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Diary of Gould, 1917-1918, recounting her experiences as Assistant Chief Nurse at Presbyterian Hospital's World War I hospital, United States Base Hospital No. 2, located at Étretat, France.
History and Biography
Elspeth Anne Gould, nurse, was born January 29, 1885 in Rochester, N.Y. to William and Annie Gould. After her father’s death the next year, Gould’s widowed mother returned to her hometown of Carleton Place, Ontario, where Elspeth was raised. Gould attended the Presbyterian Hospital School of Nursing (later the Columbia University School of Nursing) from which she graduated in 1909. She became a head nurse at Presbyterian Hospital and then Second Assistant Superintendent at the Hospital’s School of Nursing.
In May 1917 Gould went overseas as Assistant Chief Nurse of the Presbyterian Hospital unit, United States Base Hospital No. 2, assigned to Étretat in the Normandy region of France. Because it took over General Hospital No. 1 of the British Expeditionary Force, Base Hospital No. 2 is sometimes referred to by that designation. To add to the confusion, the hospital was originally organized as American Red Cross Hospital No. 1. Nevertheless, its official U.S. title was Base Hospital No. 2. Though staffed by Americans, the majority of the hospital’s patients continued to be British servicemen.
After returning to the U.S. in 1919, Gould spent the early 1920s as a nurse at the Standard Oil Company’s hospital in Tampico, Mexico. She spent the remainder of her career as a private duty nurse in New York City. She died on December 26, 1962 in New York and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Organization
Diary recounting Gould’s experiences as Assistant Chief Nurse at U.S. Base Hospital No. 2 in Étretat, France. It begins with the departure of the nurses from New York City on May 14, 1917 and ends on January 29, 1918, her 33rd birthday. With the diary are several pieces of paper that note significant events at the hospital through November 27, 1918, though they are not full diary entries. Gould writes regularly, though not daily.
As Assistant Chief Nurse, Gould shared with the Chief Nurse, Janet B. Christie, the responsibility for overseeing the 65 nurses (later increased to 100) who provided care for the wounded British soldiers being treated there. Though Gould frequently mentions the arrival at the hospital of convoys of the wounded and their numbers, the diary generally focuses on her leisure activities: the arrival of visitors; teas, parties, and dances; shopping in Rouen; and walks and visits to neighboring towns and villages. At one point she writes “this is really a very strenuous social life not much like war except when a train [of wounded] comes in…” Although an American citizen through her father, Gould considered herself a Canadian and makes particular note of Canadian visitors and, sometimes, patients.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Transfer from the Columbia University School of Nursing, 2016(acc. #2016.005). A note in the volume indicates that in 1975 the diary was in the possession of Anne Penland (Nursing, 1912), a fellow Base Hospital No. 2 nurse of Gould’s, at which time she gave it to Margaret Wells (Nursing, 1929). Wells presumably donated it to the School of Nursing at a later date.