Lincoln School for Nurses facts for kids

The Lincoln School for Nurses was a very important nursing school in New York City. It was the first school of its kind for African-American women in the city. The school was also known by names like Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing.

It taught nurses from 1898 until 1961. The school was started by Lincoln Hospital. At first, the hospital was called The Home for the Colored Aged. Both the hospital and the nursing school moved to a new location in the South Bronx after 1899. They were located on 141st Street in Mott Haven.

History of the Lincoln School for Nurses

The Lincoln School for Nurses was the first school in New York City to train African-American women as nurses. It was the only one until 1923. That year, the Harlem Hospital School of Nursing opened.

The first group of students graduated from the Lincoln School for Nurses in 1900. There were six graduates in that first class.

Important Leaders and Organizations

Adah Belle Thoms was a graduate of the school in 1905. She became the acting director of the school from 1906 to 1923.

In 1908, Adah Belle Thoms helped start something very important. She worked with Martha Minerva Franklin and Mary Eliza Mahoney. They organized the first meeting of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses. This group helped support African-American nurses. The Lincoln School for Nurses Alumnae Association helped sponsor this meeting.

Who Was at the Hospital?

In 1914, the hospital and nursing school had different groups of people. Most of the hospital patients were white. However, the nursing home patients were mostly black. The doctors at the hospital were white men. The nurses and nursing students were black women.

Notable Graduates

Many amazing women graduated from the Lincoln School for Nurses. Here are some of them:

Florence Edmonds

Nella Larsen

• Ianthe Blyden attended the school in 1946.
• Phyllis Mae Dailey was the first African-American woman to join the United States Navy.
• Florence Edmonds studied at the school from 1917 to 1919.
• Mary Elizabeth Carnegie attended from 1932 to 1936. She later became a president of the American Academy of Nursing.
• Martha Minerva Franklin took a special post-graduate course in 1928.
• Florence S. Gaynor graduated in 1946. She became an executive director at Sydenham Hospital. She also worked as a director at Meharry Medical College.
• Millie Essie Gibson Hale founded her own hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. It was called Millie E. Hale Hospital.
• Lillian Holland Harvey graduated in 1939. She became the Dean of the Training School of Nurses at Tuskegee University.
• Nella Larsen graduated in 1915. She became a famous novelist, nurse, and librarian. She was a part of the Harlem Renaissance.
• Hulda Margaret Lyttle attended the school from 1913 to 1914. She became the Dean of Nursing at Meharry Medical College.
• Adah Belle Thoms graduated in 1905. She was the acting director of the school for many years.
• Helen Turner Watson graduated in 1939. She became a professor of nursing at the University of Connecticut.

See also

• Estelle Massey Osborne was an instructor at the school.
• Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing established 1873.
• Columbia University School of Nursing established 1892.
• Harlem Hospital School of Nursing established 1923. This was the second New York City nursing school to accept African-American women.
• National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses established 1908. This organization closed in 1951.