Iva Louise Hartman, the first superintendent of Pinehurst Sanatorium in Janesville, Wisconsin, was born in Port Huron, Michigan in 1892. Her father Daniel was a railroad employee but little other information about her family is available. As a young girl Iva Hartman contracted tuberculosis and was sent to a sanatorium in Texas to recover. She attended high school at the Preparatory Department of Texas Christian University and eventually decided to become a tuberculosis nurse. She trained at the Trudeau Sanatorium in Saranac Lake, New York, which at that time, the early 1920's, was pioneering effort in the care and cure of tuberculosis. From Trudeau she went to Bellevue Hospital in New York City where she was a head nurse from 1923 to 1925 and supervisor of its tuberculosis service from 1925 to 1929.
In 1929 Miss Hartman came to Janesville as the first superintendent of the new Rock County tuberculosis sanatorium, Pinehurst. She shepherded Pinehurst through the Depression and World War II, enlisting help from the community, ex-patients, and staff to keep the sanatorium running through difficult times. Pinehurst offered social service assistance and rehabilitation facilities to its patients and out-patient clinics for Rock County residents. Hartman was active in educating the community about tuberculosis through workshops at Pinehurst and talks to many local groups and clubs.
Hartman's professional activities were wide-ranging. Among others, she held membership in the American College of Hospital Administrators; Wisconsin Hospital Association; Tri-State Sanatorium Superintendents Association; Wisconsin Nurses Association; and was president of the Wisconsin Sanatorium Superintendents Association during the 1940's. Her activities in tuberculosis associations included assistance in organizing a Rock County Tuberculosis Association, and membership in the Wisconsin Anti-Tuberculosis Association. In 1959, after 30 years of administering Pinehurst Sanatorium, Iva Hartman retired. She remained active, however, in volunteer and publicity work in the fight against tuberculosis.
Iva Hartman never married. She died in 1975.
