New England Hospital for Women and Children records

Collection

Identifier: BC-2024-099

Scope and Contents

Collection of seven volumes documenting the administration, history, operations, and training programs of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, founded in 1862, in Boston, Massachusetts. Materials include detailed nurses' patient records, minutes from the Training School Committee, assessments of nursing students and nurses, and visitor registers.

Dates

Creation: 1877 - 1928

Creator

New England Hospital for Women and Children (Boston, Mass.) (Organization)

Access Note

Collection is open for research. Record books are fragile and should be handled with care.

Conditions Governing Use

These materials are made available for use in research, teaching and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source. The original authors may retain copyright to the materials.

Historical note: New England Hospital for Women and Children

See more See less

The New England Hospital for Women and Children was founded by Marie Zakrzewska on July 1, 1862, in Boston, Massachusetts. The hospital's goal was to provide patients with qualified female physicians, to educate women in the study of medicine, and to professionally train nurses. Zakrzewska, a Polish-American physician, served as resident physician (1862–1863), attending physician (1863–1887), and advisory physician (1887–1899) of the hospital. In 1872, fellow physician Susan Dimock first organized the nursing training program. At its founding, it was the only hospital in New England that combined medical, obstetrical, pediatric, and surgical services in a single institution, as well as the first hospital in the country to have a school for nurses. The New England Hospital for Women and Children graduated America's first professionally trained nurse, Linda Richards (1873), and first Black professionally trained nurse, Mary Eliza Mahoney (1879).

In 1951, the hospital's name changed to the New England Hospital to include its intake of male patients. The hospital was renamed to the Dimock Community Health Center in 1969. As of 2026, the Dimock Center provides a range of healthcare services including adult and pediatric primary care, behavioral health and addiction services, early education, family support, and HIV/AIDS specialty care.

Sources:

"Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska." Encyclopedia Britannica, September 2, 2025. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marie-Elizabeth-Zakrzewska.

"Miss Linda Richards 'America's First Trained Nurse'." Smithsonian, https://www.si.edu/object/miss-linda-richards-americas-first-trained-nurse%3Anmah_1444535.

Reiskind, Michael. "Hospital Founded by Women for Women." Jamaica Plain Historical Society, 1995, https://web.archive.org/web/20171119051525/http://www.jphs.org/victorian/hospital-founded-by-women-for-women.html.

Spring, Kelly. "Mary Mahoney." National Women's History Museum, 2017, www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mahoney.

"Welcome to The Dimock Center." The Dimock Center, 2025, https://dimock.org/.

Full Extent

5.75 Linear Feet (7 containers)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Records document the administration, history, operations, and training programs of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, founded in 1862, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Arrangement

Alphabetical.

Provenance

Purchased from Carmen D. Valentino Rare Books & Manuscripts, 2024.

Related Materials

The American Association of Nurse Attorneys records, MS.1997.018, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Cynthia E. Northrop papers, MS.1998.002, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Josephine A. Dolan collection of nursing history, MS.1988.004, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Madeleine Clémence Vaillot papers, MS.1989.011, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Margaret A. Colliton papers, MS.1990.010, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

New England Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing records, MS.1989.008, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

St. Elizabeth’s Hospital School of Nursing collection, MS.2000.018B, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

Visiting Nurse Association of Boston records, MS.1989.006, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

New England Hospital for Women and Children collection. Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University Libraries. https://archivesspace.bu.edu/repositories/9/resources/1893.

New England Hospital for Women and Children Records. Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/955.

Records of the New England Hospital for Women and Children, 1914-1954. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. https://id.lib.harvard.edu/ead/sch00823/catalog.