(Jewish Group) Jewish American History (National Nurses' Week): Lillian D. Wald
Lillian D. Wald was a nurse, social worker, public health official, teacher, author, editor, publisher, woman’s rights activist, and the founder of American community nursing. Her unselfish devotion to humanity is recognized around the world and her visionary programs have been widely copied everywhere.
She was born on March 10, 1867, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the third of four children born to Max and Minnie Schwartz Wald. The Walds and Schwarzes descended from rabbis and merchants in Germany and Poland, both families having left Europe after the Revolutions of 1848 to seek economic opportunity. Max Wald prospered as a successful optical goods dealer, first in Cincinnati, then in Dayton, and finally in 1878, settling in Rochester, New York, which Lillian Wald considered her hometown. Wald recalled her mother, who married at sixteen, as friendly, warm, and kind; Max Wald was distant, practical, and quiet. The family home overflowed with books and music, and Wald recalled fondly the indulgence of her Grandfather Schwarz, himself a successful merchant, who told her stories and often brought the children presents.
Lillian Wald received no Jewish education and was raised in a liberal Jewish atmosphere. Wald received her education at Miss Cruttenden’s English/French Boarding and Day School in Rochester. Demonstrating great skills in languages the arts, math, and science, she applied to Vassar College at age sixteen but was refused because of her age. Wald continued in her studies and led an active social life. Wald decided to travel, and for six years she toured the globe and during this time she worked briefly as a newspaper reporter. In 1889, she met a young nurse who impressed Wald so much that she decided to study nursing at New York City Hospital training school. She graduated and, at the age of 22, entered Women’s Medical College studying to become a doctor. She worked at the New York Juvenile Asylum and helped with a class about home nursing for poor immigrant families in New York’s Lower East Side.
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