Medical

Kings Park Psychiatric Center, or “the Psych Center” as it is known locally, was unique for its time, as its focus was on patient care and making the hospital as “homelike” as possible.

The facility was made up of a series of smaller buildings to give the feeling of community to the patients and staff alike, and both men and women were treated fairly and humanely. Long Island was home to many immigrants, some of whom had difficulty adjusting to life in the United States. This unique population led to interesting personal stories of those who worked at this facility, those who were institutionalized, and their families. The authors took the time to listen to their stories and endeavored to understand their pasts and recognize how these events continue to influence the mental-health industry today. Pictured throughout are the physical relics of the now-abandoned Psych Center, where these stories unfurled.

For 141 years, Hudson River State Hospital was home to tens of thousands of individuals suffering from mental illness.

Famous architects Frederick Clark Withers and Calvert Vaux drafted the main building in 1869. The facility grew from a 208-acre parcel in 1871 with seven patients to 752 acres with five dozen separate buildings containing nearly 6,000 patients in 1954. The main building was constructed on a Kirkbride plan, a treating philosophy centered around an ornate building of equal proportions staffed by employees who integrated dignity and compassion into health care. Famous architects Frederick Clark Withers and Calvert Vaux drafted the main building in 1869. The landscape was penned by Frederick Law Olmsted, perhaps best known for the design of New York City's Central Park.

Danvers State Hospital revolutionized mental health care for more than a century, beginning in 1878. Today, it's buildings still have stories to tell.

Perched high on the top of Hathorne Hill in what was once the village of Salem, Danvers State Insane Asylum was, for more than a century, a monument to modern psychiatry and the myriad advances in mental health treatment. From the time it opened its doors in 1878 until they were shuttered for good in 1992, the asylum represented decades of reform, the physical embodiment of the heroic visions of Dorothea Dix and Thomas Story Kirkbride. It would stand abandoned until 2005, when demolition began. Along with a dedicated group of private citizens, the Danvers Historical Society fought to preserve the Kirkbride structure, an effort that would result in the reuse of the administration building and two additional wings. Danvers has earned a unique place in history; the shell of the original Kirkbride building still stands overlooking the town. Though it has been changed drastically, the asylum's story continues as do efforts to memorialize it.

The Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital was more than a building; it embodied an entire era of uniquely American history, from the unparalleled humanitarian efforts of Dorothea Dix to the revolutionary architectural concepts of Thomas Story Kirkbride.

After well over a century of service, Greystone was left abandoned in 2008. From the time it closed until its demolition in 2015, Greystone became the focal point of a passionate preservation effort that drew national attention and served to spark the public's interest in historical asylum preservation. Many of the images contained in this book were rescued from the basement of Greystone in 2002 and have never been seen by the public. They appear courtesy of the Morris Plains Museum and its staff, who spent many hours digitally archiving the photographs so that future generations may better know Greystone's history.

Join author J.P. Webster as he explores the fascinating and complex history of the Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry.

The Quaker City and its hospitals were pioneers in the field of mental health. Yet by the end of the nineteenth century, its institutions were crowded and patients lived in shocking conditions. The mentally ill were quartered with the dangerously criminal. By 1906, the city had purchased a vast acreage of farmland incorporated into the city, and the Philadelphia Hospital dubbed its new venture Byberry City Farms. From the start, its history was riddled with corruption and committees, investigations and inquests, appropriations and abuse. Yet it is also a story of reform and redemption, of heroes and human dignity--many dedicated staff members did their best to help patients whose mental illnesses were little understood and were stigmatized by society.

In rare historical photos, discover the story of the hospital, her caretakers, and those cared for at Harrisburg State Hospital for over 150 years.

Harrisburg State Hospital opened in 1851 as the Pennsylvania State Lunatic Hospital, the first public institution in the state. Situated atop a hill overlooking the Susquehanna River, the original building was an early example of a Kirkbride design hospital. The facility closed in 2006 after serving the commonwealth for 155 years. Harrisburg State Hospital: Pennsylvania's First Public Asylum presents a pictorial history of the hospital from the first year of only 12 patients through the peak of state care, when the population reached over 2,500 in the 1950s. Harrisburg State Hospital was an innovative leader in the treatment of the mentally ill, pioneering new methods of therapy even before they were common practice. It was a community and a home for those whom society could not otherwise care for.

Harrowing Accounts of the Civil War from the Beloved Author of Little Women

When the Civil War broke out in 1861 Louisa May Alcott was disappointed that she was not able to join the men of her town in battle, and she began to volunteer to provide supplies for the war effort. On her 30th birthday, the age required at the time to become an Army nurse, Alcott became a nurse and was assigned to Union Hotel Hospital in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. While serving, she wrote several letters to her family back in Concord describing the difficult conditions and life healing the wounded. Alcott altered the letters slightly, fictionalized them, and published them to wide acclaim. The sketches lifted Alcott into the national discourse and her fame solidified a few years later with the publication of her timeless novel Little Women. Discover harrowing first hand experiences of war within the early writings of an icon of American literature.

Surveying the sensational newspaper accounts as events unfolded, author and historian Chris Flook recounts this grisly tale of political intrigue and conspiracy .

In the fall of 1902, Indianapolis police uncovered a prolific graverobbing ring operating across the city. At the time, cemeteries across central Indiana were relieved of their dead by ghouls, as they were called, seeking fresh corpses desperately needed by the city’s medical colleges. The ring was also accused of multiple murders. In Hamilton County, a former Confederate soldier named Wade West delivered stolen corpses by floating them down the White River. His counterpart in Indianapolis, Rufus Cantrell, an itinerant preacher and full-time graverobber known as the “King of the Ghouls,” ransacked Indy’s cemeteries for years before being caught./

Using historical images and recollections, Evanston Hospital School of Nursing: 1898–1984 highlights the marketing, education, curriculum, and values of EHSN as well as the students’ experience and dormitory life.

Evanston Hospital was founded in 1891, followed by the school of nursing seven years later. Evanston Hospital School of Nursing (EHSN) provided education at a reasonable cost while the students provided care to patients in between studies. In its first 50 years, the school graduated 1,157 nurses, with the first class of two graduating in 1901. EHSN, like other diploma programs, flourished until educational cost escalated, technology boomed, training methods evolved, and a conversation about where and how nurses should be educated began. After 86 years of training nurses, EHSN closed.

Carolyn Hope Smeltzer and Barbara Ann McQuillan, 1972 EHSN graduates, are proud of their education and realize the historical value of the program. Having graduated 50 years ago, they are passionate about preserving the school’s history and capturing classmates’ memories. Their desire to keep alive EHSN history enables past generations of diploma graduates to cherish their own memories and future generations of nurses to look back on past teaching practices. This book will elicit familiar fond memories for all who attended or taught in any diploma school of nursing.

Norwich State Hospital (NSH), established in 1904, was more than just a series of mortar and brick buildings to house and treat persons suffering from mental illness.

For nearly 100 years, generations of people dedicated their careers and lives to developing NSH as a humanitarian community for mental illness rehabilitation. NSH gained international attention from some of the world's most renowned psychiatrists for being the first state hospital to boast a brand-new state-of-the-art building to house all occupational therapies under one roof. Although NSH closed in 1996, the structure has continued to be one of Connecticut's most notable historical landmarks, despite its ongoing demolition and redevelopment. Today, Norwich State Hospital is still alive in the timeless, emotional memories employees and family members share of what it was like to work and grow up in a place where employees were not just employees and patients were not just patients; they were family.

This unique compilation of photographs vividly illustrate the architecture, landscape, and day-to-day functioning of Worcester State Hospital from its origins in the 19th century to the present day.

The Worcester State Hospital offered a novel and compelling promise: that insanity could be cured by humane treatment in a therapeutic setting. Patients would enjoy its idyllic landscape, genteel interiors, wholesome food supplied from its farm, and the individualized attention of medical professionals. The hospital’s reputation as a “model institution” helped to position the city of Worcester as an economic center and pioneer in social reform. Yet overcrowding, insufficient funds, and the limitations of medical knowledge undermined the institution’s mission, leading to the abandonment of its original features. Despite downsizing and decay, the Worcester State Hospital continues to exert a tangible presence on the landscape. Its iconic clock tower, salvaged from demolition, stands as a reminder of its historical legacy and of the continuing role of the site—now the Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital—in the treatment of mental illness.

Madeline Ryan and Katherine Anderson have drawn upon their extensive knowledge of institutional history to craft an illustrated narrative of the Worcester State Hospital utilizing photographs held by the Worcester Historical Museum as well as images from private collections.

Looming on the outskirts of Philadelphia County since 1906, the mental hospital commonly known as Byberry stood abandoned for 16 years before being demolished in 2006.

Like many other mental hospitals and asylums of its time, Byberry began with the best of intentions. Despite having its own self-sustaining farm, bowling alleys, barbershop, ice cream parlor, post office, and baseball team, conditions in the hospital were abysmal and even compared to Nazi concentration camps. Throughout its history, the hospital served as an educational institution for Philadelphia's medical, nursing, and psychology students; was the site of a World War II Civilian Public Service conscientious objector unit; and a volunteering hot spot for local churches, schools, and Girl and Boy Scout troops, before becoming what it is most remembered for today. At its peak in the 1960s, Byberry was home to more than 6,000 patients and employer to more than 800, but now its only residents are ghosts and the urban explorers excited to take a risk in the desiccated husk of the hospital. This book provides an unprecedented window into the good, the bad, the unusual, and the forgotten history of Byberry.

Essex County Overbrook Hosptial details the history of this institution which had its beginnings as an asylym.

What was founded as the Essex County Lunacy Asylum evolved from a single building on South Orange Avenue to a city within itself in Cedar Grove. It was named the Essex County Overbrook Hospital. Construction began on the hospital's iconic brick buildings in 1896, and they were prominent features on Fairview Avenue for the next 100 years. The facility produced its own food, housed its own police and fire departments, and sustained its own power sources. The Essex County Overbrook Hospital was recognized throughout the world as a leader in psychiatric care. In later years, overcrowding began to plague the institution. However, after the advent of modern psychiatric drugs, many patients were able to be discharged back into the community. In 2007, the buildings were closed, and the hospital was relocated to a newer establishment nearby. The grounds have since been plagued with vandalism and neglect, with a final deal for demolition having been solidified in 2015.

Eloise, which started out as a poorhouse, later became known as Wayne County General Hospital. Today, all that remains are five buildings and a smokestack.

From only 35 residents on 280 acres in 1839, the complex grew dramatically after the Civil War until the total land involved was 902 acres and the total number of patients was about 10,000. Only one of them, the Kay Beard Building, is currently used.In Eloise: Poorhouse, Farm, Asylum, and Hospital, 1839-1984, this institution and medical center that cared for thousands of people over the years, is brought back to life. The book, in over 220 historic photographs, follows the facility's roots, from its beginnings as a poorhouse, to the founding of its psychiatric division and general hospital. The reader will also be able to trace the changing face of psychiatric care over the years. The book effectively captures what it was like to live, work, and play on Eloise's expansive grounds.

Now known as the Tewksbury State Hospital, the institution was originally a venture by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to provide economical care for state paupers known as the State Almshouse at Tewksbury.

Originally intended to accommodate 500 residents, by the end of 1854 the almshouse had admitted well over 2,200 paupers, thus necessitating future expansion. Although the virtue of the institution was called into question in 1883 by Gov. Benjamin Butler, who decried Supt. Thomas J. Marsh, the almshouse would continue to serve the destitute of the commonwealth for years to come. The name would later be changed to Tewksbury State Hospital to reflect the inclusion of the mentally ill, the sick, and those suffering from infectious disease as patients. Today, the hospital remains operational in providing specialized care in the Thomas J. Saunders Building while also serving as host to various governmental agencies and community organizations like the Public Health Museum on its historic campus. Although many of the early structures were demolished in the 1970s, the Tewksbury State Hospital remains an active institution brimming with architectural beauty and a rich public health history.

Ashlynn Rickord Werner is an historian of state hospitals for the mentally ill and state schools for the developmentally disabled. She serves on the board of directors for the Public Health Museum, which is housed in the Old Administration Building at Tewksbury State Hospital. Jon Maynard is an historian, preservationist, and architectural photographer. He runs Westborough State Hospital Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is building a memorial to the now demolished hospital.

For nearly 80 years, Pennhurst State School and Hospital was a reminder of how society viewed and treated people with intellectual disabilities.

Over its existence, Pennhurst was home to more than 10,600 people. Many spent decades there, working to keep the institution running by performing various jobs. While some enjoyed the lives they had fashioned for themselves at Pennhurst, for many others, life there was crushing. Pennhurst also played a central role in the lives of its employees and in the rural Pennsylvania community where it was located. Controversy plagued the institution for its entire existence, and it is remembered primarily as a place where bad things happened. However, it was much more than that. This book provides a window into that separate world, reminding those who were part of it of what they saw and did there and giving those who know only what they have heard or seen a different picture of what Pennhurst truly was.

Northern Michigan Asylum, which opened in 1885, was known during most of its years as Traverse City State Hospital. More than 200 photographs and images are provided, including many of the features and buildings long gone.

It was run during its first decades by Dr. James Decker Munson, who left his legacy in the landscaped grounds and the medical center that today bears his name. Traverse City State Hospital served the mental health needs of a large part of Michigan for 104 years until its closure in 1989, housing a population as large as 3,000 in its many buildings.This book traces the history of this great institution, from the local and mental health context in which it was founded, through its growth, development, and decline, and finally to its renovation and preservation as a vital part of the Traverse City community.

Historic Herbal Medicine

Nicholas Culpeper was a seventeenth-century English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer. Published over 350 years ago as a practical health guide, The Complete Herbal (1653) is still a definitive herbal guide for today. It contains a rich store of pharmaceutical and herbal knowledge, including herbs and where to find them, herb presentation, plasters and more. 

From a headless burial to cocaine toothache drops, the true stories hidden in the Wild West’s medical records are a match for its tallest tales.

In the 19th century, when dying young was a fact of life, a routine bout of diarrhea could be fatal. No one had heard of viruses or bacteria, but they killed more soldiers on the frontier than hostile raiding parties. Physicians dispensed whiskey for TB, mercury for VD and arsenic for indigestion. Baseball injuries were considered to be in the line of duty and twice resulted in amputations at Fort Davis. Donna Gerstle Smith explains how an industrious laundress could earn more than a private, how a female army surgeon won the Medal of Honor and how a garrison illegally hung the local bartender.

On the banks of Lake Chauncy sit the remains of the Westborough Insane Hospital, later known as Westborough State Hospital.

Westborough is perhaps best known as the second homeopathic hospital for the insane in the United States and the first example of institutional reuse in the nation.The hospital's unique treatment methods put it squarely at the forefront of mental health treatment, and it was one of the last state hospitals in Massachusetts to close its doors.The pioneering African American pathologist Solomon Carter Fuller spent much of his career at Westborough studying the physical changes made to the brain by Alzheimer's.When it closed in 2010, it was the only state hospital in New England with a dedicated unit for deaf and hard of hearing patients.Though somewhat less infamous than some of its neighbors, Westborough holds a very distinctive place in the history of mental health treatment.

Katherine Anderson is a veteran special education teacher and has been researching and writing about asylums and mental health care for more than a decade. With the help of researcher and historian Jon Maynard, this book continues the legacy of Westborough State Hospital and the many men and women who lived and worked there.

Discover the history behind Griffin Memorial Hospital through this collection of historic photographs.

Griffin Memorial Hospital is located at the end of East Main Street in Norman, Oklahoma. The hospital was originally started as High Gate College, a girls’ school established by the United Methodist Church, South in 1890, one year after the settlement of Norman. With competition from the University of Oklahoma, High Gate College closed its doors in early 1895 and was soon bought by the Oklahoma Sanitarium Company. In 1915, the State of Oklahoma bought the Oklahoma Sanitarium Company and renamed the institution Central State Hospital. In 1953, the hospital was renamed Griffin Memorial Hospital. Under the supervision of Dr. David Griffin, the hospital grew to over 30 buildings and three farms in its first 40 years. With a change in institutional care in the 1960s, the state built a Community Health Care Center on the hospital grounds. Today, Griffin Memorial Hospital has few institutionalized patients and little resembles the thriving establishment of the early 20th century.

Suzanne H. Schrems, PhD, is a resident of Norman, Oklahoma, and a board member of the Cleveland County Historical Society. Schrems is the author of books and articles on Oklahoma and the American West. Proceeds from this book go to the Cleveland County Historical Society and the Moore-Lindsay Historic House Museum.

The Nurse Midwife Who Transformed the South

Discover the true story of Maude Callen, South Carolina’s pioneering Black nurse-midwife, who brought life-saving healthcare to the rural South from 1923 to 1990. When Callen arrived in Pineville by mule-drawn wagon, she left behind Savannah’s social elite for a world of poverty, disease, and loss. But she stayed—changing lives one birth, one patient, one home visit at a time.

In 1951, Life magazine featured her work in a moving photo essay by W. Eugene Smith, awakening the nation to her quiet heroism. Donations poured in, and Callen’s legacy grew.

Award-winning journalist Lindsay Street brings Callen’s story to life with rich historical detail, rare archival materials, and Callen’s own words. This inspiring biography is a must-read for lovers of Black history, Southern history, and untold stories of American medical pioneers.

Perfect for readers who cherish deeply human stories of perseverance, service, and courage.

“This Great Hospital Fight” – Dr. Drake

At the height of racial and political tensions in early twentieth-century Houston, two unlikely figures became allies. Dr. William M. Drake, a pioneering surgeon and Black community leader, and Joseph Cullinan, a white oil magnate and founder of the company that became Texaco, united in a desperate effort to save a hospital that symbolized hope. The Houston Negro Hospital was born from America’s Black hospital movement. Dedicated on Juneteenth 1926, it embodied a bold experiment to bring dignity and health care access to a community that was systematically denied both in the Jim Crow South.

Journalist and storyteller Carlton Houston—whose ancestors played a role in this remarkable heritage—reveals the untold, human drama behind the institution that would become Riverside General. Discover the vision, conflict, and resilience that shaped a century of health care through the struggle of those determined to save lives.

The first institution of its kind in the state of Maryland, the Rosewood Center opened its doors in 1888, serving individuals with disabilities for over a century.

Rosewood was born out of humanitarian ideals with a focus on education and training, but it was later plagued with overcrowding, staff shortages, and a number of scandals. By the mid-20th century, it had declined to a point where, for many residents, it offered little more than the most basic custodial functions. This book explores Rosewood’s history, from its optimistic founding, later struggles, and reform attempts to its ultimate closure in 2009. It also traces the larger story of the treatment and care of the disabled in the United States and the deinstitutionalization movement that is still being debated to this day. Today, a handful of extremely dilapidated structures scattered across a hillside in Owings Mills, Maryland, are all that remain of the Rosewood Center.

Nearly two decades after it closed, the South Carolina State Hospital continues to hold a palpable mystique in Columbia and throughout the state.

Founded in 1821 as the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, it housed, fed and treated thousands of patients incapable of surviving on their own. The patient population in 1961 eclipsed 6,600, well above its listed capacity of 4,823, despite an operating budget that ranked forty-fifth out of the forty-eight states. By the mid-1990s, the patient population had fallen under 700, and the hospital had become a symbol of captivity, horror and chaos. Author William Buchheit details this history through the words and interviews of those who worked on the iconic campus.

The majesty of New York's Finger Lakes region has produced some equally majestic women who have left their mark on American history.  

From women medical pioneers like Clara Barton and Elizabeth Blackwell to aviator Blanche Stuart Scott and writer Sarah Hopkins Bradford, the iconic dames of New York's most beautiful region are not to be overlooked. Author Julie Cummins reveals remarkable women of the Finger Lakes.

Pennsylvania Hospital became America's first voluntary hospital, opening its doors on the eve of the American Revolution no less.

On the eve of the American Revolution, Pennsylvania Hospital opened its doors as a provincial charity for the physically and mentally ill. In a matter of decades, it became not only America's first voluntary hospital, but also the home of the first apothecary, medical library and surgical amphitheatre. From its radical conception by a group of extraordinary colonists, the hospital has evolved into a world-renowned facility that treats over 225,000 patients a year. In A History of the Pennsylvania Hospital, Kristen Graham introduces the people and ideas that guided the Pennsylvania Hospital through numerous wars and social and economic crises, landing it at the forefront of healing, learning and innovation.

Over the last decade Old Friends, the Thoroughbred Retirement Facility in Georgetown, KY, has put a new face on the concept of equine aftercare.

When Michael Blowen first dreamed of creating Old Friends, he envisioned a place where Thoroughbred stallions could retire with dignity following their racing or breeding careers. He also wanted people to visit the iconic horses.

In 2003, Old Friendsopened on leased land with a miniature horse named Little Silver Charm, a gelding named Invigorate and a mare named Narrow Escape. Today, the two-hundred-plus-acre farm in Georgetown has more than 160 retired Thoroughbred stallions, geldings and mares, including two Kentucky Derbywinners. It even welcomed two satellite farms, one in New York and one at Kentucky Downsracetrack.

In his follow-up to History of Old Friends, Rick Capone revisits the unforgettable history of this horse retirement home.

Children's Hospital Boston is one of the oldest, most distinguished pediatric medical centers in the world.

It grew from a modest beginning in 1869, in a single Boston brick house, to become a major pediatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For well over a century, this hospital has been a pioneer in providing healthcare for children, performing research in childhood and adult diseases, and training future leaders in medicine and surgery. Children's Hospital Boston presents a visual tour of the history and development of this institution. Simultaneously, this book reflects the history of pediatrics in America.

Stories of Courage and Care in the Face of Injustice

Within the confines of detention centers in their own country, Japanese Americans who practiced medicine worked under the most dire conditions during World War II. Collected by a special team organized by the Japanese American Medical Association, these oral histories tell the stories of men and women who depended on ingenuity and compassion to care for their patients in remote makeshift hospitals. In this updated edition, the lives of incarcerated Japanese American medical professionals who endured the wound of a nation's betrayal reveal the triumph of community and care amid hardship.

Discover the Original American Home Health Guide

A guide to home health from Lydia Maria Child, one of the nineteenth century’s most popular domestic advisors and ardent feminists. Mrs. Child’s down-to-earth advice to pre-Civil War families stands as an American classic of home health care.

The Legacy of Nursing at Albany Medical Center follows nursing from the age of strict curfews and required nursing uniforms to the modern era of greater nursing freedom and responsibility. As nursing practice evolved, so did attire. Hats, gloves, high collars, caps, and ankle-length dresses gave way to above-the-knee hemlines, pantsuits, scrubs, and bare heads. Among celebrated Albany graduates are Anne Strong (class of 1906), inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame, and Nancy Cameron (class of 1900), decorated with the Royal Red Cross and received by Queen Alexandra during World War I.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia started thanks to a heroic doctor's inspiration, was the first of its kind and still impacts children's lives today.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia opened its doors in 1855 amidst a turbulent time in the city. Dr. Francis West Lewis, a prominent Philadelphia physician, was deeply disturbed by the appallingly high mortality rate among infants and children in his city, a result of the poor sanitary conditions in the urban slums that arose in great numbers during the Industrial Revolution. After visiting London for the opening of Great Ormond Street Hospital, Dr. Lewis was inspired to open the first children's hospital in the United States in Philadelphia and advertised in the Public Ledger, Reception of children suffering from acute diseases and accidents will be received free of charge. The Children's Hospital continued to prosper and lead the advancement of children's health by creating many of the nation's first pediatric training programs and leading in the discovery of vaccines, lifesaving medical equipment, and pioneering treatments. Today, the hospital enjoys international recognition and continues to contribute to the advancement of children's health through a three-part mission of patient care, education, and research.

Rare and vintage photographs depict the interesting and tragic history of the Essex Mountain Sanatorium.

Founded in 1907 amidst protests and a burgeoning suffrage movement, Essex Mountain Sanatorium was the result of two Montclair, New Jersey, women who successfully lobbied local government to establish a tuberculosis sanatorium in a then vacant cottage for wayward girls. From these humble beginnings, the hospital grew to become one of the finest treatment centers in the nation, expanding into a complex of 20 buildings that encompassed nearly 300 acres. Ironically, medical advances pioneered at places such as the sanatorium and the advent of antitubercular drugs in the years following World War II led to decreasing patient enrollment, which made such large facilities unnecessary. When it was eventually abandoned in the early 1980s, the hospital began its second act as a haven for urban explorers, vandals, and arsonists, becoming shrouded in mystery and the source of local legends and myths. After suffering years of neglect and abuse, the main complex would finally fall to wreckers in 1993, ending an important era in county, state, and national history.

Over one hundred vintage photographs document the successful execution of the Nemours Foundation’s goal to create a holistic approach to pediatric health that has since grown into a multi-state hospital system.

In 1935, American industrialist Alfred I. duPont sparked what would become a model of pediatric medical and research excellence. With an endowed trust, his widow, Jessie Ball duPont, established the Nemours Foundation. In 1940, the foundation opened the Alfred I. duPont Institute, a small pediatric orthopedic hospital on the duPont estate in Wilmington, Delaware. Today, duPont’s legacy lives on at Nemours Children’s Health, the nation’s only multistate pediatric health care network. With two children’s hospitals in Delaware and Florida, nearly 100 pediatric care locations, an office of policy and prevention in Washington, DC, and award-winning patient education initiatives such as KidsHealth.org, Nemours has touched the lives of millions worldwide.

R. Lawrence Moss, MD, FACS, FAAP, is president and chief executive officer of Nemours Children’s Health. He is a pediatric surgeon, biomedical researcher, and educator. The images in this book have been collected, preserved, and archived by the staff of Nemours Estate and Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children.

Explore the delightful history of Rochester

Best known for the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, Rochester's rich history holds so much more beyond medical excellence. But why was the world's greatest medical center built virtually in the middle of a corn field in the first place? What happened to the Native Americans in the area? Were there ever bears in Bear Creek? Why are there so many geese at Silver Lake, and how did the Zumbro River get its name? What do the extinction of the dinosaurs and the passenger pigeon have to do with Rochester?

Retired Mayo Clinic doctor and Rochester native Paul Scanlon answers these questions and more in this collection of historic tales from Med City.

From combating infant mortality to working on the front lines during the AIDS epidemic, this is a tale of Maine's heroic nurses throughout history.

Maine nurses have served tirelessly as caregivers and partners in healing at home and abroad, from hospitals to battlefields. The Division of Public Health Nursing and Child Hygiene was established in 1920 to combat high rates of infant mortality in Washington and Aroostook Counties. During the Vietnam War, Maine nurses helped build the Twelfth Evacuation Hospital at Cu Chi and bravely assisted surgeries in the midst of fighting. In the early 1980s, nurse disease prevention educators in Portland rose to the challenge of combating the growing AIDS epidemic. Through historical anecdotes and fascinating oral histories, discover the remarkable sacrifices and achievements of Maine's nurses.