Featured Fellow: Matty Hemming

This past summer, the Bates Center welcomed the first of its 2024 fellows to the archives. Alice Fisher Fellow Matty Hemming shares more about her research and what she discovered in a short essay and exhibit that she curated for the Center’s Instagram page. 

Living Legend Designation for Penn Nursing Professor

The American Academy of Nursing has named Julie A. Fairman, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor of Nursing at Penn Nursing, a Living Legend. This honor is bestowed upon a person who has made significant contributions to nursing and health care over the course of their career. The official designation will be made at the Academy’s 2024 conference, Courageous Transformations Towards an Equitable Future, which will take place October 31- November 2, 2024, in Washington, D.C. This is the Academy’s highest honor.

Weird and Wonderful

The history of nursing is more than documents, notes, and records. Bates Center treasures that reveal how nursing is embedded in the cultural lexicon and tell the story of nursing education inspire awe and delight.

Thinking Historically

A new curator sees the future in the past.

This Week in the Archives

This friendly feline found their way into the archives when a c.1930s Penn student captured this stunning photo and saved it in their photo album. The rest of the album is filled with pictures that provide a rich glimpse into life in and around Penn in the early 20th century. From the University Archives and Records Center.

“A benefit to themselves, to the sick, and to the community”: The Story of Philadelphia’s Black Hospitals & Nurse Training Schools.

Who was Minnie Hogan Clemens?

In 1888, Minnie Hogan Clemens (Dorchester) became the first Black student to attend the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Nurse Training School (HUP). In the local news coverage at the time, Clemens’ acceptance into the program was widely celebrated by the Black community as a sign of progress for Black women, who had “no opportunities for employment in factories, stores or at trades, teaching or menial service alone being open to them.”

From the Archives

Opened in 1907 by Dr. Eugene Hinson, Mercy Hospital and Nurse Training School was the second institution of its kind in Philadelphia founded by the city’s Black community.

Philadelphia’s Black Hospitals

This week the Bates Center staff started preparing for an exhibit on Black hospitals and nurse training schools in Philadelphia. Click to learn more about what we’re working on!