Mary Searle Cummings World War I scrapbooks
Content Description
Consists of two scrapbooks created by Mary Searle Cummings representing her service as a nurse with the Harvard Unit in England and France during World War I. Scrapbooks include photographs, travel documents, greeting cards and other ephemera, newspapers and other print publications.
Dates
- Creation: 1917-1919 (inclusive)
Creator
- Cummings, Mary Searle (Person)
Language of Materials
Scrapbooks are primarily in English, with several items in French.
Condition Description
One scrapbook is has lost its binding; both are very brittle and are losing page edges.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Access requires advance notice. Contact Public Services for further information.
Conditions Governing Use
The Harvard Medical Library does not hold copyright on all materials in the collection. Researchers are responsible for identifying and contacting any third-party copyright holders for permission to reproduce or publish. For more information on the Center's use, publication, and reproduction policies, view our Reproductions and Use Policy.
Extent
0.3 cubic feet (2 scrapbooks)Historical Note on WWI Harvard Medical School Units
Harvard Medical School was responsible for two separate medical units which operated in France during World War I. The first was the Harvard Unit American Ambulance Paris-Neuilly which operated for three months during the spring of 1915. The second was the Base Hospital Number 5 which operated between 1917 and 1918 in Camiers and Boulogne-sur-Mer. Nurses were associated with both units and worked with doctors in England and France.
Biographical Note for Mary Searle Cummings
Mary Searle Cummings (born 1893), R.N., Morton Hospital Training School, Taunton, Massachusetts, was a trained nurse. Searle worked as a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital before joining the Harvard Surgical Unit in 1917. Searle served in the Unit at No. 22 General Hospital of the British Expeditionary Force, Camiers, France, from September 1917 to September 1918. After the war, she worked as a nurse and nursing superintendent at Mount Hope Hospital, North Dighton, Massachusetts.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gifted to the Harvard Medical Library by Jacquelyn A. Craft in October 2019 (Accession #2020-076).
Processing Information
Processed by Hanna Clutterbuck-Cook and Charlotte Lellman in June 2021. Collection was processed according to Level 1 protocol.
- Title
- Cummings, Mary Searle. World War I scrapbooks, 1917-1919 (inclusive): A Finding Aid
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Hanna Clutterbuck-Cook, Charlotte Lellman
- Date
- 2021-02-03
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- med00827
Repository Details
Part of the Center for the History of Medicine (Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine) Repository
The Center for the History of Medicine in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine is one of the world's leading resources for the study of the history of health and medicine. Our mission is to enable the history of medicine and public health to inform healthcare, the health sciences, and the societies in which they are embedded.