Early years — from Pennsylvania to Nebraska and Chicago,
from teaching to nursing
In 1880, at age twenty-one, Harriet lived in Plattsmouth, Nebraska with her aunt while teaching
school.▼3 It appears she lost her teaching position in January of 1892 and
ran advertisements offering private classes in English and kindergarten. The Unemployment
program on which we depend today would not come into existence for another forty years when
Harriet, by then thirty-five, found herself without an income. She spent that summer living with
her mother, Emma.
By 1896 Harriet was living in Chicago and following the path of most nurses of the era. She
underwent a three-year nurse training course at St. Luke Hospital, then became a nurse in a
private home. As part of her training, she worked with Dr. John Owens, medical director at
the 1893 Columbian Exposition. She liked the hospital work with Dr. Owens, didn't care for
private home nursing. Harriet's strength was as an administrator and organizer. She next
worked as a district nurse for the Visiting Nurses Association (VNA). After two years, in 1901,
she was promoted to superintendent of her former coworkers, becoming the second superintendent
of Chicago's VNA chapter, a position she held until 1911.
Networking with purpose
A year after the Iroquois fire Harriet could be found participating in a charity
bazaar benefitting the linen room at St. Luke's hospital. The project was
spearheaded by prominent society matrons such as Mrs. Pullman, Mrs. Ogden Armour,
Mrs. Marshall Field Jr, and Mrs. Honore Palmer. Such women had founded Chicago's
branch of the the Visiting Nurse Association in 1897 and since 1901 Harriet had been the
second staff superintendent. She seems to have moved as comfortably amidst the
wealthy as the poor. An associate of many years described Harriet's extraordinary
lack of self indulgence; no concerts or entertainment for her own enjoyment. In
my attempt to learn more about her I was struck by the absence of self in her
public remarks. She did not refer to herself, her work, her past, her family. No
personal anecdotes that would have revealed her personality.
That said, Harriet was not at all a shrinking violet, clearly recognizing the
effectiveness of promotion. She spoke to groups large and small, and kept her
causes in the public eye via newspaper press releases. On at least one occasion
she demonstrated a flare for showmanship. For her growing troop of visiting
nurses, walking from one assignment to the next was time consuming. Harriet knew
automobiles were the solution and set out to prove it to the people with the funds to
purchase them. To produce statistical evidence of her nurses' tireless effort, Harriet
equipped them with ankle bracelet pedometers. When the anticipated naysayers disputed
Harriet's statistics, the nurses demurely raised the hems of their ankle-length skirts to
reveal their ankle bracelets. She got the cars.
My sense is that Harriet Fulmer was a dogged pragmatist and built her network of associations to
accomplish her objectives. Society matrons, through their family fortunes, provided the funding
and access to power Harriet needed to accomplish her many goals.
|
|
Causes championed by Harriet Fulmer (with
more highlighted in an 1988 nursing biographical collection)
-
Expanding the services of Visiting Nurses. In 1903 Harriet's staff of seventeen
visiting nurses treated 7,252 patients in Chicago.
-
Improving medical care in rural areas. In 1917 Harriet
became director of the Cook County Rural Health Nursing Service.
-
Supporting St. Luke's Hospital. Harriet headed the alumni association
and joined in to help such fund fund raisers as the doll sales pictured above.
-
Broadening scope of nursing in the community. She campaigned for medical
exams of students during summer months as a way to reduce some of the health
problems that flourished in the fall. She promoted the benefit of nurses presence in industrial environments and schools, and of manning infant welfare stations.
Ten days after the Iroquois fire Harriet addressed the Business Women's Club to successfully
persuade them that training for the city's nurses should include visits to poor districts.
The women in turn put pressure where needed and hospital superintendents agreed. In 1908 Harriet
joined with social activists John Spargo and Jane Addams of Hull House, and Herman Spalding of the
Chicago health department, to urge the city to hire school nurses to help combat malnutrition among school age children.
▼2
-
Advancing the profession of nursing by promoting training and licensing.
One of her many successes in this area was formation of the Illinois State Association of Graduate
Nurses. Harriet served as the organization's first president. She also headed the
Illinois League of Nursing, served as vice president of the American Nurses Association, and co-founded
the American Journal of Nursing
-
Advocating for public health and better conditions for the poor.
Harriet's projects included helping to develop a program to provide
infants with pasteurized milk to combat tuberculosis. She served as a board member of the Chicago
Tuberculosis Institute and Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium. She also urged policy makers to
take measures to raise the standard of housing as an important step in reducing disease. In 1902
and 1908 She was appointed by Chicago's mayors and Illinois governors as a delegate to an annual
Charities Conference.
Return to Pike County
Harriet was buried in the Fulmer family plot with her parents in Milford
Cemetery, Milford, Pike County, Pennsylvania where her parents lived at the
end of her father's life. Milford's population then, around a thousand
people, was about the same as it is today. Her grave marker cites her
birth year as 1863. With her parents and siblings deceased, Harriet's
niece's and nephews relied on their best guesses.
They didn't have access to the 1860 U.S. Census that reported Harriet's birth as December of 1859.
|