Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Anna Tittman
Q. When did you start going to school at Columbia?
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A. Oh, 1921. 1921 to 1923, two yeam I was there.
Q. And your depe would've been in hat?
A. Grganfzation and supervision of public health nwsin I have a special
diplorn for that in addition to my depe diploma. And t is I have here
[says that there was] two mnths of general work at East Harlem Nursing
and Health Service. And that is what they call a health
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ernonstrat&on in
a crowded ma. Our population was mostly Italian and I oak Italiap? in
Columbia.
Q. Oh, you did? So you could speak the language?
A. Well, I could understand the words. I couldn't do sol mch speaking, I
passed it anyway. But that was the purpose. I didn't
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w where I would
be landing. Maybe I would stay on in New York and have assipnent from
the Henry Street Settlemnt. That was a dsiting nurse s mice there, that
was the non-public service where they gaxe bedside care. only contact
with the New York City Health Department was when I was ready for
school nursing.
Q. How did you happen to go to ColWia?
A. Well, I made a study of finding out what the different courses qere hand-
1Fng and we didn't have so many public health nursing couege courses. We
had one at Western Reserve Wversity in Ohio, and we hadithis one at Teachers
College. We didn't have one In Chicago or St. Louis or mything like that.
I don't mrnber whether they had them far%her west or n&, but it was partly
because a very dear f rkd of m e, her mm? was ESS Grant. She was
tralned in her teaching at our Springfield teachersf cowe here which was
headed up by Miss Montgomry.
Q. Now this is the course at the Springfield Hospital?
A. No, this is the teachers course. %e wasn't a nursq,; she was being educated
for a teacher. And she had gone to Colwrbia one wmle ye= toward
getting her depe. This tirfe-she had been there [long] enow to get her
basic degree-then this tim she was starting on her Ph.q. in education per
se . And we talked it over and I decf ded to go when she Tnt.
We lived side by side in Whittier Hall, which was a
on the tea&erls college
quite close. Then she mt a man f'mm
*om Vermont, and he was an educator.
gree. So they didn't mamy until
did. %e is retired. Oh, she
ta&t out on
as well as a good
into a f'ratemity, an educatidn fiaternity. [Kappa Delta Pi] She ww there
the two years. No, they ed before they graduated oq got thefr Ph.D. 's
Anyhow, I stayed on in
2n a job when I got throw with this field