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Reviewed by:
  • On the Field of Mercy: Women Medical Volunteers from the Civil War to the First World War by Mercedes Graf
  • Judy Dalgo, D.N.S., R.N.
Keywords

nurses, physicians, military medicine, women in medicine, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I

Mercedes Graf . On the Field of Mercy: Women Medical Volunteers from the Civil War to the First World War. Amherst, New York, Humanity Books, 2010. 300 pp., illus., $32.98.

This uncluttered, illustrated work of 335 pages chronicles the nearly insurmountable difficulties female nurses and physicians faced because of their gender, as they volunteered their services from the time of the Civil War until World War I. Graf has written many articles on women doctors and nurses as well as two other books about women doctors in war. Her passion for the subject is clear as she chronicles the lives and obstacles of medical women pioneers in a male-dominated military and society.

As noted by Graf, women of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were expected to stay close to home carrying out the roles of wife, mother, and caregiver for family and friends. Those who dared to stray from private life into the public arena were looked upon with suspicion, especially if a medical degree led them to volunteer for the military. So powerfully prejudiced were the military surgeons against their female counterparts that they refused to grant them the privileges of practicing as a doctor but instead assigned the title and duties of "nurse" during the Civil and Spanish- American Wars. Previously, little was written about women doctors practicing in the military during the Spanish-American War because their practice was cloaked by a nurse's cape, now removed by Graf. By 1918, when women were finally appointed as contract surgeons in the military, they still did not have the rights or privileges of male medical officers.

Graf repeatedly describes the difficulties faced by women volunteers in wartime when the military bureaucracy and hierarchy highlighted the negative view held toward women in the workplace. As opposed to little acceptance of women doctors, she notes the increasing acceptance of women nurses as military medical volunteers after the Civil War when [End Page 312] nursing schools produced more graduates making the profession visible but subservient to male doctors. Graf focuses on contributions of lesser-known individuals not discussed previously such as women doctors who served as nurses in the Spanish-American War and interestingly, a woman artist in World War I. Ultimately, Graf is able to describe the transformation in military nursing and medicine from almost exclusively male occupations during the Civil War to those that included women nurses and doctors by the time of World War I.

Graf delves deeply into the archives to paint a picture depicting the hardships faced by medical women volunteers in the military. Further illustrations such as letters home, diary entries, and nursing and medical notations would add interest to the story. Mentioned throughout Graf's work was the role of the nurse, whether performed by women doctors or trained nurses. Since this role was viewed as subservient to the male doctor, examples of acceptable day-to-day duties and responsibilities of these military "nurse" volunteers would clarify the woman's role further. The book's final chapter about artist Anna Coleman Ladd, although one of the most fascinating, seems disconnected from the primary theme of the text. In this situation, it could be considered lagniappe but deserves a fuller version of its own.

Graf's scholarly work provides insight into the lives of medical women who were willing to step out of societal convention to volunteer their services to a military that, at best, scarcely valued their abilities and, at worst, fought to disparage their knowledge and education. Academics in the fields of nursing, women's studies, and medical history will find On the Field of Mercy an insightful resource.

Judy Dalgo
Ocean Springs High School, Ocean Springs, Mississippi 39564.
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