Elizabeth Alice Pitcher Jones (1922-1997) Papers
Scope and Contents
The collection is comprised of two series.
Series I, Correspondence, 1940-1943 (bulk, 1941-1942), consists of correspondence sent by Elizabeth Alice Pitcher to her father, W. Lester Pitcher; stepmother, Allura E. Pitcher; and brother, Warren E. “Bud” Pitcher, in Camden, Maine. The only exceptions being two letters from one of Betty’s young patients, ‘Jimmy,’ sent when she was sick for several days. Betty’s letters recount her life at the Nursing School including the rigorous schedule, classes, tests and quizzes, being on the wards, and life with her fellow students. She frequently requests items from home, especially in her first year in Boston.
She notes when friends and family visit her in Boston, especially her brother “Bud” who enlisted in the Navy and was at a training station in Rhode Island as of late 1941. She writes of moments when she is able to venture away from the school to shop (Filene’s Basement, Jordan Marsh), see concerts or movies, visit local cultural attractions (Harvard’s museum, Museum of Fine Arts), or go to church.
She describes a number of patients put under her care, both in terms of their ailments and behavior, and frequently enumerates cases she has witnessed: polio, scarlet fever outbreaks in the hospital, bone transplant, omphalocele, tracheotomies, asthma, diabetes, viral pneumonia, and other maladies. She notes her rotations through the wards, from surgical, orthopedics, isolation, and the ‘Diet Kitchen,’ to short stints in adult wards at Brigham Hospital.
The letters are an excellent source of cultural history as Betty mentions people, places, events, and bits of popular culture. One letter’s postscript relays that she watched U.S. presidential hopeful Wendell L. Wilkie parade past the school during his campaign tour in 1940. She states that Wilkie looked directly at her and waved.
One item of interest is a letter sent with a bulletin on air raid procedures for students and staff from December 1941. The impact of the war is evident in other letters, such as one that mentions the abandonment of plans to build a new facility for the hospital. Betty occasionally notes that more and more doctors and nurses leaving for service posts, and ponders nursing in the Army or Navy after graduation (though she does not go through with this plan). Her final letter home is sent just before graduation from the Boston Children’s Nursing School.
Series II, Printed Material, 2013, contains a bound volume made up of scanned images of all the letters with additional images drawn from the collections of Boston Children’s Hospital Archives and those of the donor’s family. It contains biographical notes and several scanned news clippings.
Dates
- 1940-2013
- Majority of material found within 1941-1942
Access
The collection is unrestricted.
Copyright and Use
Request for permission to publish material from the collection should be discussed with the hospital archivist.
Biographical Note
Elizabeth “Betty” Alice Pitcher (1922-1997) was born and grew up in Camden, Maine during the Great Depression. Her father, Warren Lester Pitcher (1901-1999), was a mill worker and later foreman. Her mother, Lois Webster Pitcher (1902-1931), was a nurse, but died in 1931 when Betty was nine years old. Her younger brother by eighteen months, Warren Edgar “Bud” Pitcher (1924-1959), completed the family. After Lois’ death, Lester remarried another nurse, Allura Eastman (1905-1993), in 1932. Both Lois and Allura had held the position of visiting nurse in Camden, supplying most of the primary care for the region in those days. Betty was also very close to her parental grandparents, Warren and Alice Pitcher, who lived at Lincolnville Beach, Maine.
Betty was an excellent student through high school and very much wanted to attend college. Her father, however, felt that sending a girl to college was a waste of money. Probably with Allura’s intervention, Lester was persuaded that Betty could attend nursing school with the idea that when she graduated she would return to Camden to assist Allura as visiting nurse and eventually take over that position. It is unknown why the prestigious Boston Children’s Nursing School was chosen, but Betty did have an uncle and aunt (Lloyd and Helen Pitcher) living in the Worcester, Massachusetts area.
Betty had just turned eighteen when she left for nursing school in September 1940. As is evident in the collection’s correspondence, money was tight and war was eminent. The letters reflect the thoughts, both mundane and large, of a young woman just starting out in life.
Betty met Robert Clark Jones, a Harvard Medical School student, while at the Nursing School and they were engaged in 1943. They were married in January 1944. She followed him to New York City and eventually Tennessee. She did not return to her hometown of Camden, Maine except for the occasional visit.
Extent
0.3 Linear Feet (0.3 cartons)
Language of Materials
English
Acquisition
The Elizabeth Alice Pitcher Jones Papers were given to the hospital archives in January 2014 by her husband, Robert Clark Jones, of Kingsport, Tennessee.
- Title
- ELIZABETH ALICE PITCHER JONES (1922-1997)
- Subtitle
- Papers, 1940–2013 (bulk, 1941-1942)
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Rebecca M. Fullerton, Archivist
- Date
- March 2014
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Boston Children’s Hospital Archives Repository
300 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA 02115
Boston MA 02115 United States
(617) 355-5286
archives@childrens.harvard.edu