Dr. Jerome Walker Papers
name: label: Creator
content: Walker, Jerome
label: Donor
content: Walker, Cathy Jean
label: Names
content: United States Sanitary Commission
label: Names
content: Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
topic: label: Topic
content: Medicine -- 1860-1870
label: Topic
content: African American military personnel
label: Topic
content: CIvil War, U.S. -- 1861-1865
label: Topic
content: War -- Medical aspects
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Donated to the Archives Center, National Museum of American History in 2016 by Cathy Jean Walker, Dr. Jerome Walker's great-granddaughter.
creator: label: Creator
content: Walker, Jerome
label: Donor
content: Walker, Cathy Jean
setName: label: See more items in
content: Dr. Jerome Walker Papers
abstract: label: Summary
content: Dr. Jerome Walker's papers discuss the United States Sanitary Commission, its creation, and its role during the Civil War. The papers also discuss Walker's meeting with Abraham Lincoln at the field hospital in City Point, Virginia.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Dr. Jerome Walker was born to Ferdinand and Elmira Walker in New York in 1846. 

Walker was attending medical school at Columbia Physicians and Surgeons when the Civil War broke out in 1861. He enlisted in the Union Army 9th Army Corps, Army of the Potomac and served in the newly formed United States Sanitary Commission. He met and guided Abraham Lincoln through the field hospital at City Point, Virginia. 

After the war, Walker married Helen Eliza Oakley (1844-1909) in 1868 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The couple had five children: Hobart Alexander Walker in 1869, Randall Oakley Walker in 1871, Amy Francis Walker in 1876, Lucy Margaretta Walker in 1878, and Allan Lee Walker in 1882. Walker continued to practice medicine in Brooklyn, New York and wrote a number of articles for medical journals. During the period in which these papers were written in the 1880s, Walker lived with his wife and children in Brooklyn, New York.

Walker's wife Helen Eliza Oakley died in 1909. After becoming widowed, Walker became a boarder in the Ziegler household, later moving to the Love household as a boarder in the 1920s. Both homes were in Brooklyn. Walker later died in June of 1924, in Kings County, New York. He is buried in a family plot at Green-Wood Cemetary in Brooklyn, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.15 Cubic feet (1 box)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1864-1917, undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1408
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Writings
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is organized into a single series.

Series 1: Personal Papers, 1864-1917, undated
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection was processed by Maggie McCready, intern, Fall 2016, supervised by Franklin A. Robinson, Jr., archivist.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Writings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The collection contains an enlistment card for Walker, 1864; an account of his experiences working in a hospital during the Civil War; and a history of the United States Sanitary Commission. The account of his work in the hospital describes in detail the physical, emotional and psychological impact of combat upon soldiers during battle and in the field hospitals. Other subjects he discusses include the role of women in the Union hospitals, aid societies, and "colored" troops as they became more invested in the outcome of the Civil War. He describes meeting Abraham Lincoln and showing him the hospital. His history of the United States Sanitary Commission describes how and why the Commission was started, the development of health and safety practices on the battlefield and in Union field hospitals, and emphasizes the role of the Commission in providing more organized health care, food delivery and preparation, and transportation throughout the Union forces.