Lucy Minnigerode

Lucy Minnigerode (born Feb. 8, 1871, near Leesburg, Va., U.S.—died March 24, 1935, Alexandria, Va.) was an American nurse, remembered especially for her work in organizing nurses for the Red Cross and the U.S. Public Health Service.

Minnigerode was educated in private schools. She studied at the Training School for Nurses of Bellevue Hospital in New York City (1899–1905) and became a registered nurse in 1905. She was in private practice until 1910, when she became superintendent of nurses at the Episcopal Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital in Washington, D.C. Later she held a similar post at the Savannah (Georgia) Hospital.

In 1914 Minnigerode headed one of the first Red Cross hospital units (each consisting of 3 surgeons, 12 nurses, and various supplies) sent to Europe for war-relief work, and from 1914 to 1915 she served at a hospital at the Polytechnic Institute in Kiev, Russia. She then served as director of nurses at Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington, D.C. (1915–17), and she was again associated with the Red Cross from 1917 to 1919. In 1919 she was asked to make a tour of inspection of the hospitals of the U.S. Public Health Service. Her report led to the creation of a department of nurses within the service, and she was appointed superintendent. Minnigerode held that post for the rest of her life. She recruited and organized a large corps of nurses to serve in hospitals established to care for World War I veterans. Her pioneering work in that field was later taken over by the Veterans’ Bureau following its establishment in August 1921. In 1925 she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal of the International Red Cross. By 1935 her job entailed the supervision of 650 nurses in 26 hospitals of the Public Health Service.