Frontier Nursing Service Saddle Bags
date: label: Date made
content: c. 1930s
label: Date made
content: ca 1930
name: label: user
content: Breckinridge, Mary
notes: label: Description
content: These leather saddlebags were owned by Mary Breckenridge (1881-1965) who founded the Frontier Nursing Service in 1925. The bags were used during the 1930s by representatives of the nurse-midwife organization visiting residents of rural Kentucky. Kentucky had one of the highest birth rates in the United States, and these bags were used to carry medical supplies to expectant families living in remote Appalachian areas accessible only by horseback. One side of the bag carried emergency medical equipment, the other instruments for infant care and delivery.
label: Description
content: Through the employment and teaching of modern hygienic methods, Breckenridge's Frontier Nursing Service was instrumental in improving the health of one of America's most destitute regions. A 1955 study by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company attested to their success. The study found that the maternal death rate in areas serviced by the Frontier Nursing Service was only 9.1 per every 10,000 live births, while the national average was much higher, at 34 per every 10,000.
label: Description
content: Due to the scarcity of midwives within the United States, Breckenridge was initially obliged to import caretakers from abroad, especially Great Britain. In order to develop the profession domestically, Breckenridge founded the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing in Hyden, Kentucky in 1939.
label: Description
content: By the time of her death in 1965, Breckenridge's Frontier Nursing Service had served over 10,000 families in Kentucky's Leslie, Clay and Perry Counties. The organization continues its mission today, sending trained nurses and midwives out to assist the nation's rural communities.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Kentucky, Wendover
topic: label: associated subject
content: Nursing
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
label: See more items in
content: Health & Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: From Mrs. Mary Breckenridge, through Mrs. Jefferson Patterson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-10711
label: catalog number
content: M-10711
label: accession number
content: 256192
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Saddle Bags
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: leather (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 27.5 cm x 38 cm x 30 cm; 10 13/16 in x 14 15/16 in x 11 13/16 in