Women in Uniform

 

I'm fairly certain that this young woman is wearing a uniform of some kind.  I know I've seen it before, but where? A World War 1 era military nurse is my best guess, but I can't be sure.  Anyway, there's an American flag in the restaurant window, and the pencil line drawn on the top image may indicate a crop for newspaper reproduction. 

Page 6

 

Is she a nurse?  The uniform looks right and that big clipboard that ended up in the shot makes this look like some sort of award ceremony.  "Page 6" is written on the back, so perhaps this shot was meant for the local newspaper.  Back in the old days when there were local newspapers that covered things like this. 

The Staff

 

So, what's the story here?  Two women who appear to be either maids or nurses.  The older woman on the top row, right may be wearing some sort of uniform as well.  Are the other three women some sort of staff, again, either domestic or medical?  

Inabelle and the Baby

I'm fairly certain that the very faded writing on the baby photograph reads "My Nephew."  What, no baby seat! 

The Young Nurse

Or maybe she's a candy striper.   I have no idea. In any case, there's some sort of document on the wall with the Russian Double Eagle, symbol of the Czars.

Women, Stella's Vera

Written on the back, "Aunt Stella's Vera."  Very curious wording.  Why not cousin Vera?  Am I reading too much into this?  I keep thinking that Vera was Aunt Stella's special friend.  We'll never know.

There's also a very faded stamp.  "REGAL MAGIC-EYE ENLARGEMENT FEB 23 1945 QUINCY-MASS"

The Army Hospital Album 29

And the (almost) never ending saga of the army hospital album continues.  The top two photos are labeled.  "Lnt. Carson"  I assume that Lnt. stands for Lieutenant.  The second, "Capt. Dr. Hill."  Perhaps someone out there can answer this question.  Are military hospitals segregated by rank.  Since a lieutenant is a patient, does that mean our photographer has to be an officer?

As usual, click on army hospital collection in labels to bring up the lot.

The Army Hospital Album 19

Once more into the hospital.  The nurse is "Miss Winters" and the lady with the convertible, "Anna Sells."

Click on army hospital collection in labels for the lot.

The Army Hospital Album 16

I'm beginning to feel like a prisoner to this collection.  There is a lot more to go after this.  Anyway, two of the four photos in this post are labeled.  Image number 2,  "Miss Willums"  Image number 3, "Sargent Dieze"  I've got a feeling the person who owned this album was not the gentleman reading The Atlantic.

Click on army hospital collection in the labels at the bottom of the post to bring up the whole lot.

The Army Hospital Album 14

My eyes hurt!  I was out riding my bicycle, got an eyeful of dust, and it took a couple of days for my eyes to flush out all that grit.  It's a good thing I wasn't in the army hospital.  All that second hand smoke would have made things worse.  Just think, way back in the 1950s, doctors and nurses would offer a smoke to a patient to make them feel better.  How things change.

Click on army hospital collection in labels to bring up the lot.

The Army Hospital Album 11

I'll be finishing out the year with  more images from The Army Hospital Collection.  We've got  more dates with this lot.  The scrabble players and the two nurses, "MAY 55"  I keep wondering if being in a military hospital is an open ended thing.  If a soldier's enlistment is over, but he's still considered too ill for service, what happens?  Continued enlistment until recovery? Release to a VA facility?  Just plain release, left to their own devices?  And of course, what would have happened in 1955, compared to today?

Click on army hospital collection in the labels section to bring up everything.  Lots more to come.

The Army Hospital Album 9

There's not a lot of color in this album.

Stamped on the back of all prints, "THIS IS A KODACOLOR PRINT MADE BY EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY . REGIS.  U.S. PAT OFF Week of July 11, 1955  VI  PA  2"

At least we have a date when these prints were made, and more than likely they were printed sometime within a month or two of when the pictures were taken.  I've been trying to do some research on the meaning of  "VI" and PA"  Having grown up in Pennsylvania, I can't help but going to "PA"  for, well PA.  But then I think about the "VI" and then it doesn't make so much sense.

Click on army hospital collection in labels to bring up the whole lot.

The Army Hospital Album 5

I do like some of the photos in this post, especially the first and third in the column.

So who were the soldiers in Ward D-10?  Just run of the mill guys, with run of the mill medical problems?  Or are these photos a record of men with special problems?  In looking through the album, I don't see anyone with wounds.  It makes me wonder if the guys in Ward D-10 were dealing with emotional problems.  But then again, maybe they all had something simple, like the flu.

Click on army hospital collection in labels at the bottom of the post to bring up the lot.

The Army Hospital Album 3

It looks like they're having a party at the army hospital.  Though not, I suspect, in Hawaii.  Click on army hospital collection in the labels section at the bottom of the post to bring up the lot.

The Integrated Army

It's hard to believe, but it wasn't that long ago that the U.S. military was segregated.  White troops and black troops were not allowed to serve in the same unit.  It went beyond that.  African American sailors were only welcome as mess boys, and most black members of the Army were support personnel rather than combat troops.  Things began to change on July 26, 1948 when President Harry Truman signed executive order 9981 ending segregation in the armed forces.  It took awhile, though.  In 1949, Truman asked for the resignation of Secretary of the Army Kenneth Claiborne Royall for his refusal to carry out Truman's directive.  Royall did not live to see a black President.

Sinai

I've got to stop staying up late to post photographs!  Written on the back, "Summer 1936, Sinai Hospital, Intern's yard, Selma N. Kentberger"  There are quite a few Sinai Hospitals around, so who knows where this one was taken.

Merced Nurse

Stamped on the back, "Walter Studio Photographers, 706 L ST. MERCED   SEP 1941"  When I see those late 1941 dates, I always wonder, "What was their war like?"  Did this nurse stay in Merced, or did she enlist in the military?  Merced is a small city in central California.

Medics On the Roof

When I look at these three photos I assume that the men are doctors and the women are nurses.  That's not necessarily true.  American medical schools have been graduating women, in much smaller numbers than today, since the nineteenth century.  I'm not 100% sure, but I think the tall building in the bottom picture is New York Presbyterian Hospital.