Clara Dutton Noyes (October 3, 1869 – June 3, 1936) was an American nurse who headed the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

department of nursing during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1998, she was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame.

Early life and education

Clara Dutton Noyes was born in

Port Deposit, Maryland Port Deposit is a town in Cecil County, Maryland, United States. It is located on the east bank of the Susquehanna River near its discharge into the Chesapeake Bay. The population was 653 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Geograph ...

, one of the ten children of Enoch Noyes and Laura Lay Banning Noyes. Her father had been a colonel with the 26th Connecticut Volunteers in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

. She graduated from nurses' training at

Johns Hopkins School of Nursing The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing is the nursing school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established in 1889, it is one of the nation's oldest schools for nursing education. Orig ...

in 1896.

Career

During World War I and after, Clara Noyes was director of the American Red Cross's Bureau of Nursing, responsible for recruiting, assigning, and organizing nurses for assignments overseas in war zones and epidemics, and in the United States during natural disasters and other emergencies. She lectured and wrote on matters of public health, disaster relief, and nursing education. In 1920 she went to inspect Red Cross project sites in the Balkans, Greece, Czechoslovakia and Poland. From 1918 to 1922 she was president of the

American Nurses Association The American Nurses Association (ANA) is a 501(c)(6) professional organization to advance and protect the profession of nursing. It started in 1896 as the Nurses Associated Alumnae and was renamed the American Nurses Association in 1911. It is b ...

, and of the National Graduate Nurses Association. She also served a term as president of the National League of Nursing Education. She helped establish the Bureau of Nursing Information. In 1923, she was awarded the

Florence Nightingale Medal The Florence Nightingale Medal is an international award presented to those distinguished in nursing and named after British nurse Florence Nightingale. The medal was established in 1912 by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), f ...

by the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and ...

. In 1933, she was awarded the Saunders Medal by the National League of Nursing Education, for her many years of service to her profession. Clara Noyes wrote about "The Midwifery Problem" in an article with that title in 1912. She advocated for education, certification, and supervision. She proposed a School of Midwifery modeled on schools of nursing, and she started a program for midwives while she was a nurse supervisor at

Bellevue Hospital Bellevue Hospital (officially NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue and formerly known as Bellevue Hospital Center) is a hospital in New York City and the oldest public hospital in the United States. One of the largest hospitals in the United States ...

Later life and legacy

Clara Dutton Noyes died in 1936, after a heart attack while driving in Washington D. C., aged 66 years. In 1998 she was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame. ''Clara Noyes: Life of A Global Nursing Leader'' (2017) is a recent biography of Noyes, by her great-great nephew Roger Noyes.Roger Noyes, ''Clara Noyes: Life of A Global Nursing Leader'' (Northshire Bookstore 2017).

References

External links

Clara Dutton Noyes gravesite
in

Old Lyme, Connecticut Old Lyme is a coastal town in New London County, Connecticut, United States, bounded on the west by the Connecticut River, on the south by the Long Island Sound, on the east by the town of East Lyme, and on the north by the town of Lyme. The town ...

, on Find a Grave. *The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

ha
two photographs of Clara Dutton Noyes from 1920
on her tour of American Red Cross sites in Europe. {{DEFAULTSORT:Noyes, Clara 1869 births 1936 deaths Johns Hopkins School of Nursing alumni American women nurses American women in World War I Florence Nightingale Medal recipients American Red Cross personnel American Nurses Association Hall of Fame inductees World War I nurses People from Cecil County, Maryland