St. Louis has been an important center for public health innovation, especially in nursing. During research into the city’s medical history, the role of nursing in civil war healthcare and the 20th century became evident. Notably, there were Native American army hospitals, early public health campaigns, and the formation of nursing schools during segregation. These institutions illustrate the evolution of medical care and the cultural, racial, and technological dynamics that influenced the nursing profession in the region. The core question arising from this observation is: How has the development of nursing in St. Louis reflected broader cultural, racial, and social transformations in the region from the 19th century onward? This inquiry aims to understand how nurses—particularly women and people of color—managed professionalization, community care, and institutional power in a changing urban environment. This topic is approached from a historical-cultural perspective, considering both marginalized voices and institutional narratives. The viewpoint is guided by an interest in how local histories can challenge national ideas about healthcare progress and how nursing, as a gendered and racialized profession, has influenced and been influenced by the city’s development.

Primary Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 1943 article: “Negro Nurses Graduate from Homer G. Phillips Hospital,” which documents one of the few institutions that trained Black nurses during segregation.

Secondary Source: D’Antonio, Patricia. American Nursing: A History of Knowledge, Authority, and the Meaning of Work (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010). This book situates nursing within broader social and institutional structures, helping frame St. Louis within a national narrative.

StoryMapJS, an interactive storytelling tool, is proposed to visualize the evolution of nursing in St. Louis. The map will include key locations and institutions, such as Native American army hospitals, early Black nursing schools, and postwar medical centers, with archival photos, news clippings, and short narratives to explore how nursing evolved alongside regional social change. This format allows engagement with the historical development both spatially and narratively, showing how place, race, and care intersected in St. Louis’s past.