Y2901

Great Americans

Mary Breckinridge - Founder of the Frontier Nursing Service

Collins Cover Announcement 

MARY BRECKINRIDGE

In 1925 Mary founded the Frontier Nursing Service in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. She came from a famous family with a grandfather serving as a general in the Civil War and her father being elected to Congress. She graduated in 1910 from St. Luke's Hospital Training School in New York. Going to Europe, she helped organize France's public health nursing services and received additional medical education at the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies in London.

By 1925 she had participated in nursing and midwife services in England, New Zealand, and Australia and decided that she wanted to establish them in America. The people of Appalachia were mostly isolated from the rest of the country due to geographic reasons and a lack of roads. Since this area had a high birth rate and almost nonexistent professional medical care, Mary decided to start her service in Leslie County, Kentucky. A small but dedicated group of nurses had an immediate impact. With few roads, each nurse had to travel by horse or mule - often at night and sometimes in wet or freezing weather. They quickly accepted the fact that they were responsible for the health of everyone in their district.

Ten years after the Frontier Nurses Service was founded, a small hospital was opened in Hyden, Kentucky and provided a support base for their widespread patients. Mary Breckinridge was responsible for bringing professional health care to many people in the Appalachian Mountains, and the women she recruited and supervised affectionately became known as "nurses on horseback."

My hand painted cachet shows Mary as she approaches two of her patients - a young mother with a baby. The poor, rural setting provides a historic reminder of the area she sought out as a place where her group could do the most good. The widespread and isolated mountain families of 1920s Kentucky were certainly a population in need. Mary Breckinridge - Frontier Nurse - 77-cent face value stamp Item #Y2901 - $12.50.