1945
Women's Infirmary

Bucknell Cottage

Prior to 1916, the matrons cared for sick women in their rooms in the Female Institute. After the Institute ceased to exist in 1916, this arrangement continued for a short period of time in the Women’s College. After 1920, to provide better medical care the university established an infirmary for women.

“[T]he women’s infirmary grew from the small beginning of three beds and a trained nurse to an intermediate stage in which there were six beds, supervised by a trained nurse and a student assistant...

By 1931, a “newly-remodeled, well equipped infirmary” had been established in Bucknell Cottage. A description of the infirmary appeared in Memorials of Bucknell University 1919-1931.

With the Ziegler Memorial Infirmary for men, and practically no corresponding provision for the women, there appeared to be a lack of balance. Therefore, during the summer of 1930, a considerable portion of the first floor of the Bucknell cottage, often called the Annex to Larison Hall, was remodeled, and adequate quarters provided for caring for the physical welfare of the college women.

The section contain[ed] a room used as a dispensary, two good-sized wards, with separate bathrooms for each, and a nurse’s room with bathroom and outside entrance to be used in case of contagious disease. The infirmary [was] under the supervision of the resident physician at the Ziegler Memorial Infirmary, but maintain[ed] its own staff of nurses.

In 1931, there were two nurses in the Women’s Infirmary. The general ward contained five beds and the isolation ward contained two beds. This situation remained essentially the same in 1945 when the infirmary was under supervision of Dr. Fowle, who was the College Physician, but it still had its own staff of nurses. The two “trained nurses” were in charge of the infirmary, which contained “...adequate equipment for general medical care.”

"[T]he women's infirmary grew..." MBU '19-'31, p. 131

"a newly-remodeled..." ib.

"With the Ziegler Memorial..." and the next indented paragraph, ib., p. 110

"trained nurses" and "adequate equipment..." CAT '44-'45, p. 28

The major sources for the information on this page are Memorials of Bucknell University, 1919-1931 (MBU '19-'31) and the Bucknell University Bulletin, Catalogue Issue, Ninety-Ninth Year, 1944-1945 (CAT '44-'45) .