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This small collection has five series: School of Nursing records, the Alumnae Association records, Alumnae Papers, Artifacts and Photographs. The School of Nursing series is 14 folders of basic information about the School, the highlights of which are the annual announcements catalogs (folders 2-5) outlining the entrance requirements and the curriculum, and the Triennium, the class yearbooks for 1951, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1968, 1973, and 1974. The proposal by the New York Infant Asylum to provide obstetric training is also of note as it provides a detailed list of areas of instruction for 1895 (folder 9). Student transcripts from 1941-1974 are also included in this collection; please see note under that series for details.

Significant records in The Alumnae Association series are the annual reports for the Association and a nearly complete run of the Association’s Bulletin, providing news of its members and of the Hospital. (Note that a number of annual reports are published in particular Bulletin issues, which are clearly noted in the container list. Also note that an appendix listing all of the Bulletins in the collection, along with a list of all the directresses, can be found at https://archives.mssm.edu/downloads/aa149.pdf) Also of significance are the three volumes of Alumnae Rosters, the first of which contains a short history of the School. These books and the two volumes of the Alumnae Association annual reports are behind all the folders in box 2. Photographs of Alumnae are also included in the collection; however, they are filed in the larger St. Luke’s Hospital series of the Photograph Collection. A scrapbook of snap shots of student nurses around 1953-1955 is also found in the artifacts.

The Alumnae Papers consists of materials donated by the School’s graduates and may include bulletins, pamphlets, yearbooks, artifacts such as uniforms or graduate pins, invitations and other materials. This series is arranged by donation date.

Artifacts include a complete student nurse’s uniform, with its distinctive wool cape and the School's graduate pin.

This series includes a student nurse's uniform, which includes a blouse and skirt in the St. Luke's blue and white plaid, two aprons, bibs, collars, cuffs, and extra buttons worn by Miss Gertrude Currier Kilburn. It also includes a WWII-era blue wool Nurse's Cape, with the initials "K.E.P." sewn into the collar, and another belonging to Doris Hachenberger, Class of 1955..

These files provide a very incomplete record of the activities of the Director's Office. Many important events that took place during these years are either not noted or under-represented. The establishment of the Consultation Service for patients of moderate means, the Nursing Service, the erection of the Semi-Private Pavilion in 1931 (later named the Housman Pavilion), the emergence of the Associated Hospital Service (1935, later known as Blue Cross and Blue Shield), the affiliation with the Neustadter Convalescent Home (1936), the effects of the Depression on the Hospital, and the beginnings of the Greater Mount Sinai fundraising campaign are but a few events that are underrepresented.

The obvious explanation for these gaps in the record is that the files were destroyed. Another factor, not at first apparent, is the creation of a Historian's Office and an unofficial Hospital archives during Dr. Turner's years. (See Box 2, f.8 and f.9 and the Historian's files in the Archives.) The creation of this office was very much at the instigation of Dr. Turner, and his interest in the development of the archives led him to send important memos and letters to the Historian for inclusion in the archives' files. Still, this accounts for only a small number of documents and the rest must be presumed lost.

The documentation remaining in the collection is still of much value. The files are composed of three types of records: memos to Trustees, memos to staff and physicians, and correspondence with outside persons or agencies who had written to the Director for advice or information. It is possible from these files to develop a sense of Dr. Turner as a Director: his strict adherence to the rules, his strong sense of fairness, his love of history, his admiration for Dr. Goldwater and his principals of hospital administration, and his close attention to detail. The latter also suggests a time when the institution was small enough for the Director to deal with many routine matters himself. The collection also includes some records from Dr. Turner's predecessor, Dr. S. S. Goldwater.

There are important glimpses of the role and extent of the involvement the Trustees had in the day-to-day affairs of the Hospital, the establishment of the Psychiatry Ward, and the various re-organization plans suggested for the Hospital over the years.

A special strength of this collection is the many files relating to Mount Sinai during World War II (Box 4 and Box 5). There are folders with memos regarding the running of the Hospital during the War, as well as correspondence with Dr. Herman Lande and Ruth Chamberlin, RN who headed the Mount Sinai unit, the Third General Hospital. Their letters describe Europe during the War, the work of the unit, and the Mount Sinai staff members who served. Also of note here are the Trustees' Informational Bulletins that were sent to the Trustees during 1943-45, keeping them up to date on events at Mount Sinai.

Dr. Turner, former Director of Mount Sinai Hospital, mentions his early years of school and medical training, his experiences in the Army and how he came to work at Mount Sinai Hospital. He describes his working relationships with Dr. Goldwater and Mr. Blumenthal, mentioning facts of their work habits and personalities; he also comments on the same for A.A. Berg, A.V. Moschcowitz, Eli Moschcowitz, and Edwin Beer. He makes interesting observations on levels of service for private, semi-private and wards, and for the working situations of non-medical staff in the early to mid-20th century. The interview concludes with a discussion about his hobbies, particularly photography.

This is a recording of a conversation between John Garlock, MD and Ralph Colp, MD circa 1946. In this recording they discuss a conversation Colp had with Frank Lahey regarding why Garlock was not yet a member of the American Surgical Association or taken into the American Gastroenterological Association. They also discuss why Colp has not proposed Garlock to the American Surgical association. Colp mentions cases and examples that have led him to doubt Garlock's intellectual honesty. Garlock defends himself and explains why Colp’s statements have unsettled him. Together they dispute these instances and determine that once Garlock shows Colp that he did in fact report a case in which he attached the wrong loop of ileum to the bowel at a surgical conference then they would go together to talk to Frank Lahey and let him arbitrate.

This is a photographic scrapbook of life during basic training at Camp Rucker, Alabama, created by Dr. Ralph Moloshok, a member of the unit and a pediatrician on staff at The Mount Sinai Hospital. The unit was primarily composed of doctors and nurses from the Hospital as well as graduates of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. Ruth Chamberlin, RN was the Chief Nurse of the unit. ..

The files in this collection primarily cover The Mount Sinai Hospital's doctors and nurses stationed at the 3rd General Hospital. Details about Mount Sinai clinicians and staff in active duty stationed at other locations during World War II are found in the publication Grand Rounds: Memos from Mount Sinai Men to their Fellows in the Services. The records cover the time period from 1942 through 1945.

A prominent item in this collection is Ralph Moloshok's unpublished historical account. The manuscript provides a detailed chronicle of Dr. Moloshok's experiences in basic training at Camp Rucker, and his active duty at the 3rd General Hospital in North Africa. The document is approximately 400 pages long. The first 118 pages are written as a journal, with entries appearing almost daily. These entries provide in-depth descriptions of the weeks spent in basic training at Camp Rucker. The second portion of the manuscript details the move to Casablanca, and finally the order to begin duty at the 3rd General Hospital in Tunisia.

The value of this manuscript is not just in its detailed descriptions of people, living conditions and medical military life, it also includes affixed original documents outlining the officers' schedules and basic training routines, anecdotes, illustrations (with no identifiable artist attribution), and photographs from Camp Rucker, Casablanca, Italy and France.

With so much of Mount Sinai's attention and resources turned toward the war effort, the Hospital moved to address the growing interest in information about the men and women in service at the 3rd General Hospital, as well as those assigned to other units in the war. Two members of Mount Sinai's administration, Sol Weiner Ginsburg, MD and Bella Trachtenberg responded by collecting, printing, binding and distributing the letters written by doctors in the war. These quarterly editions, called Grand Rounds: Memos from Mount Sinai Men to their Fellows in the Services, became wildly popular at home and among the soldiers serving abroad and within the United States. The compilation contains World War II letters and letter excerpts from September 1943 through October 1945.

Other important items in this collection are two scrapbooks on the nursing staff's military service during World War II. One was created by the Department of Nursing, the other by the Alumnae Association of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. The scrapbooks include official military and hospital correspondence to and from the nursing staff in the form of letters and memoranda that range from 1942 through 1945. An interesting part of the Dept. of Nursing's scrapbook is the more casual correspondence such as greeting cards, personal notes, marriage and birth announcements, and Victory Mail (V-Mail). The greeting cards are addressed to the unit as well as to individuals. Some of the cards are hand painted. Samples of unused V-mail, intended to send holiday greetings (Mother's Day, Easter, and Christmas), are also included. Other loose items in the scrapbook include programs from amateur performances by the nurses and medical officers, concerts and religious services. The religious programs represent both Christian and Jewish faith observances at the 3rd General Hospital.

Other noteworthy scrapbook items include an original April 13, 1945 issue of Stars and Stripes announcing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death. There are also various newsletters produced by and for the officers. These include issues of BBC News, Stethoscope 3rd General, and The Trooper. Several issues in this sampling are incomplete.

The bound pages of the scrapbook from the Alumnae Association of The Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing contains numerous keepsake items, mementos from various events, and personal and official correspondence to 1st Lt. Ruth Chamberlin, who served as Chief Nurse at the 3rd General Hospital.

In addition to this print material, the collection also includes an audio recording (VM_012) and printed transcript of The Story of Two Hospitals, as recorded by Robert St. John, an NBC war correspondent, in November 1943. There is also film footage related to the 3rd General Hospital that was taken by Dr. Henry Horn, a Mount Sinai staff member who was in the Unit. This includes footage from the Unit starting in North Africa and continuing through France, including a trip to Paris and the Follies Bergère. His wife later gave the film to the Hospital. All six reels of the film were digitized in 2005.

Announcements catalogs describing the nursing program overall, entrance requirements, classes offered, fees, etc.

Three copies of the Certificate of Incorporation and By-Laws of the Alumnae Association of the St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing, with amendments between 1909 and 2001.

(Includes an historical timeline as well as details of the School's philosophy and purpose, administration, finance, instructional personnel, student services, curriculum...)

This materials contains transcripts and related student records from the years 1941-1974, which have been digitized (the originals were destroyed).