Chesney Archives

Search Our Collections

Collection OlmK : Katherine Olmsted Collection

Description

Key

72423

Reference Code Element

OlmK

Type

Text

Dates

1917-1969, inclusive

Creator

Personal name, Olmsted, Katherine

Administrative/Biographical History

Katherine Olmsted
around 1886 (Feb. 15, 1888 according to SS application) -April 7, 1964.
Katherine Olmsted was born around 1886 (Feb. 15, 1888 according to SS application) and brought up in Des Moines, Iowa. She graduated from Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1912. After her graduation from Hopkins, she remained in Baltimore, first with the Baltimore Instructive Visiting Nurse Association, where she made a special survey on causes of blindness and the care of the blind. She then served in the Social Services Department at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In the spring of 1914, she resigned her position at Hopkins to organize public health work in Jacksonville, Ill. working with newly enfranchised women in the Anti-Tuberculosis League. In 1916 Olmsted's public health work moved to the Wisconsin Anti-Tuberculosis Association, where she was the State Supervising Nurse and organized and directed the state's first course in public health work for registered nurses given at the University of Wisconsin through its extension division. During World War I, Olmsted began work with the Red Cross. She was part of a commission of doctors and nurses sent in August, 1917 to Romania to fight typhus and study health conditions. Olmsted's public health nursing included conducting clinics and an outpatient department for women and children from a military hospital along the eastern front. This group was trapped between the German Army and the Russian Revolution with no outside contact. After escaping from Russia by train through Siberia and Lapland, Olmsted returned to the United States in the summer of 1918 to become the assistant secretary of the National Organization for Public Health Nursing. She served in Chicago as the Western Secretary where she demonstrated public health nursing in rural counties for the Federal Children's Bureau. In 1921, Olmsted became the Associate Chief of the Department of Nursing and Director of Public Health Nursing with the League of Red Cross Societies in Geneva, Switzerland, and in 1922 Director of the Department of Nursing, where she worked to form public health nursing organizations worldwide. She organized a course in public health nursing at Bedford College, University of London, and Kings College in London for public health nurses from all over the world. At the end of her time in Europe, Olmsted took the Cordon Bleu cooking course at the University of the Sorbonne in Paris, France. She returned to the United States in 1927 to open her French restaurant, Normandy Inn, in Sodus, New York, near her brother's farm. She ran the restaurant until her death April 7, 1964.

Chronology

Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School for Nurses, student., 1909-1912

Graduation JHHSON, 1912

Scope and Content

The Katherine Olmsted Collection consists primarily of the medals and certificates awarded for her Red Cross work, along with correspondence from her cousin, Anna Olmsted, and others about Olmsted. Three photos also exist.

Subjects - Name

Corporate name, Johns Hopkins Hospital. School of Nursing. Class of 1912

Subjects

Topic, World War, 1914-1918

Language

English

Administration

Date(s) of Descriptions

2001, 2004

Processing Information

The Katherine Olmsted Collection was processed by Phoebe Evans Letocha and Anthony Dellureficio in 2001 and 2004 through a grant from the Johns Hopkins Nurses' Alumni Association.

Accession

2001-006

2001-005

2000-126

Custodial History

Upon donation in 1965, the collection was housed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing. In 1968, the collection moved with the rest of the Johns Hopkin Nursing Historical Collection to the Nightingale Room in Welch Library. In 1998, the collection moved to the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, where the medals were on display for 2 years. In 2000, the collection moved with the rest of the Johns Hopkins Nursing Historical Collection to the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives.

Related Artifacts

Found 13 record(s)

Available Actions	Artifact Numbersort by Artifact Number ascending	Titlesort by Title ascending
	1005A	Russian Cross
	1006A	Order of the Belgian Red Cross
	1007A	Merit Cross of the Hungarian Red Cross
	1008A	Italian Red Cross Medal of Merit for Propaganda
	1009A	Russian Freedom Medal
	1011A	Badge of the Red Cross Order, Estonia
	1012A	Coronation of Ferdinand I of Romania
	1013A	Barbee Cross
	1014A	Norwegian Red Cross Badge of Honor
	1015A	Badge of the Serbian Red Cross
	1016A	American Red Cross Service Medal
	1017A	Katherine Olmsted Medals
	6228A	Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing Graduate

ArchivEra v4.4.1.9 - Johns Hopkins Medical Institution | ArchivEra (Final)