University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

Doris E. Roberts, R.N., Ph.D. was an internationally known nurse leader and educator in the field of community health services. These papers span Roberts’ professional career and documents her educational and academic experience, as well as awards and recognition received as a public health and nursing leader. This collection is comprised of addresses, articles, and documents relating to professional associations, as well as photographs of Roberts.

This photographic collection, likely assembled from previously published sources, shows the activities of various visiting nurse associations around the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. It also contains other images related to public health, along with a series of Korean War photographs.

This collection contains the 20th-century records of two New Jersey Visiting Nurse Associations: the Moorestown Visiting Nurse Association (MVNA) and the Visiting Nurse Society of Riverton, Cinnaminson and Palmyra (VNSRCP). These two organizations merged in 1967.

The Visiting Nurse Association of South Central Connecticut was founded in 1904 as the Visiting Nurse Association of New Haven. The Milford Visiting Nurse Association, founded in 1919, became part of the VNA of New Haven in 1966. This collection includes records mainly from the 1930s to 1990s. Documents include the Association's service evaluations, National League for Nursing accreditation, committee planning for meeting community health and service needs, annual reports (1960-1993) and service manuals.

The records of the Visiting Nurse Association of Allegheny County document a wide range of issues in home nursing that appeared in the period from the association’s founding in 1919, up to the high-tech period of home care in the 1980s. The collection includes Board of Directors minutes, committee reports, and some substation files. There is a significant amount of material documenting the advances in the agency’s health care practices. One of the ways that home care changed was in moving away from the care of patients with declining communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, and moving towards more specialized care like chemotherapy. This collection also includes 300 photographs and several scrapbooks.

The Neighborhood Visting Nurse Association grew from the merger of several eastern Pennsylvania community and home health service agencies. These records document services provided to communities in Chester and Delaware counties during the 20th century. Materials include board minutes and reports, correspondence, photographs, financial information, and other administrative records.

The Starr Centre was a settlement house with an extensive array of programs in South Philadelphia and Germantown. Through its Medical Department and a cooperative agreement (later a merger) with the Visiting Nurse Society of Philadelphia, the Starr Centre provided home health care to Philadelphia's African American and immigrant communities. This collection contains the agency's administrative records documenting its long history of service, as well as photographs, artifacts, and scrapbooks.

This collection documents the development of a visiting nursing association in east Montgomery County, PA, from 1919 to the present. The collection consists of some historical material of the agency in its early years, fairly large proportion of formal records since the early 1930s, administration files, and files of other organizations.

This collection contains the records of the Visiting Nurse Association of Ambler and Vicinity, which merged into the Visiting Nurse Association of Eastern Montgomery County in 1984. These records, which include board and commitee minutes, agreements, policy manuals, and nine scrapbooks, document the development of a suburban visiting nurse association.

The records of the Visiting Nurse Society of Philadelphia document a wide range of themes and issues in home nursing and the care of the indigent poor. The collection includes trustees' minutes, board correspondence, committee reports, and branch association files. Also included is a well documented collection of photographs.

This collection documents the Brandywine Home Health Agency, Inc. from its inception through its subsequent growth during social, environmental, and legislative changes. As a non-profit volunteer agency, BHHA was conscious of its responsibility to foster innovative and relevant programs. Thus as health needs and technology evolved, it progressed accordingly. Over time, it became a multi-service agency delivering three categories of service: therapeutic, supportive, and preventative. The material in this collection covers all facets of these services and includes records of administration, financial, program services, and public relations.