About this collection:

➤ The City Hospital Training School for Nurses opened in conjunction with the City Hospital in 1892 and was the first nursing school in West Virginia. The Hospital and the Nursing School were located in the former Wheeling Female Seminary, near Eoff Street and 20th Street. The first two nurses trained there received their diplomas in 1894. In 1927-28, the Bloch Residence for Nurses was built to house approximately 135 nurses. A general over-supply of nurses in the early 1930s was replaced with a shortage in the 1940s, when many nurses left to join the Armed Services (77 OVGH nurses served in the various theatres of WWII). By 1988, the School of Nursing closed as the evolution of the nursing profession progressed to a college academic setting. By the time the school closed, 2,781 nurses had graduated from the hospital based program.

The collection consists primarily of artifacts and documents that were used in the historical displays at the Ohio Valley Medical Center and the School of Nursing. The items include brochures, photographs, medical equipment, yearbooks, awards and other material. Also included in the collection are framed portraits of hospital presidents, chairpersons and notable physicians. The School of Nursing material includes administrative records, photographs, audiovisual material, a full run of the school’s yearbooks and photographs of nearly every year’s graduating class.

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