Virginia Brown, Ida Bahl, and Lillian Watson Collection

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Volume:

89 black-and-white photographs, 30 copy black-and-white photographs, 10 color photographs, 4 picture postcards, 22 negatives

Views Include:

Tuba City hospital, ca.1960; Carter Hospital, Talihina, Okla., ca. 1930; Gallup Medical Center, ca. 1960; Navajo Indian Trading Posts, ca. 1955; Black Falls, AZ., ca. 1961; Fort Defiance, AZ, ca. 1890; Grand Falls, AZ, ca. 1961.

Portraits:

Include public health nurses, medical personnel, hospital staff, patents, and Native Americans (including many portraits which also demonstrate the Navajo hogan).

Biographical Notes:

Born March 13, 1926, Virginia Brown attended the Medical College of Richmond Virginia and received her diploma in 1948. She spent three years working with the Navajo tribe. In 1967 Virginia was hired as the first research nurse in the Indian Health Service, and was assigned to the new unit in Tucson. The unit had previously opened in 1965 and was then called Operation Systems Analysis Module (OPSAM). OPSAM´s first mission was to analyze systems of health care and find the most efficient system for the allotted funds.

Upon her arrival in 1967 at the soon to be called Office of Research and Development, Virginia´s first assignment was to ¨find out what...Public Health Nurses do.¨ Shortly thereafter, she began working to adapt health information systems to computers. She also spent several years in the late 1970's working with the Yaqui people. Throughout her tenure, Virginia concentrated on the area of public health nursing, retiring in 1981.

Ida Bahl was born in 1898 and began her career as an RN and X-ray technician in 1922. She received her X-ray training in Dubuque, Iowa, and then worked and studied for two years at Mercy Hospital in Dubuque.

Initially, Ida applied for a job in the Civil Service to work with American veterans. Appointed as an X-ray technician and staff nurse in 1934, her job took her--instead of working with veterans--to the Indian Service (IS) at Fort Defiance, Arizona. At Fort Defiance her duties were primarily relegated to nursing. After twenty-five years of service among Native Americans, Ida retired in 1958.

After retiring, Ida wrote a book about her experiences entitled Nurse Among the Navajos (copyright 1978). She followed her book with a questionnaire developed originally to look into the early days of the Public Health Service. The questionnaire was begun in 1974 and work on it ceased in 1980. Lillian Watson and Virginia Brown assisted Ida on this project.

Lillian Watson began her nursing career in 1955 at Fort Wingate, Bearsprings, New Mexico. She began working in the Indian Service because there was such a shortage and need for trained personnel. Eventually, Lillian became an Area Nurse at Window Rock, Arizona, working with the Navajo tribe. As of 1987 she was still working on a part-time basis.

Related Material:

NAU Manuscript Collection #269

Cline Library
Special Collections and Archives Department
Northern Arizona University