Summary Information
Aurel Baker Pardee Papers
1910-1949
- Pardee, Aurel Baker, 1886-1962
Mss 155
0.4 c.f. (1 archives box and 1 oversize folder)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Correspondence, diaries, and miscellaneous papers of Aurel Baker Pardee, a Red Cross, Army, and later public health nurse from Eagle, Wisconsin. Most of the correspondence deals with her nursing career with the Red Cross in Kiev, Russia, in 1915, and with American military hospitals in Vittel and Compeigne, France, 1917-1919. The bulk of the material dates from 1914-1924. Two diaries cover her return trip from Russia via Siberia in the fall of 1915 and her service in France beginning with her voyage to Le Havre from New York in October, 1917, and ending in September, 1918. There is a collection of her examination papers from the Illinois Training School for Nurses, 1911-1912; a Nurse's Case Record, 1913-1914; two humor booklets from World War I; and passports and travel documents.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00155 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Aurel Baker, a Red Cross, army, and later public health nurse, was born in October 1886, in Eagle, Wisconsin, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Duttin Baker. She was a graduate of Whitewater High School and of the Illinois Training School for Nurses, class of 1912. Miss Baker served as a Red Cross volunteer nurse in a Kiev, Russia, army hospital from April 1915 until October 1915 when the hospital was disbanded because of lack of Red Cross funds. She returned to the United States via the Trans-Siberian Railroad, China, Japan, and the Pacific. Miss Baker enlisted in the United States Army Nurses Corps in September 1917. She left the United States the following month and arrived at Vittel, France, in November. She was stationed at American Base Hospital 36 until March 1918, when she was reassigned to a hospital at Compeigne, France. There she experienced several air raids as the German 1918 spring offensive began. In 1919, she returned to Eagle, later married Harold Pardee, and became a public health nurse. Aurel Baker Pardee died in 1962.
Scope and Content Note
The papers cover the years 1910 to 1949, but the bulk of the material dates from 1914 to 1924. Correspondence consists of letters to and from family and friends and a few official letters from the Red Cross containing such travel advice as what to pack when going overseas and instructions on various symptomatic treatments. A letter of February 3, 1916 reviews Miss Baker's service at Kiev. It was written to Mr. Strong, editor of the Elkhorn Independent, who published the letter in that newspaper.
A fairly extensive section of examinations from Miss Baker's student days at the Illinois Training School for Nurses is included under School Records. Of the two diaries, the first consists of a description of a trip to Ohio in 1913 and Miss Baker's trip from Kiev to San Francisco in late 1915 plus some genealogical information about her family. The second diary covers Miss Baker's voyage to France in October 1917 and her stay there through September 1918. This diary has accounts of convoy routine on the North Atlantic; several air raids, including a Zeppelin alert at Le Havre on November 16, 1917; and discussions of patients and of life as an American nurse in wartime France. The Nurse's Case Record, 1913-1914, describes patients and the treatments they received. There are various Passports and Travel Papers--some in Russian, others in English and French. Two booklets of wartime humor--both jokes and cartoons--and a few newspaper clippings about Miss Baker and her friends complete the collection.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Eleanor Normington, Reedsburg, Wisconsin, September 1, 1976. Accession Number: M76-574
Processed by Thomas Reilly and Joanne Hohler, February 1981.
Contents List
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Box
1
Folder
1-2
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Correspondence, 1910, 1913-1924, 1944-1949, undated
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Box
1
Folder
3
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School Records, Illinois Training School for Nurses, 1910-1912
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Box
1
Folder
4
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Diaries, Nurse's Case Record, 1913-1914
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Box
1
Folder
5
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Passports, travel papers, humor booklets, newspaper clippings, circa 1915-1918
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Oversize Folder
1
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Certificates, diplomas, and other oversize documents, 1905-1919
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