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One hundred and forty years ago this month, Children’s Hospital Boston opened as a 20-bed facility on Rutland Street in Boston’s South End. Although a number of physicians were committed to the endeavor, the hospital couldn’t have opened without nurses or a superintendent to oversee them.
After repeated urging by Francis Henry Brown, MD, the primary founder of Children’s, Adeline Blanchard Tyler accepted the position of Lady Superintendent in May of 1869, and in July, her team welcomed Children’s first patient: a 7-year-old girl with a fractured arm.
Tyler, a native of Billerica, Massachusetts, was born in 1805. She married when she was 20, and after being widowed in 1853, she trained in nursing at the Deaconess’s Institute in Germany, where Florence Nightingale had studied two years earlier. She became a deaconess in the Episcopal Church and helped establish an infirmary for the destitute and sick in Baltimore, Maryland.
Tyler went on to distinguish herself in the Civil War effort. She was honored by the Massachusetts legislature for her brave actions in caring for the Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, who were injured by an angry mob in Baltimore while en route to Washington at the beginning of the war. When the Baltimore police wouldn’t allow her to treat or even see the soldiers, Tyler boldly proclaimed that she would inform the governor of Massachusetts. She was immediately granted access to the wounded men, cleaned and dressed their injuries and called for a surgeon to help with the more serious wounds.
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Tyler came to Boston to be responsible for “the neatness, order and general economy” of Children’s. Her duties included admitting and keeping a record of the patients, maintaining the facilities, ordering the food and supplies and hiring and managing all of the nurses and employees. She worked tirelessly to ensure the hospital’s success and attend to the needs of its young patients. Due to failing health, she resigned in 1872—but not before securing a member of the Anglican Sisterhood of St. Margaret in England to replace her. Members of this sisterhood remained active in the hospital, and later in Children’s School of Nursing, until 1917. When Tyler left, the Board of Managers and the Ladies’ Aid Association praised her for her “judicious love and care of the hospital.” She died in 1875 and was buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.
Children’s opened its doors on Rutland Street Massachusetts established the first state board of health The nation’s first transcontinental railroad was completed Boston University was chartered Campbell Soup Co. opened its first cannery in Camden, New Jersey The first issue of the scientific journal Nature was published Tabasco sauce was invented Susan B. Anthony was elected president of the American Equal Rights Association Boston expanded by annexing Dorchester The toothpick was invented by Charles Forster in his Boston basement The Suez Canal opened to ships, linking the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Suez
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