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Marion G. Howell
treats patient
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The turning point came in 1923 with the announcement of Frances Payne
Bolton's gift to the university of $500,000 to endow a school of nursing "on an equal
and independent basis with the College for Women." This occurred the same year
the Rockefeller Foundation awarded Yale University $150,000 to set up a similar experiment
in nursing education. In an article for the American Journal of Nursing published
in June 1923, Annie Goodrich, Dean of the new Yale School of Nursing, wrote that the
Western Reserve and Yale programs marked the "Dawn of a New Era in Nursing
Education." Bolton's "magnificent gift" had put Cleveland in the forefront
of American cities attempting to set up university schools of nursing. As the largest gift
ever awarded to a school of nursing, Goodrich believed that "Mrs. Bolton will prove
not only a benefactor to nurses, but to all humanity."10 These landmark gifts to Western Reserve
University and Yale made it possible for the nurse educator to begin the long process of
creating a true nursing profession. The endowment at Western Reserve University was
officially named in honor of Bolton's mother, "The Mary Payne Bingham Fund."
Bolton saw it as significant for the entire nursing profession. She wrote Adelaide
Nutting, one of the profession's prominent educators, "This isn't just for
Cleveland-it is for nursing."11 Robert E. Vinson, Western Reserve
President, characterized her gift as "one of the most outstanding achievements of the
university in the last five years."12
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