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Schill Dissertation.pdf (9.29 MB)

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"Her Zealous Labor:" Catholic Sisters, the US Sanitary Commission, and the Dynamics of Hospital Personnel in the American Civil War

Schill, Meghan Marie
http://orcid.org/0009-0000-6356-1591
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1743981521165451

Abstract Details

2025, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, History.
This dissertation explores the roles of Catholic sister nurses, both during the Civil War and after, in the creation of the nursing profession. Despite playing a central role in Civil War hospitals, Catholic nurses have been almost entirely invisible in the outpouring of texts about the subject. This study seeks to correct that omission. It focuses on the dynamics between three specific categories of Civil War hospital workers - Catholic sisters, Protestant women nurses, and male doctors - and shows how their interactions influenced both patient care and public perception of women in general and Catholic women in particular. Although they were almost constantly at odds with one another, Protestant and Catholic nurses changed the face of nursing. Returning these women to the story provides a more factual picture of the personnel dynamics within Civil War hospitals, gives new insights into the beginnings of the female nursing profession, and adds to the understanding of women’s changing roles in the nineteenth century public sphere.
Renee Sentilles (Advisor)
Brian Clites (Committee Member)
Jonathan Sadowsky (Committee Member)
John Grabowski (Committee Member)
166 p.
American History; Gender; History; Medicine; Military History; Nursing; Religious History; Womens Studies
Civil War; Catholicism; Women; Nursing; Medicine; Battlefield Medicine; Nuns; Roman Catholic Sisterhoods; US Sanitary Commission; Religion; Military; Hospitals; Gender

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Schill, M. M. (2025). "Her Zealous Labor:" Catholic Sisters, the US Sanitary Commission, and the Dynamics of Hospital Personnel in the American Civil War [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1743981521165451

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Schill, Meghan. "Her Zealous Labor:" Catholic Sisters, the US Sanitary Commission, and the Dynamics of Hospital Personnel in the American Civil War. 2025. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1743981521165451.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Schill, Meghan. ""Her Zealous Labor:" Catholic Sisters, the US Sanitary Commission, and the Dynamics of Hospital Personnel in the American Civil War." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2025. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1743981521165451

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1743981521165451
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© 2025, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12