National League for Nursing Collection

Preserving the history of nursing through the National League for Nursing Archives project.

The National League for Nursing (NLN)and the Barbara Bates Center have joined forces to preserve the NLN’s rich history in an archival repository for scholarly historical research.

As the oldest nursing organization in the United States, the NLN, founded in 1893, works across the spectrum of nursing education to build a strong and diverse nursing workforce to advance the health of the nation and the global community. Its rich history is vital for scholars and students investigating the history of nursing, nursing education, and nursing accreditation.

President Eisenhower with nurse leaders after signing proclamation for National Nurses Week, Oct ... President Eisenhower with nurse leaders after signing proclamation for National Nurses Week, Oct 8, 1954 (L to R: Lucile Petry Leone, Assistant Surgeon General; President Dwight D. Eisenhower; Agnes Ohlson, ANA President; and Ruth Sleeper, NLN President). Four NLN Presidents during break at the meeting, January 1964 (L to R: Ruth Sleeper, Ruth Freeman, Lucile Leone, and Lois Austin). Four NLN Presidents during break at the meeting, January 1964 (L to R: Ruth Sleeper, Ruth Freeman, Lucile Leone, and Lois Austin).

To learn more about the records in the NLN collection and view curated digitized materials visit NLN Resources.

If you have materials regarding the National League for Nursing and you would like to donate them for the collection, please contact nhistory@nursing.upenn.edu. We are especially interested in minutes, conventions, and reports, but are open to all materials. Please note the Center is unable to accept all items. Please contact the Center directly at nhistory@nursing.upenn.edu for more information about the donation process.

For more information on how to donate funding to the ongoing digitization project please visit the NLN’s donation page.

Generous support provided by:

2013: support from the Independence Foundationto conduct a survey of NLN records, data, publications, and other documents.

2017: NLN donors, along with matching funding from the Independence Foundation, allowed the Center to initiate a four-year process of identifying and preserving NLN archives and for the development and implementation of an archival repository as well as video digitization and the digitization of paper records.

2021: additional funding from the NLN and its generous donors allows for digitization of more published materials.

When using the digitized materials in research or classroom use, please use the following citation: National League for Nursing collection, Barbara Bates Center for The Study of The History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania.

For other purposes, please contact the Center via email: nhistory@nursing.upenn.edu.