Women Served as Nurses during World War I

Staff Person: Nanette Hardison
Collection: Sarah Bunn Collection, #1277
Nurses cape from World War I

On Veterans’ Day, it’s important to recognize the many women who broke barriers serving in the military. Some 21,498 women enlisted and served in the U.S. Army as nurses during World War I. They were stationed in military hospitals in the United States and overseas. They were positioned near battlefields where they tended to over a million soldiers who were wounded or who were unwell. Among this number were African American Army nurses who were stationed stateside caring for German prisoners of war (POWs) and African American soldiers.

The image shown above is believed to be a cape from an Army nurse’s uniform. It belonged to Mary Powell Speight who served in the Army Nurse Corps during World War I. The photo is from the Sarah Bunn Collection. Bunn was a relative of Speight, who would herself go on to become a nurse and join the Army Nurse Corps in March 1941, during World War II.

Sources:

Sara Bunn Collection (Manuscript Collection #1277) Finding Aid (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/1277?q=Sara%20Bunn)

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_in_World_War_I