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Description found in Archives

Title

Alice E. Isaacson fonds [textual record, graphic material]

Fonds consists of

5 lower level description(s)

Arrangement structure

Show Arrangement Structure

Accession

Alice E. Isaacson [textual record, graphic material] (2005-00036-1)

Date(s)

1916-1956

Place of creation

Various places

Extent

5 cm of textual records.
1 album (649 photographs) : b&w

Language of material

English

Scope and content

Fonds consists of Alice Isaacson's letters of recommendation 1916, her wartime diaries for 1917-1918, her army book c.1922 and two clippings detailing her life and career. Also included are photocopies of the two diaries. A photo album, compiled by Isaacson 1916-1919, contains 649 photographs of No. 2 and 6 Canadian General Hospital, their staff, facilities and patients as well as photos from her trips to major British and European cities and battlefields.

Conditions of access

Graphic (photo)

90: Open
Copyright: Expired

Textual records

90: Open

Volume
1

90: Open

Graphic (photo)

90: Open

Volume
2

90: Open

Archival reference no.

R11203-0-1-E

Terms of use

Finding aid

5 90

Creator / Provenance

Isaacson, Alice E. 1874-1955.

Biography / Administrative history

Alice Edith Isaacson was born in Bray, Ireland on 7 October 1874. She became a naturalized American citizen in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1902. She attended the St. Luke's Hospital Training School for Nurses, probably in Cedar Rapids, graduating in 1900. She also studied nursing surgery at General Memorial Hospital in New York City (1903) and obstetrics at the Chicago Lying-In Hospital (1907). Isaacson was a private duty nurse 1902-07 and a hospital supervisor 1907-15.

During the First World War Isaacson joined the Chicago Medical Unit , a volunteer unit with the Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR) which was part of the British Expeditionary Force. She served in 23rd General Hospital, Étaples, France from June, 1915 to July 1916. She was then a nursing sister with the Canadian Army Medical Corps from August 1916 to May 1920 in France, serving in LeTreport, Troyes and Joinville-Le-Port. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government. Isaacson was a nurse with the Soldiers Civil Re-Establishment in England and Toronto. In 1920 she transferred to the veterans hospital at Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue near Montréal and later at the tuberculous sanatorium in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Québec.

Nursing took Isaacson to Cornell University in Ithaca NY in 1922 where she became the university nurse. She ran a small nursing cottage at Cornell to care for sick students. She remained there until her retirement in 1944. Alice Isaacson died on 26 November 1955 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Additional information

Custodial history

This material was donated by Anne Napier to the Canadian Nurses Association in 1997. The Canadian Nurses Association fonds was acquired in 2000, and this material was made into a separate fonds in 2005.

Accompanying material note

All the photos of this album were digitalized entirely for LAC website "Call to duty" on Canadian Nurses Association.

Availability of other formats note

Digital copies of the diaries are available at:
Digital copies of the photographs are available at:

Source

Private

Related control no.

2005-00036-1

MIKAN no.

212367