5. The Reber Case, 24 February 1921-04 March

File — Box: 1, Folder: 5

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: This collection of records of the Committee on the Directory for Nurses of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, spanning 1881 to 1936, consists of correspondence, annual reports, financial records, committee reports and recommendations, and miscellaneous material. The correspondence traces the establishment of the directory and documents several controversies, including the 1882 case of S. H. Pine (a janitor living in the College who refused to vacate his quarters without financial compensation), and the 1900 protest against the Philadelphia Nurse Supply Association, an establishment that was certifying unqualified nurses. Other controversies include the 1921 case of Mirian G. Reber, a nurse who had "trouble with the Directory for Nurses'', and the controversy between the Committee on the Directory for Nurses and the Hall Committee concerning the use of one of the rooms in the College. Correspondents include William W. Keen, Wharton Sinkler, Thomas G. Ashton, and Frederick Fraley, all of whom served as chairmen of the Committee on the Directory for Nurses.

The committee reports and recommendations in the collection document the official College policies concerning the establishment and eventual discontinuation of the Directory for Nurses. Also of note are some of the miscellaneous items, including samples of nurse registration and report forms (from the 1880s), the text of an address delivered by William J. Taylor on the 50th anniversary of the directory, and a typescript of Frederick Fraley's article on the history of the Directory for Nurses which appeared in Transactions of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia 1n 1936.

Also included in the miscellaneous material are two documents relating to the 1918 influenza epidemic. One of these items reveals that during a one month period, the directory received 2,955 calls for nurses, out of which only 197 were filled. Also of special interest are two pages of S. Weir Mitchell's holograph notes relating to the establishment of a nurses directory. These notes were probably written in response to a letter[s] from Edwin H. Brigham, the registrar of the Directory for Nurses of the Boston Medical Library Association, who had provided Mitchell with information about the workings of the Boston directory.