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31 C h a p t e r 2 ˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚˚ Stepping Out, Agitating 1901–1920 With winter winds in the air on the afternoon of December 4, 1901, a small group of graduate nurses met at Newark City Hospital. Excited and nervous, they had a single, deceptively explicit mission: to organize the New Jersey State Nurses’ Association (NJSNA) for the purpose of securing legislation that would lead to “the betterment of the nursing profession.”1 Nurse leaders—members of the Nurses’ Alumnae Association of the United States and Canada—were watching New Jersey’s efforts closely, anticipating that the NJSNA, once established, would subsequently succeed in passing legislation to license graduate nurses. Present in Newark was Lavinia Dock, a passionate advocate of legislation as a vehicle of professionalization.2 To master the political process, to forge a solid bill, to have that bill introduced by a sympathetic legislator and rendered into law by an approving governor—here was the implicit December 4 agenda. All was to be accomplished by graduate nurses, none of whom had the right to vote. Bertha J. gardner, a graduate of the Orange Memorial Hospital Training School for Nurses, conducted this first meeting, focusing on two issues: mission and membership. Members did agree to a state association, consistent with the goals of the Nurses’ Associated Alumnae.3 gardner and her colleagues, however , debated the second issue, membership. Dock urged them to accept both individual nurses and groups, including alumnae associations connected with training schools. Although years later group membership was accepted, at this initial meeting, only individuals were invited as members.4 Working earnestly, these NJSNA members focused on legislation, all the while cognizant of lessons learned in the previous decade. The first officers of the NJSNA were elected during this initial meeting. Irene Fallon, a young graduate of Cooper Hospital Training School for Nurses in Camden, was elected president , with other members, from Newark and Camden, elected as secretary, first 32 On Duty vice president, and second vice president. Newark and Camden, hubs of transportation and industry binding northern and southern New Jersey, assumed prominent background roles in the years 1901–1903. The Newark City Hospital and the Newark Free Public Library, both constructed in 1901, frequently served as meeting places for the young NJSNA before it had an address of its own. The establishment of Newark City Hospital and Newark Public Library paralleled the growth and development of the NJSNA and provided homes for nursing during the first twenty years of the twentieth century. Playing a prominent role in the state’s health care at this time, Newark had the largest bed capacity among general hospitals, having a positive reputation for management of diverse trauma patients. Both the NJSNA and the New Jersey Hospital Association were established in meetings held at Newark City Hospital, an institution viewed as friendly to organizations. The Newark Public Library was a vital force for Newark residents, primarily under the leadership of John Cotton Dana, its chief librarian. Dana urged a “better Newark through enlightenment,” establishing the first Newark museum activities in 1909 on the fourth floor of the library.5 A prolific writer, Dana advocated that a “public library can be the center of the activities in a city that make for social efficiency.”6 Dana was an advocate of women’s clubs, and he encouraged women’s organizations to hold meetings in libraries, having experienced women’s clubs in Colorado: “I learned there what woman can do by organized effort for the broadening of her own life, for the betterment of her own city. Many public libraries owe their existence to women’s efforts.”7 Women in Context: Graduate Nurses The NJSNA leaders envisioned themselves as part of a state, national, and international community of women volunteering services to change public policy and to effect social reform. Through associations, they learned key attributes of effective leadership—organizational structure, tactics, and strategies to effect change; policy making; finance; and political maneuvering. They also learned lessons of American capitalism. These women—generally married, embedded in middle- to upper-class lives, and desiring to engage in social reform—participated in a variety of clubs in the late nineteenth century. Membership was not solely a way to while away idle hours. Two such clubs, the general Federation of Women’s Clubs and the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs (NJSFWC), were organized in 1890 and 1894, respectively.8 At the Ratification Convention of the general Federation of Women’s Clubs...

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