Presbyterian Hospital in the City of New York founded a Training School for Nurses in 1892.  The name was changed to the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing circa 1904 and to the Columbia University-Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing after a partial affiliation with the university in the late 1930s.  It is today known as the Columbia University School of Nursing.

The Alumnae Association of the Presbyterian Hospital Training School for Nurses was established in 1899 to “create and promote a common fellowship among graduate nurses.” Another important purpose was “to provide a benefit or loan fund for its members when ill or otherwise in need and to tender them pecuniary or other assistance.” Several years later a Pension Fund was also created which by 1921 had $140,000 in assets and was paying out pensions of $300 a year to eligible alumnae.  Scholarship funds were also endowed by the members.  The Association’s publication, The Quarterly Magazine, began in 1906.  Eventually renamed the The Alumni Magazine, it ceased publication in 2014.

The Association’s name was legally changed in 1921 to the Alumnae Association of the School of Nursing of the Presbyterian Hospital in the City of New York, Inc. It is currently known as the Columbia University-Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association, Inc.

In the early 21st century, the School of Nursing created a new alumni organization, the Columbia University School of Nursing Alumni Association, which was directly under its control. The older Association was then no longer recognized by Columbia University as the official alumni organization of the School of Nursing. However, as of the writing of this finding aid (2106), the Columbia University-Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing Alumni Association, Inc. was still an active organization representing many of the alumni of the School.