FINDING AID
Euphemia Peterson nursing papers, 1910-1948
COLLECTION SUMMARY
Collection Title:
Euphemia Peterson nursing papers
Collection Number:
MSS P:344
Dates:
1910-1948
Size:
1 box (.25 linear feet) plus items in oversized box
Language:
English
Creator/Collector:
Swanson, Euphemia Marie Peterson
Subject Headings:
Augustana Hospital School of Nursing (Chicago, Ill.)
Community health nursing.
Tuberculosis--Nursing.
Public health
Dental public health.
School nursing.
Nurses
Repository:
Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.
RIGHTS AND ACCESS
Conditions Governing Access:
Collection is open for research.
Reproduction and Use:
Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the Swenson Center and the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation:
[item identification], in MSS P:344 Euphemia Peterson nursing papers, Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center, Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois.
ACQUISITION AND RELATED MATERIALS
Source of Acquisition:
Gift of Al Swanson, son of D. Verner Swanson, via his niece, Tootie Warner, in January 2016.
Related Materials:
D. Verner Swanson collection, Swenson Swedish Immigration Research Center; Swanson family papers, 1911-1995 and undated (MSS 391) Augustana College Special Collections; and Augustana Hospital photograph collection, Chicago History Museum.
Publication Note: “Euphemia, the Second Mother” in I Remember--(Pages from a Story of My Life) by D. Verner Swanson, 1981
Processed By:
Finding aid written by Lisa Huntsha, August 2016.
CONTENT AND STRUCTURE
Administrative/Biographical History:
Euphemia Marie Peterson was born March 1, 1881 in Varna, Illinois to Swedish immigrant parents, August and Sophia Peterson. In 1883, the family moved just north of Bertrand, Nebraska where they farmed. She studied at Bertrand High School and at the Luther Academy in Wahoo, Nebraska. She graduated from Augustana Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago (also referred to as Augustana Hospital Training School for Nurses) in 1911.
Euphemia worked as a nurse with the telephone company in Chicago before working as a public health nurse in Nebraska and Iowa. As a public health nurse, she inspected rural schoolchildren’s health and dental hygiene. Later she was employed as nurse and nurses’ supervisor at Moline Lutheran Hospital, Moline, Illinois. She also worked for the Nebraska Tuberculosis Association and Iowa Tuberculosis Association for many years. Her scrapbook contains many newspaper clippings noting her various achievements in rural public health and school health inspections.
Euphemia married John F. Stewart in 1934, when she was 53 years old. The couple resided in Chicago Illinois. John died in 1939. Euphemia married Pastor D. Verner Swanson in 1950 in Moline, Illinois. The couple lived for many years in Geneva, Illinois, where he was a Pastor, before retiring to Rochester, Minnesota where she passed away on July 7, 1974. She is buried in Immanuel Cemetery in Bertrand, Nebraska.
Scope and Content:
Collection of materials from Euphemia Peterson’s nursing career. Peterson graduated from Augustana Hospital Training School in Chicago in 1911 and received additional training in public health nursing at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. She was a registered nurse in Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. This collection includes newspaper clippings related to her nursing career and public health concerns at the time (1910s-1930s), nursing correspondence and certificates, registration cards in local and national nursing associations, a school photograph of Euphemia in nursing uniform, and a nurse’s cap.
System of Arrangement:
Arranged by material type and chronologically.
Collection Inventory:
Folders:
1-4. Euphemia’s scrapbook of newspaper clippings related to her nursing career
5. Nursing correspondence
6. Registered nursing cards and other membership cards
7. Photograph of Euphemia Peterson in 1910, junior year at Augustana Hospital Training School
8. Nurse’s cap
9. Nursing Certificates (in oversized box)