National Library of Medicine

Digital Gallery

Discover...

Nurses working for the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service in New York City took these snapshots, which show their lives and the lives of the families they cared for in the 1930s.

White female nurse in uniform posing with a Chinese mother and six of her children outside a laundry.

“Miss Pearson with a Chinese family in her district. Father runs a laundry. Business has been poor and the family has been helped by Home Relief.”

In the 1930s, almost half a million people who lived in the Bronx were recent immigrants. Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service provided essential health care, education, and resources to families regardless of nationality or economic status.

Courtesy U.S. National Library of Medicine