Lucy Minnigerode (February 8, 1871 – March 24, 1935) was an American nurse in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and founder of the United States Public Health Service Nursing Corps. She was the eighth American recipient of the Florence Nightingale Medal, awarded by the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

in 1925.

Early life

Lucy Minnigerode was born in Middleburg, Virginia, the daughter of Charles Minnigerode and Virginia Cuthbert Powell Minnigerode. Her father served in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Her sister was artist Marietta Minnigerode Andrews, who was married to another artist,

Eliphalet Frazer Andrews Eliphalet Frazer Andrews (June 11, 1835 – March 15, 1915), an American painter known primarily as a portraitist, established an art instruction curriculum at the behest of William Wilson Corcoran at his Corcoran School of Art, and served as it ...

. Her grandfather, Charles Frederick Ernest Minnigerode, was a German classics professor and clergyman, known as the "Father Confessor of the Confederacy" because he was the pastor of a prominent Episcopal church in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. Lucy Minnigerode attended Arlington Institute, a girls' school in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...

. She trained as a nurse at Bellevue Hospital in New York, completing her studies in 1905.

Career

Minnigerode was superintendent of nurses at the Episcopal Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital in Washington, D.C. from 1910 to 1914. She joined an

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

"mercy ship" to work at a hospital in

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

in 1914, serving as supervising nurse for Unit C, under senior supervisor

Helen Scott Hay Helen Scott Hay (January 6, 1869 — November 25, 1932) was an American Red Cross nurse and nursing educator, working in Kiev and Sofia during World War I. She was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal by the International Red Cross Society for ...

. From 1915 to 1917, she directed the Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington D.C.; then she joined the staff of

Clara Noyes Clara Dutton Noyes (October 3, 1869 – June 3, 1936) was an American nurse who headed the American Red Cross department of nursing during World War I. In 1998 she was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame. Early life and ...

at American Red Cross headquarters in that city. In 1919 she was chosen by Noyes to inspect and report on U. S. Public Health Service hospitals, and was appointed superintendent of the new department of nurses under the Public Health Service. One of her first tasks was to recruit nurses to work in veterans' hospitals after 1921. She is remembered as the founder of the U. S. Public Health Service Nursing Corps. She also chaired the Nurses in Government section of the American Nurses Association. She was considered part of the informal "Women's Cabinet" in Washington in 1925, along with

Grace Abbott Grace Abbott (November 17, 1878 – June 19, 1939) was an American social worker who specifically worked in improving the rights of immigrants and advancing child welfare, especially the regulation of child labor. Her elder sister, Edith Abbott ...

, Kathryn Sellers, and

Mabel Walker Willebrandt Mabel Walker Willebrandt (May 23, 1889 – April 6, 1963), popularly known to her contemporaries as the First Lady of Law, was a U.S. Assistant Attorney General from 1921 to 1929, handling cases concerning violations of the Volstead Act, federal ...

. In 1925, she became the eighth American nurse to receive the Florence Nightingale Medal from the International Red Cross in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

. She also received the

Order of Saint Anna The Imperial Order of Saint Anna (russian: Орден Святой Анны; also "Order of Saint Anne" or "Order of Saint Ann") was a Holstein ducal and then Russian imperial order of chivalry. It was established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Hol ...

in Russia.

Death and legacy

Minnigerode died at her niece's home in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1935, aged 64 years. The American Nurses Association established a Lucy Minnigerode Memorial Fund soon after her death. The five Minnigerode Awards for Nursing Excellence (MANE), given by the U. S. Public Health Service, are named for her. In 1994, the U. S. Public Health Service Nursing Research Conference honored Lucy Minnigerode, and her image was used for the event's poster.Third annual U.S. Public Health Service Nursing Research Conference (1994), poster
National Library of Medicine.

References

External links

* I. McLellan
"Lucy Minnigerode"
''We Served Too'' (May 13, 2014). A blog post about Minnigerode.
Another photograph of Lucy Minnigerode
in the collection of the United States National Library of Medicine.
A photograph of a group of Red Cross nurses including Minnigerode
at

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets— creative ...

. * Marietta Minnigerode Andrews
''Memoirs of a Poor Relation: Being the Story of a Post-war Southern Girl and Her Battle with Destiny''
(E. P. Dutton 1930). Her sister's memoir, contains many references to Lucy Minnigerode's childhood and family. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Minnigerode, Lucy 1871 births 1935 deaths American nurses American women in World War I Florence Nightingale Medal recipients American women nurses People from Middleburg, Virginia American people of German descent Recipients of the Order of St. Anna