Background
Maxwell, Anna Caroline was born on March 14, 1851 in Bristol, New York, United States.
Maxwell, Anna Caroline was born on March 14, 1851 in Bristol, New York, United States.
Diploma, Boston Hospital Training School, 1880.
Her pioneering activities were crucial to the growth of professional nursing in the United States. With no formal training, Maxwell first entered the nursing field as a matron at New England Hospital in 1874. She left in 1876 and spent two years in England before enrolling at Boston City Hospital Training School for Nurses.
In 1880 she was hired to start a training school at Montreal General Hospital.
In 1881, she was offered the superintendency of the Training School for Nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In the school"s early years, Mr.
Kennedy donated $1 million for construction of a dormitory for the nurses. Eleanor Lee writes that beginning in 1901 and continuing through 1913, Mr.
Tod made available Innis Arden, his estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, to the nurses as a summer retreat, and that from 1906 through 1913 the nurses had the exclusive summer use of the Innis Arden Cottage, a beachside cottage there.
Many of Doctor Fisher"s photographs of Maxwell and her nurses, including photographs of them at Innis Arden Cottage, survive in the archives of the George Eastman House, Rochester, New New York In the Spanish–American War she organized nurses for the military. Through her actions, the Army Nurse Corps was established and nurses were later given the rank of officer
She helped design the uniform for United States army nurses.
During World War I, France awarded her the Medaille de l"Hygiene Publique (Medal of honor for Public Health). In addition to her work in education and with the military, she co-wrote a textbook with Amy East. Pope entitled Practical Nursing.
lieutenant was named the "Anna C. Maxwell Hall" in her honor. Maxwell Hall was razed in 1984 to make room for a new hospital building, and the university established an endowed professorship at the nursing school in Maxwell"s name.
Maxwell was one of the first women buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Columbia University awarded her an honorary Master of Arts degree.
Member American Society of Superintendents Training School for Nurses, National League for Nursing, Nurses' Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada, International Council of Nurses, American Red Cross Nursing Service.