Anna Maxwell

Anna Caroline Maxwell (March 14, 1851 – January 2, 1929), was a nurse who came to be known as "the American Florence Nightingale". Her pioneering activities were crucial to the growth of professional nursing in the United States.

Early years Maxwell was born in Bristol, New York on March 14, 1851. Her father was a Scottish emigrant, clergyman John Eglinton Maxwell, and her mother was an American-born woman of English descent, Diantha Caroline Maxwell. The family moved to Canada for some of Maxwell's childhood, returning in 1874. She was attracted there by the renown of Linda Richards, one of America's first nurses, who taught at the school. She was also a member of the American Society of Superintendents of Training Schools for Nurses (1893), which later developed into the National League for Nursing, and the Nurses' Associated Alumnae of the United States and Canada (1897), which later became the American Nurses Association. She was also a member of the International Council of Nurses (1899) and the American Red Cross Nursing Service (1899), and was involved in establishing the American Journal of Nursing and the Isabel Hampton Robb Scholarship Fund.

Recognition

The first building to open at the new Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in 1928 was the home for the university's nursing school. It was named the "Anna C. Maxwell Hall" in her honor. The hall was razed in 1984 to make room for a new hospital building, and the university established an endowed professorship at the nursing school in Maxwell's name. Maxwell was one of the first women buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Columbia University awarded her an honorary Master of Arts degree.