Lillian D. Wald (March 10, 1867 – September 1, 1940) was an American nurse, humanitarian and author. She was known for contributions to human rights and was the founder of American community nursing.
She founded the
Henry Street Settlement
The Henry Street Settlement is a not-for-profit social service agency in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City that provides social services, arts programs and health care services to New Yorkers of all ages. It was founde ...
in New York City and was an early advocate to have nurses in public schools.
After growing up in Ohio and New York, Wald became a nurse. She briefly attended medical school and began to teach community health classes. After founding the Henry Street Settlement, she became an activist for the rights of women and minorities. She campaigned for suffrage and was a supporter of racial integration. She was involved in the founding of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP).
Wald died in 1940 at the age of 73.
Early life and education
Wald was born into a wealthy German-Jewish medical family in
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
. Her parents were Max D. Wald and Minnie (Schwarz) Wald.
Her father was an optical dealer; her uncle, Henry Wald, M.D., was a University of Vienna trained surgeon who began a New York City medical dynasty at Columbia University in the 1880s. In 1878, she moved with her family to
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...
. She attended Miss Cruttenden's English-French Boarding and Day School for Young Ladies. She applied to
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
at the age of 16, but the school thought that she was too young. In 1889, she attended
New York Hospital's School of Nursing
Nurse education consists of the theoretical and practical training provided to nurses with the purpose to prepare them for their duties as nursing care professionals. This education is provided to student nurses by experienced nurses and other med ...
. She graduated from the New York Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1891, then took courses at the Woman's Medical College.
[Lillian D. Wald biography](_blank)
National Women's History Museum website and newsletter. Retrieved February 20, 2010
Nursing career
![Lillian Wald young in nurse uniform](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Lillian_Wald_young_in_nurse_uniform.jpg)
Wald worked for a time at the
New York Juvenile Asylum (now Children's Village), an
orphanage
An orphanage is a Residential education, residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the Childcare, care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parent ...
where conditions were poor. By 1893, she left medical school and started to teach a home class on nursing for poor immigrant families on
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
's
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets.
Traditionally an im ...
at the
Hebrew Technical School for Girls
The Hebrew Technical School for Girls was a vocational school whose goal was to provide free instruction for women to pursue jobs in commercial and industrial sectors. It was founded in 1880 as the Louis Down-Town Sabbath and Day School by the educ ...
. Shortly thereafter, she began to care for sick Lower East Side residents as a visiting nurse. Along with another nurse, Mary Brewster, she moved into a spartan room near her patients, in order to care for them better. Around that time she coined the term "
public health nurse
Public health nursing, also known as community health nursing is a nursing specialty focused on public health. The term was coined by Lillian Wald of the Henry Street Settlement, or, Public health nurses (PHNs) or community health nurses "integrat ...
" to describe nurses whose work is integrated into the public community.
[Women of Valor exhibit on Lillian Wald](_blank)
the Jewish Women's Archive
Wald advocated for nursing in public schools. Her ideas led the New York Board of Health to organize the first public nursing system in the world. She was the first president of the National Organization for Public Health Nursing. Wald established a nursing insurance partnership with
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
that became a model for many other corporate projects. She suggested a national health insurance plan and helped to found the
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
School of Nursing.
Wald authored two books relating to her community health work, ''
The House on Henry Street
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' (1911) and ''
Windows on Henry Street
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
'' (1934).
Wald founded the
Henry Street Settlement
The Henry Street Settlement is a not-for-profit social service agency in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City that provides social services, arts programs and health care services to New Yorkers of all ages. It was founde ...
. The organization attracted the attention of prominent Jewish philanthropist
Jacob Schiff
Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Ja ...
, who secretly provided Wald with money to more effectively help the "poor Russian Jews" whose care she provided. By 1906 Wald had 27 nurses on staff, and she succeeded in attracting broader financial support from such gentiles as
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson
Elizabeth Milbank Anderson (December 20, 1850 – February 22, 1921), American philanthropist and advocate for public health and women's education, was the daughter of Jeremiah Milbank (1818–1884), a successful commission merchant, manufactur ...
. By 1913 the staff had grown to 92 people. The Henry Street Settlement eventually developed as the
Visiting Nurse Service of New York
Founded in 1893 by nursing pioneer Lillian D. Wald and Mary M. Brewster, VNS Health is one of the largest not-for-profit home- and community-based health care organizations in the United States, serving the five boroughs of New York City; Nassau ...
.
The Henry Street Settlement
Wald's vision for Henry Street was one unlike any others at the time. Wald believed that every New York City resident was entitled to equal and fair health care regardless of their social status, socio-economic status, race, gender, or age.
[Letter from Lillian Wald to Lee Frankel May 9, 1913. Wald-4. Lillian Wald Papers. Linda Lear Special Collections and Archives, Connecticut College.] She argued that everyone should have access to
at-home-care. A strong advocate for adequate bed-side manner, Wald believed that regardless of if a person could afford at-home-care, they deserved to be treated with the same level of respect that some who could afford it would be.
Social benefits of the Henry Street Settlement
Arguably one of the most significant changes to the public health sector, the Settlement did much more than just provide better medical care. Primarily focusing on the care of women and children, the Settlement changed the landscape of public health care in New York City. These programs helped to cut back on time patients spent at hospitals while also making at-home-care more accessible and efficient.
Wald was a strong advocate for community support. Much of the Henry Street Settlement's initial success was from Wald's diligent and persistent work at cultivating personal relationships with the Settlement's donors. Wald was also a strong advocate for the social benefit of having donors who dwelled within the community. These benefits included the temporary break-up of families when people were forced to spend time in the hospital, improved the quality of at-home-care, and reduced medical expenses by offering an alternative to hospital stays.
Employment of women
Wald provided a unique opportunity for women and employment through the Settlement. In her letters, she speaks with donors about the employment opportunities that are provided to women through the Settlement and the many benefits they offer. One of the most notable benefits was the opportunity for women to have a career and to build their own wealth independent of husbands or families.
Employment also provided women with the opportunity to gain independence from their husbands and work outside of the home.
Community outreach and advocacy
![Lillian Wald - William Valentine Schevill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/Lillian_Wald_-_William_Valentine_Schevill.jpg)
Wald also taught women how to cook and sew, provided recreational activities for families, and was involved in the labor movement. Out of her concern for women's working conditions, she helped to found the
Women's Trade Union League
The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL played an important ...
in 1903 and later served as a member of the executive committee of the New York City League. In 1910, Wald and several colleagues went on a six-month tour of Hawaii, Japan, China, and Russia, a trip that increased her involvement in worldwide humanitarian issues.
In 1915, Wald founded the Henry Street Neighborhood Playhouse. She was an early leader of the Child Labor Committee, which became the
National Child Labor Committee
The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) was a private, non-profit organization in the United States that served as a leading proponent for the national child labor reform movement. Its mission was to promote "the rights, awareness, dignity, well ...
(NCLC).
The group lobbied for federal child labor laws and promoted childhood education. In the 1920s, the organization proposed an amendment to the U.S. constitution that would have banned child labor.
In the 1920s, Wald was a vocal proponent of the social welfare initiatives of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928.
The son of an Irish-American mother and a C ...
, and in 1928 she actively supported Smith's presidential campaign.
Wald was also concerned about the treatment of African Americans. As a civil rights activist, she insisted that all Henry Street classes be racially integrated. In 1909, she became a founding member of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP).
The organization's first major public conference opened at the Henry Street Settlement.
Wald organized New York City campaigns for suffrage, marched to protest the entry of the United States into World War I, joined the
Woman's Peace Party
The Woman's Peace Party (WPP) was an American pacifist and feminist organization formally established in January 1915 in response to World War I. The organization is remembered as the first American peace organization to make use of direct action ...
and helped to establish the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...
. In 1915 she was elected president of the newly formed American Union Against Militarism (AUAM). She remained involved with the AUAM's daughter organizations, the Foreign Policy Organization and the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
, after the United States joined the war.
Personal life
![Lillian Wald, and Jane Addams, 1916](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Lillian_Wald%2C_and_Jane_Addams%2C_1916.jpg)
Wald never married. She maintained her closest relationships and attachments with women. Correspondence reveals that Wald felt closest to at least two of her companions, homemaking author
Mabel Hyde Kittredge
Mabel Hyde Kittredge (September 19, 1867 – May 7, 1955) was an early 20th century home economist and social worker who is best known as a crusader for school-lunches and an author of books on household management.
Early years
Kittredge was born ...
and lawyer and theater manager
Helen Arthur
Helen Arthur (March 29, 1879 – December 9, 1939) was a theatre manager, known for managing the Neighborhood Playhouse for thirteen seasons (1915–1927). Arthur was the manager of several notable actors, including Ruth Draper."Helen Arthur, Pla ...
. Ultimately, however, Wald was more engaged in her work with Henry Street than in any relationship. In regard to Wald's relationships, author Clare Coss writes that Wald "remained in the end forever elusive. She preferred personal independence, which allowed her to move quickly, travel freely and act boldly."
Wald's personal life and focus on independence was clear in her devotion to the Settlement and improving public health.
Later life
She died of a cerebral hemorrhage on September 1, 1940. A rabbi conducted a memorial service at Henry Street's Neighborhood Playhouse. A private service was also held at Wald's home. A few months later at Carnegie Hall, over 2,000 people gathered at a tribute to Wald that included messages delivered by the president, governor and mayor.
She was interred at
Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester.
Legacy
![Lillian Wald HoF jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Lillian_Wald_HoF_jeh.jpg)
''The New York Times'' named Wald as one of the 12 greatest living American women in 1922 and she later received the Lincoln Medallion for her work as an "Outstanding Citizen of New York."
In 1937 during a radio broadcast celebrating Wald's 70th birthday,
Sara Delano Roosevelt
Sara Ann Roosevelt ( Delano; September 21, 1854 – September 7, 1941) was the second wife of James Roosevelt I (from 1880), the mother of President of the United States Franklin Delano Roosevelt, her only child, and subsequently the mother ...
read a letter from her son, President Franklin Roosevelt, in which he praised Wald for her "unselfish labor to promote the happiness and well being of others."
Author Helen Dore Boylston describes Lillian Wald and Henry Street in her third novel ''Sue Barton, Visiting Nurse,'' where Sue Barton meets Lillian Wald in the Henry Street settlement. (''Sue Barton, Visiting Nurse'' (1938))
Wald was elected to the
Hall of Fame for Great Americans
The Hall of Fame for Great Americans is an outdoor sculpture gallery located on the grounds of Bronx Community College (BCC) in the Bronx, New York City. It is the first such hall of fame in the United States. Built in 1901 as part of the U ...
in 1970.
In 1993, Wald was inducted into the
National Women's Hall of Fame
The National Women's Hall of Fame (NWHF) is an American institution incorporated in 1969 by a group of men and women in Seneca Falls, New York, although it did not induct its first enshrinees until 1973. As of 2021, it had 303 inductees.
Induc ...
.
The
Lillian Wald Houses on
Avenue D in Manhattan were named for her.
Wald paved the way for women in the public health world in numerous ways: As a medical provider, an employer, and an educator. Her legacy is still seen today in the Visiting Nurses Service of New York.
See also
*
List of nurses
This is a list of famous nurses in history. To be listed here, the nurse must already have a Wiki biography article. For background information see History of nursing and Timeline of nursing history. For nurses in art, film and literature see ...
*
List of peace activists
This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usually work ...
References
Further reading
* Brody, Seymour. ''Jewish Heroes & Heroines of America: 150 True Stories of American Jewish Heroism''. Floriday: Lifetime Books, Inc., 1996.
* Coss, Claire. ''Lillian D. Wald: Progressive Activist''. New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1989.
* Daniels, Doris Groshen. ''Always a Sister: The Feminism of Lillian D. Wald''. New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1995.
* Duffus, Robert Luther. ''Lillian Wald, Neighbor and Crusader''. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1938.
* Eiseman, Alberta. ''Rebels and reformers: Biographies of four Jewish Americans: Uriah Philips Levy, Ernestine L. Rose, Louis D. Brandeis, Lillian D. Wald''. Zenith Books, 1976.
* Wagenknecht, Edward. ''Daughters of the Covenant: Portraits of Six Jewish Women''. Amherst:
University of Massachusetts Press
The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...
, 1983.
Wald, LillianWald, Lillian, 21 January 2011, Social Welfare History Project
External links
Visiting Nurse Service of New YorkThe House on Henry StreetLillian Wald's 1915 memoir, H. Holt and company. (full text from Google Books.)
(Santa Fe Community College)
(
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
)
*
Lillian Wald Biographyat the Jewish-American Hall of Fame
PDF guideto the Wald papers
* Marjorie N. Feld
Biography of Lillian Wald Jewish Women Encyclopedia
National Women's Hall of Fame profile of Lillian D. Wald* Finding aid for th
Henry Street Settlement recordsin th
Social Welfare History Archives University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
Libraries.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wald, Lillian
1867 births
1940 deaths
American nurses
American women nurses
American social workers
Burials at Mount Hope Cemetery (Rochester)
Healthcare in New York City
History of New York City
Jewish American writers
American women in World War I
Progressive Era in the United States
American Civil Liberties Union people
American anti-war activists
American suffragists
Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people
NAACP activists
Writers from Cincinnati
Trade unionists from Ohio
Women's Trade Union League people
American trade unionists of German descent
20th-century American people
Women civil rights activists
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