Nurse's Cap, Octavia Bridgewater
date: label: date made
content: after 1930
notes: label: Description
content: This white cotton nurse's cap belonged to Octavia Bridgewater (1903-1985), who served in a segregated unit of the Army Nurse Corp during World War II. She was also a nurse midwife in Montana, and delivered babies for both black and white families. She attended the Lincoln School of Nursing in the Bronx, New York. (See the Bridgewater Collection in the NMAH Archives Center for images of Octavia Bridgewater. Collection I.D. NMAH.AC.1385)
label: Description
content: Octavia Bridgewater was born in Fort Harrison, Montana, in 1903. Soon after the family moved to Helena, Montana, where Octavia graduated from Helena High School. She went on to study nursing at the Lincoln Hospital School of Nursing in the Bronx, New York. The Lincoln School was a privately funded segregated school established to train women of color to be nurses. After graduating from nursing school in 1930, Bridgewater returned to Helena where she practiced midwifery and cleaned homes. During World War II Bridgewater entered the Army and was stationed at the Tuskegee Alabama Airbase as a nurse from January 1, 1943, to November 29, 1945. She was promoted to head nurse and left the Army as a First Lieutenant. Upon leaving the Army, Bridgewater returned to Helena and worked as a maternity nurse at St. Peter's Hospital.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Nursing
label: Subject
content: African American
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Janet Harrell Campbell and Jules Harrell, PhD
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2016.0142.01
label: accession number
content: 2016.0142
label: catalog number
content: 2016.0142.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cap, nurse's
label: Object Name
content: cap, nurse's
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cotton (cap material)