Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Anna Tittm
Q. I was going to ask you how receptive mst of the doct
have been.
A. That was &ly what I remmber except that on the Boqton Floating
Hospital we had to wear aprons that cane f?om our neck dm, clear down
and.. .
Q. Down to the floor? J
A. No, well, down to the bottom of our skirts. And we disposed of that
[apron] before we left the wards. I man as we were leabg the wd. We
didnl t carry .any germs horn. The superintendent of nurse$, a mss Clara
Noyes, would corn and inpsect sonetims. She later becan& the director
of the Red Cross Nursing Service in Washington, following the death of Miss
Jane Delano, who was our angel; beautiful woman to look a$, too. She spied
this apmn and she said, "That isn't a uniform here. " I' said, 'Well, it's
good when you're bathing a bay on the table, theret s so much splaghing and
so on. So it turned out that they got that kind of apron for (lau ter)
Bellevue in the childrenls wmd.
@P
Q. What was your uniform like on the Boston Floating Hospital?
a
A. Well, we wore our regular uniforms except that our cap covered ur hair
entirely. And it was like a Httle Plymuth &dents cap1 tied with a bow
under her chin, white, washable, imnable and so forth. hen we ha these
aprons that covered ow-well, it didnl t cover our sleeve@.
Q. Were they white?
A. Yes, white, and they were tied, no buttons, no buttor@oles, but they
were tied with little tapes just like these hospital ni&&pms somtims
are.
Q. What were your uniforms made out of?
A. Well, I wore white uniforms after I was a graduate but tqey liked
you to wear your school uniform. school uniform was blue and
white, about, oh I'd say a quarter of an inch, I guess.
quarter of an inch.
Q. Dark blue and white?
A. Yes, it was a nice blue and it faded. (laughter) always dark.
Then when we graduated, we had the wh&te uniform. You black velvet
ribbon around your cap when you're a gaduate. You
youlm a student. Now they have a different cap in
Memrial. [hospital] But we liked those little
llline especially. Our hours were kind of long
Hospital and at Bellevue; they didn't have
At one time in rrly life in New York, I was
the nurses state association. It gave rw an opportunity to do quit
little-I dontt know what I was going to tell you now.