Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "2661136",
    "label": "Bowman, Josephine B.",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2661136"
}

{
    "id": "2661136",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2661136",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Bowman, Josephine B.",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2661136",
    "collections": [
        "Records of the American National Red Cross",
        "Historical Nurse Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/partnerships/40033/0001/DCD00067/40033_1521003240_0546/40033_1521003240_0546-00981.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/partnerships/40033/0001/DCD00067/40033_1521003240_0546/40033_1521003240_0546-00981.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/partnerships/40033/0001/DCD00067/40033_1521003240_0546/40033_1521003240_0546-00981.jpg",
    "imageCount": 151,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2661136",
    "naId": 2661136,
    "coverageEndDate": {
        "day": 26,
        "logicalDate": "1945-08-26",
        "month": 8,
        "year": 1945
    },
    "coverageStartDate": {
        "day": 1,
        "logicalDate": "1908-10-01",
        "month": 10,
        "year": 1908
    },
    "levelOfDescription": "fileUnit",
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 44,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/partnerships/40033/0001/DCD00067/40033_1521003240_0546/40033_1521003240_0546-01024.jpg",
    "mediaId": "a63cb130e0d4d146",
    "ocrText": "DO NOT ADDRESS THE SIGNER OF THIS LETTER\nBUT ADDRESS YOUR REPLY TO\nBUREAU OF MEDICINE AND SURGERY\nNAVY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D.C.\n*\n10\nAND\nREFER TO No. (OG)\nton\nmemoral\nMEDICINE\nWilliam\nJune 8, 1929.\nN:CGA\nWASHINGTON, D.C.\nMy dear Miss Noyes:\nReplying to your letter of June seventh\nI think it is best to give you my frank opinion on the\nsubject of Service nurses and their Red Cross affiliation.\nB\nOf course, my opinion is in no way binding, nor does it\ndefinitely decide the issue. If I am wrong, I am perfect-\nly willing to adjust my thoughts on the subject, but I\nhave always felt that Army, Navy and Red Cross nurses are\nall Service nurses, the two former being the active bran-\nches and the latter the reserve. I do not think the dis-\ntinct line should be drawn as it has been in the past by\nthe Red Cross giving the country the impression tha the\nRed Cross nurses were the distinguished members and re-\nducing the Army and Navy to secondary places. Of course,\nI realize it is your propaganda, still the Army and Navy\nare the principal Services, and, in some way, the people\nof the United States should be made to feel it. Nurses\nhave said to me \"Why is it necessary for me to be enrolled\nin the Red Cross when I am in active Service\"? This\nquestion I have answered by saying\"it is not necessary\nas you are in the Service.\nPersonally, I think your report should\nin some way be adjusted to rectify this attitude and not\nmake so prominent a line of distinction as now exists.\nMy feeling in the matter is to sum it up.\nThere are 488 nurses in the Navy today on active duty.\nI do not think you should refer to them as Red Cross\nnurses in any way at all) Nurses on disaster, relief\nwork or any other than that covered by the Red Cross\nCharter, which is a secondary nature to the Army and\nNavy, can be readily termed Red Cross nurses, but it\nis our interpretation that one of the paramount duties\nof the Red Cross is to supply nurses for the Army and\nNavy when they are needed, and therefore these two Ser-\nvices should be held uppermost in the eyes of the pub-\nlic.\n2"
}