Chicago History Museum
1601 N. Clark Street,
Chicago, Illinois, 60614
https://www.chicagohistory.org/visit/research-center/
Image: Portrait of staff and supervisors in 1952 annual report for the Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago, Illinois, courtesy of Chicago History Museum, OCHi-182706
Title:
Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago photograph collection, 1895-1973
Content:
From 1890 to 1995, the Visiting Nurse Association of Chicago employed its own nurses and other health professionals to provide health care to the underprivileged.
Visual materials relating to the VNA, which was organized in 1889 and chartered the following year. Shows child and adult patients from varied ethnic backgrounds receiving health treatments and instruction in their homes (ca. mid-1890s-1950s); single and group portraits of the nursing staff and office personnel; some views of the nurses at their substations; unidentified neighborhood scenes taken to document unsanitary conditions; turn-of-the-century shots of domestic interiors suggesting lack of hygiene and level of poverty; albums showing treatment procedures, braces, and other equipment mainly for poliomyelitis. Most transparency subjects are not found in other media. Some subjects are found in both photoprints and lantern slides.
Dates:
ca. 1895-1973, bulk 1910-1950
Size:
6.0 linear feet
Access:
Partially restricted. To consult lantern slides, negatives or color materials in the Research Center it is necessary to make an advance appointment (email: Research@chicagohistory.org).
Language:
English
Selected inventory:
| Box # | Folder # | Title Identifier |
| Box 2 | Folder 1 | Black nurse with Black children |
| Box 2 | Folder 2 | Black nurse with white families |
| Box 2 | Folder 2 | Black nurse with Latinx family |
| Box 2 | Folder 2 | Black nurse checking white boy’s blood pressure |
| Box 2 | Folder 2 | Black nurse talking with black female patient |
| Box 2 | Folder 4 | Black nurse with stethoscope and an older white man |