Sending Love
Dublin Core
Title
Sending Love
Subject
Army Nurses Receive Mail From Home
Description
This group, part of a contingent of 15 army nurses serving at the segregated all African American 268th Station Hospital in Australia in 1943, is shown joyously opening their first batch of mail from home. One of the most meaningful things a nurse overseas could receive was correspondence from loved ones at home, and this picture makes that clear. In this regard, nurses were not much different than the other personnel they worked with, and the soldiers they saved. Several of those pictured are Lt. Prudence l. Burns, Lt. Inez Holmes, and Lt. Birdie E. Brown.
"Just down from us, which I think you've heard before, one white soldier was severely hemorrhaging and they brought him up to our hospital. We said, "We're sorry, but the blood is labeled'A'." (And you know we knew blood difference in people) yet they had labeled it "A" for African, their stupid selves. We told him the blood was labeled "A" so we can't give it, and he said "I don't give a damn, don't let me die." So, that's why I've said if he's still living, he's walking around with this "A" blood. We gave it to him and then they transferred him to his, the regular white hospital which was down near the ocean from us." --- Interview with Nurse Prudence Burns Burrell of the 268th Station Hospital in Australia, Tuesday, March 19, 2002, conducted by Katie Cavanaugh (Michigan Women's Historical Center, Text Transcript, Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress:https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp-stories/loc.natlib.afc2001001.04747/transcript?ID=sr0001)
"Just down from us, which I think you've heard before, one white soldier was severely hemorrhaging and they brought him up to our hospital. We said, "We're sorry, but the blood is labeled'A'." (And you know we knew blood difference in people) yet they had labeled it "A" for African, their stupid selves. We told him the blood was labeled "A" so we can't give it, and he said "I don't give a damn, don't let me die." So, that's why I've said if he's still living, he's walking around with this "A" blood. We gave it to him and then they transferred him to his, the regular white hospital which was down near the ocean from us." --- Interview with Nurse Prudence Burns Burrell of the 268th Station Hospital in Australia, Tuesday, March 19, 2002, conducted by Katie Cavanaugh (Michigan Women's Historical Center, Text Transcript, Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress:https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp-stories/loc.natlib.afc2001001.04747/transcript?ID=sr0001)
Creator
Unknown Photographer, Department of Defense: Department of the Army, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, U.S. Army Audiovisual Center, 1974-5/15/1984
Source
US National Archives: Series: Photographs of American Military Activities, 1918-1981, Record Group 111: Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer, 1860-1985, Item 531410: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/531410
Publisher
United States National Archives and Records Administration
Date
Accessed April 24, 2020, and photo taken 11/29/1943
Rights
Unrestricted
Format
Photograph (jpg)
Language
English
Type
Still Image
Identifier
Army Nurses Receive Mail from Home WWII
Coverage
Nurses in WWII, African American Nurses in WWII, Women in WWII
Still Image Item Type Metadata
Original Format
black and white photograph
Physical Dimensions
2585 X 3000 pixels
Collection
Citation
Unknown Photographer, Department of Defense: Department of the Army, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, U.S. Army Audiovisual Center, 1974-5/15/1984, “Sending Love,” US Nurses in World War II, accessed April 28, 2024, https://usnursesww2.omeka.net/items/show/34.