Naval History and Heritage Command

Finding aid (Word)

Scope and Content Note

The immediate office file of the Director, Navy Nurse Corps contains materials dating primarily after the establishment of the Nurse Corps in 1908 with some scattered earlier documentation dating back to 1881. Correspondence, articles, reports, and other items in this collection are arranged in the following series: the papers of Josephine Beatrice Bowman, who was Director of Nurse Corps from 1922 to 1938; statistical notebooks and daybooks from 1908 to 1977; an alphabetically arranged subject file; printed material; and photographs. Also included are later additions from the Navy Nurse Corps.

Subjects covered include nurse recruitment, rank, benefits, education, uniforms, and legislation. There is information on Navy Nurses in overseas posts, on nurse prisoners of war in World War II, and on Navy Nurses in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Further correspondence of Josephine Beatrice Bowman for the pre-1922 period can be found in the Miscellaneous Records of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (box 8). Associated Nurse Corps artifacts and photographs are in the Curator Branch. Personal papers of Navy nurses can be found among the Archives' personal papers collections.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as Records of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery Nurse Corps, Archives Branch, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C.

Please see the below collections for addtional nursing related materials:
Artz, Lieutenant Commander Doris M. Papers
Behr, Esther N. Papers  
Bowman, Josephine Beatrice Photo Collection
Colebourn Cannon, Emma Papers
Harris, Nurse Harriet A. Papers 
Leonhardt, Elisabeth Papers
McConaha, Navy Nurse Jessie Papers
Stafford, Marion B. Papers