Women in History: Jane Arminda Delano, Organizer of the American Nurses Association

When Philippe De La Noye got off the ship, Fortune at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621, he had no way of knowing that one of his descendants would become president of the United States. His name was anglicized to Delano and he was an ancestor of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

He was also an ancestor of Jane Arminda Delano who left her own legacy to the world.

Delano was born March 13, 1862. She graduated from Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing and hit the ground running. She treated yellow fever patients in Florida and typhoid patients at an Arizona copper mine.

She was a Red Cross volunteer in the Spanish-American war of 1898 shortly after it was formed by Clara Barton, She worked as secretary for the enrollment of nurses. She was named superintendent of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1909.

She organized the Red Cross Town and Country Nursing Service which provided medical care to rural areas. It was later named the National Red Cross Public Health Nursing Service. She was named President of the American Nurses Association and later the Chair of the National Committee of Red Cross Nursing Service.

She contributed to the health textbook "American Red Cross Textbook on Elementary Hygiene and Home" (P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1913).

With World War I looming on the horizon, Delano had a vision: to create a nursing service large enough and strong enough to help in the war effort.

So Delano merged the American Nurses Association, the Army Nurse Corps and the American Red Cross to form the American Nurses Association. The nurses in this association would provide emergency response teams for disaster relief.

Delano was dedicated to increasing nurse participation in the nursing service. She traveled around the country, lecturing, speaking at nursing schools to recruit and encourage nurses to participate in the association as well as to encourage them in the recruitment process itself.

Prior to World War I, over 8,000 registered nurses were trained and ready for duty. During the course of World War I, over 20,000 of Delano's nurses played vital roles in the U.S. military.

Delano visited France after the war to inspect wartime hospitals. While in France, she fell ill and needed surgery. She died shortly after on April 15, 1919 and was buried in an American military cemetery in France until her body was returned to the states. She was reburied in the Nurses' Corner of Arlington Cemetery. A bronze memorial honoring Delano and the 296 nurses who lost their lives during World War I overlooks the Nurses' Corner.

Delano was awarded the gold Red Cross Distinguished Service Medal after her death. The Jane Delano Society Scholarship fund was formed in 2001 by the American Red Cross in memory of Jane Delano.