutionary War nurses and was material brand-new to scholars, Martucci says.
The exhibit puts reproductions on display alongside original rare materials contributing to the understanding of Revolutionary-era nursing, Martucci says. Items were drawn from Foard’s collection, Philadelphia archives, and the Bates Center’s collections.
Martucci says the Bates Center hopes to be able to continue to fill in the knowledge gap, with plans to digitize the material and the research findings related to the exhibit for long-term access. The Center also hopes to grow its collection to incorporate more materials from this time period, she says.
Martucci, left, and Roberts examine nursing history artifacts from the Bates Center’s collections.
For centuries, nursing had been “a really denigrated occupation,” Roberts says. Even in the context of wartime nursing, with its echoes of valor, nursing was widely seen as below domestic servitude, she says. During the 1800s, nurses emerged in the popular imagination from the concept of the “hired nurse” in Charles Dickens’ work—notably the alcoholic, incompetent nurse in “Martin Chuzzlewit”—and later caricatured by printmakers, Roberts says.
In response, Florence Nightingale and others came out with a pro-nursing profession message: “My nurses are not like those nurses,” Roberts says. They promoted nursing as an immaculate occupation, where everything is clean, both physically and morally, Roberts says.
Healers of color
The exhibit also documents the influence of Black and indigenous people on the profession, which was more of a challenge given the lack of documentary evidence during the Revolution. The exhibit explores the influences of African healing and indigenous practices on early American medicine. “This is a really clear influence on early American health care practices and medical knowledge that without a doubt got carried into the Revolutionary War,” Roberts says. “It is very much a part of the story.”
The exhibit also explores the role of Black nurses in treating the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793, and shares the story of Hannah, one of the few named indigenous women nurses in the historical record in the greater Philadelphia area.
Working to identify America’s Revolutionary nurses
While the precise number of nurses in the Revolution is unknown, the curators were able to document the names of about 150 nurses through hospital records. The Continental Army’s goal was to have one nurse for ever 10-15 soldiers, “and we know that was never realized,” Roberts says. The shortage caused members of pacifist religious groups, such as Quakers and Moravians, to be pressed into providing nursing care, such as during the 1777 smallpox inoculation, she says. “One of the things that we really want to put into the archival record is the names of the nurses that we know about,” Roberts says. “It’s there, and it’s so rare.”
On view through Nov. 20, the exhibit is at the Barbara Bates Center for the History of Nursing, Fagin Hall, Floor 2U. Penn students, faculty, and staff can visit from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Public access is by appointment; email nhistory@nursing.upenn.edu.
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