Extent:.75 linear feet

Provenance: Edna E. LaPorte Strumpf

Access:This collection is unrestricted.

Citation:Edna E. LaPorte Strumpf Papers, Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania

Sponsorship:This collection was processed with funds provided by the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation

Biographical Sketch. Edna E. LaPorte Strumpf, a native of Virginia, attended the Mt. Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses in Philadelphia from February 1934 to her graduation in May 1937. Upon completion of nurses' training, Edna LaPorte worked at Mt. Sinai for ten months as a staff nurse. She later accepted a position at the Bronx Veterans Hospital where she became a supervisor. In 1943, LaPorte joined the United States Army and was assigned to the 126th Evacuation Hospital stationed in Europe. She married Herbert Strumpf, also a nurse, in 1944. Following discharge from the army on January 15, 1946, she worked at the Veterans Hospital in Northport, New York, until the birth of her first child in 1947. During the years after, in Selkirk New York, Strumpf raised three children and served as a volunteer for the American Red Cross Program in Albany, the Bethlehem Ambulance, and on the Board of Directors for a local resident home for the mentally and physically disabled.

Summary. This collection consists predominantly of lecture notes and exams from the period of Edna Strumpf's attendance at Mt. Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses in Philadelphia. The school merged in 1953 with the school of nursing at Jewish Hospital to become the Albert Einstein Medical Center School of Nursing. The notes are comprehensive and cover a wide range of topics, including professional issues. Also available are graduation and class reunion materials, a procedure manual, a history of the school, and a selection of promotional pamphlets distributed by the Sharp & Dohme pharmaceutical firm of Philadelphia and Baltimore. Perhaps most interestingly, a collection of correspondence from before Strumpf's matriculation at Mt. Sinai is included. One such letter is from Good Housekeeping, which at the time provided a referral service through their school department.

Series Descriptions. This collection has been arranged into three series:

Series I. Personal, 1933-1934
Series II. Lecture Notes and Exams, 1934-1937
Series III. Mt. Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1934-1977

Series I. Personal, 1933-1991. This series predominately consists of Strumpf's correspondence prior to her enrollment at Mt. Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses. Included is a letter from Good Housekeeping in response to Strumpf's request for information on schools of nursing. Good Housekeeping provided Strumpf with a list of registered schools of nursing as well as advice on the application process. Garfield Memorial Hospital, correspondence with which is also included in this series, is listed on the Good Housekeeping material, although Mt. Sinai is not. This series is useful in examining the selection of training schools with correspondence between Strumpf and the schools, her acceptance at Mt. Sinai Garfield Memorial Hospitals, and of the matriculation procedures at each school. This series also includes a 1991 "Recollections" of Strumpf's training school days and subsequent services in the army, family life, and voluntary activities. Five photographs of Strumpf and her classmates (1934-1937) are also included with a one page caption sheet describing each print.

Series II. Lecture Notes and Exams, 1934-1937. This series contains a comprehensive collection of the lecture notes and examinations from Strumpf's training at Mt. Sinai. These notes are arranged in the collection by subject matter. Of interest is the material on professional issues that includes information obtained from the Visiting Nurse Society of Philadelphia on the different aspects of public health nursing and an essay on missionary nursing. The handwritten examinations are arranged with the notes of each subject.

Series III. Mt. Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1934-1977. Included in this series is a history of Mt. Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses that contains a map of the original hospital site and photographs of the original buildings. A procedures manual given to the student nurses is also included as well as an invitation to the 1937 graduation ceremony and a commencement program. Also included is an anecdotal report of the 1977 reunion written by a member of the Class of 1937.

Series I. Personal, 1933-1934
Box 1
f.1 Good Housekeeping, 1933
f.2 Garfield Memorial Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1933
f.3 Mt. Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1933-1934
f.4 Recollections, 1991
f.5 Photographs, 1934-1937

Series II. Lecture Notes and Exams, 1934-1937
f.1 Anatomy
f.2 Bacteriology
f.3 Chemistry
f.4 Communicable Diseases
f.5 Dietetics
f.6 Diet Therapy
f.7 Gynecology
f.8 History of Nursing
f.9 Hospital Housekeeping
f.10 Hygiene
f.11 Materia Medica

Box 2
f.12 Medical Nursing
f.13 Miscellaneous
f.14 Neurology
f.15 Obstetrics
f.16 Orthopedics
f.17 Pathology
f.18 Professional Issues
f.19 Psychology
f.20 Surgical Nursing

Series III. Mt. Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses, 1934-1977
f.1 History of Mt. Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses
f.2 Procedures Manual given to student nurses
f.3 Class of 1937 Graduation invitation and program
f.4 Report on 1977 Class Reunion

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