Last week we mentioned in a tweet that UBC Library’s Digital Collections site has the records of Ethel Johns, the first director of the School of Nursing at UBC, available online, which includes correspondence, reports, minutes, notes, photographs, drafts of Johns’ unfinished autobiography and related papers, and manuscripts of a considerable number of her articles and speeches the majority of which were published.
On February 10, 2015, Ethel Johns was inducted as a Person of National Historical Significance at UBC’s Vancouver campus, recognized by the government for her work relating to the improvement of nursing education, writing academically about public health and research in nursing, and for pushing forward studying nursing in universities.
Ethel Johns’ records provide great insight into to her role in advancing nursing education in Canada.
You ask me whether I think that the [combined] course in British Columbia has attracted young women capable of assuming leadership. On the whole, yes. It must be remembered that this course has only been graduating students for about fifteen years and there has been a high incidence of marriage, as might reasonably be expected in any group of normal, intelligent young women…
Click here to view the Ethel Johns fonds online.
Click here to read the full article written by Professor Sally Thorne of UBC’s School of Nursing.
Interested in seeing more records from Ethel Johns up close? Contact UBC Archives for more information.
