Frontier Nursing Service collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: BCA 0015 SAA 014

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection is comprised of correspondence, printed materials, articles, clippings and photographs relating to Kentucky's Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) and its founder, Mary Breckinridge (1881-1965). Also included in the collection is a series of papers, primarily letters written to family members, by Genevieve C. Weeks, FNS Statistician, describing her work and travels from 1939-1941.

View 1930 Frontier Nursing Service Documentary

Dates

created: Majority of material found within 1923 - 1988

Creator

Frontier Nursing Service, Inc. (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Records can be accessed through the Reading Room, Berea College Special Collections and Archives, Hutchins Library, Berea College.

Conditions Governing Use

No restrictions other than federal copyright regulations. Please cite materials.

Biographical / Historical

Mary Breckinridge founded the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) in 1925, in part as a response to the early deaths of her two children. After completing nurses training in New York City, she went on to study midwifery in England. She modeled her Kentucky efforts after the British nurse-midwifery system and, at first, staffed it with British nurses.

Breckinridge focused her efforts mainly in Leslie, Clay, and Harlan counties where poor roads made horseback and, later, jeep travel a necessity. The scarcity of doctors required that FNS nurses respond to a wide range of medical needs beyond just those of expectant mothers and their infants. Her efforts eventually resulted in the establishment of a hospital at Hyden, several neighborhood nursing clinics, and a nurse-midwifery training program, all continuing to the present time.

Extent

2.00 boxes_(general)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Arrangement Note

The collection is arranged in six series:

Series 1: Correspondence

Series 2: Reports and Bulletins

Series 3: Articles and Clippings

Series 4: Photographs

Series 5: Bibliographic and Other

Series 6: Correspondence, Photographs, and Papers of Genevieve C. Weeks

Source of Acquisition

Loyal Jones; Other

Processing Information

The collection was originally arranged in five series. Series 6 was added to the collection in August 2015 with the addition of the papers of Genevieve C. Weeks (given to the Berea College Special Collections and Archives by Loyal Jones). The finding aid was updated in August 2015 to reflect the additions to the collection. Series 5 renamed, 2024.