Lillian Wald

Notable people · Medicine · Civic · Women

Lillian Wald

Cincinnati-born nurse who founded New York's Henry Street Settlement and visiting nurse service and coined the term 'public health nurse'.

Born March 10, 1867, Cincinnati (598 East Front Street, per Cincinnati Preservation); birth year disputed, possibly 1864
Died September 1, 1940, Westport, CT

Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born: March 10, 1867, Cincinnati (598 East Front Street, per Cincinnati Preservation); birth year disputed, possibly 1864 (Hamilton County) source
Died: September 1, 1940, Westport, CT source
Buried: Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, Range 3, Lot 34 source
Also known as: Lillian Wald
Known as: Medicine, Civic, Women

Life story

Lillian D. Wald was born in Cincinnati to Max D. Wald, then a grocer on East Front Street, and Minnie Schwarz; her tombstone and most biographies say 1867, but census records point to 1864. By 1866 the family had moved to Dayton, near her mother's parents, and she spent her childhood there until the family moved to Rochester, New York in 1878, the city she later called home. After training at the New York Hospital school of nursing (1891), she went to live among immigrant families on the Lower East Side in 1893 with Mary Brewster, and from 1895 worked out of 265 Henry Street, the Nurses' Settlement that became the Henry Street Settlement and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. She coined the term 'public health nurse', pushed New York to put nurses in public schools, helped found the Women's Trade Union League and the NAACP, and led anti-militarism and peace groups. She died in Westport, Connecticut in 1940 and is buried in Rochester; Ohio's claim rests on her birth in Cincinnati and her Dayton childhood.

Ohio ties

Cincinnati (598 East Front Street, near the Ohio River) (1864 or 1867)
birthplace; her father was a grocer on East Front Street; the site is now a vacant lot at 1305 Riverside Drive Hamilton County · source
Dayton (Second Street) (by 1866-1878)
childhood home near her mother's parents, Guttman and Freida Schwarz; she recalled a garden in the backyard on Second Street Montgomery County · source
Dayton and Cincinnati (1878-1890s)
her father kept his optical goods business in Ohio after the family moved to Rochester, boarding at Dayton's Phillips House in 1884; her grandmother stayed in Dayton after 1892 Montgomery County · source

Timeline

1867 Born March 10 in Cincinnati, the third of four children of Max D. Wald and Minnie Schwarz, by the date on her tombstone and in most biographies; census records suggest 1864. source
1866 Dayton city directories place the Wald family in Dayton, near her mother's parents. source
1878 The family moved from Ohio to Rochester, New York, when she was about 11; she attended Miss Cruttenden's English-French Boarding and Day School. source
1891 Graduated from the New York Hospital Training School for Nurses and worked at the New York Juvenile Asylum. source
1893 After a child led her to a sick mother in a Ludlow Street rear tenement one March morning, she left medical college; in September she and Mary Brewster moved into a Jefferson Street tenement to nurse their neighbours. source
1895 Banker Jacob Schiff bought the Federal-style house at 265 Henry Street for her Nurses' Settlement; he donated the building in 1903. source
1903 Helped found the Women's Trade Union League. source
1906 Hired the Henry Street nursing service's first Black nurse. source
1909 Was a founding member of the NAACP, whose first major public conference opened at the Settlement. source
1915 Published 'The House on Henry Street' (Henry Holt), founded the Neighborhood Playhouse, and became president of the American Union Against Militarism. source
1917 The Henry Street nursing service gave bedside care to 32,753 patients. source
1922 The New York Times named her one of the 12 greatest living American women. source
1933 Retired with 265 nurses caring for about 100,000 patients under her direction. source
1940 Died September 1 in Westport, Connecticut, of a cerebral hemorrhage, and was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester. source
1970 Elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans; Eleanor Platt's bust of her was installed in September 1971. source
1974 The Henry Street Settlement buildings at 263-267 Henry Street and 466 Grand Street were added to the National Register on May 30. source
1993 Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. source
2022 Numbers 265 and 267 Henry Street were re-listed on the National Register on February 11 as the Lillian Wald House. source

Stories

A garden on Second Street in Dayton

Wald is usually described as a Rochester girl, but she spent most of her childhood in Ohio. Her parents married in Cincinnati in 1859, and her father began as a grocer on East Front Street, where she was born in a frame building by the Ohio River; the site is a vacant lot at 1305 Riverside Drive today. By 1866 city directories place the family in Dayton, near her mother's parents, Guttman and Freida Schwarz, and Lillian later remembered a garden in the backyard on Second Street. The family moved to Rochester in 1878, but her father, by then selling spectacles, kept working in Ohio and boarded at Dayton's Phillips House in 1884. Her grandmother stayed in Dayton after her grandfather died in 1892.

Source

The baptism of fire on Ludlow Street

After her hospital training and some time at a medical college, Wald was teaching a home nursing class to East Side mothers in an old building on Henry Street. One drizzling March morning a little girl came to lead her to her sick mother. They went past broken roads, garbage, open fish stands and crowded fire escapes to a rear tenement on Ludlow Street, where a woman who had just given birth lay on a soiled bed in two rooms shared by a family of seven and their boarders. Wald decided such things went on because comfortable people did not know about them, and she resolved to know and to tell. She left the college, and with Mary Brewster, a nurse from her training school, moved into a Jefferson Street tenement in September 1893.

Source

The house that Schiff bought

In 1895 the banker Jacob Schiff bought a Federal-style townhouse at 265 Henry Street for Wald's Nurses' Settlement. A story was added, and in 1903 Schiff gave the building to the Settlement. From there grew the Henry Street Settlement and the visiting nurse service that became the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. The buildings at 263-267 Henry Street and 466 Grand Street were listed on the National Register in 1974. In 2021 New York State recognized the headquarters as an LGBT historic site, partly because of the circle of women known as 'The Family' who supported Wald, and in 2022 Nos. 265 and 267 were listed again as the Lillian Wald House.

Source

Named for Lillian Wald

Lillian Wald Houses (public housing), Avenue D, Manhattan (New York City) source

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments.

Wald birthplace site, former 598 East Front Street (now a vacant lot) (demolished)
Cincinnati, 1305 Riverside Drive Hamilton County · source
Henry Street Settlement / Lillian Wald House, 263-267 Henry Street
New York City, Lower East Side source
Bust by Eleanor Platt, Hall of Fame for Great Americans, Bronx Community College
The Bronx, New York City source
Wald grave, Mount Hope Cemetery, Range 3, Lot 34
Rochester, New York source

Ohio places

Where Lillian Wald was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

Born: Cincinnati, Hamilton County Cincinnati · Hamilton County
Connected: Cincinnati, Hamilton County Cincinnati · Hamilton County
Connected: Dayton, Montgomery County Dayton · Montgomery County
Connected: Dayton and Cincinnati, Montgomery County Montgomery County

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Lillian Wald, and what the record shows.

Often said Lillian Wald was born in 1867.

The record Her tombstone and most biographies say March 10, 1867, but Cincinnati Preservation's research in the 1870 and 1880 censuses (age 6 in 1870, 16 in 1880) points to 1864, and notes she shaved years off her age on later passport applications. The year is unproven either way. source

Often said Wald grew up in Cincinnati before moving to Rochester.

The record Dayton city directories place the family in Dayton by 1866, near her mother's parents; she remembered the family garden on Second Street there. They left Ohio for Rochester in 1878. source

Often said The Henry Street Settlement was founded in 1895.

The record Wald and Mary Brewster began living and nursing on the Lower East Side in 1893 (the Settlement counts its founding from then as the Nurses' Settlement); 1895 is when Jacob Schiff bought the house at 265 Henry Street. One museum biography gives 1894. source

Documents

Primary records: patents, letters, court and government files, nominations and old county histories, each at the archive that holds it.

Lillian D. Wald, 'The House on Henry Street' (New York: Henry Holt, 1915), Project Gutenberg ebook 68546 1915, Project Gutenberg

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

Billy Hathorn took photo with Canon camera of detail of portrait of Lillian Wald at National Portrait Gallery....
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Lillian Wald bust.
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Title: Digital display record: This record exists solely to make the digital image available. You may be able ...
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Title: Digital display record: This record exists solely to make the digital image available. You may be able ...
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Young w:Lillian Wald in nurse uniform
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Harris & Ewing/LOC hec.07332. Lillian Wald, and Jane Addams, 1916
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Photograph of Lillian D. Wald
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Photograph of Lillian D. Wald
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Lillian D. Wald
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Portrait of Lillian Wald
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Public domain
Title: PRESS CORRESPONDENTS WITH LILLIAN WALD AND JANE ADDAMS Abstract/medium: 1 negative : glass ; 5 x 7 in. ...
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