Descriptive Summary

Repository:  University of Virginia School of Nursing, Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry

Title: Elizabeth Marie Bear Collection
Physical Characteristics: 1.3 linear feet; 03 boxes

Language: English

Collector: Elizabeth Marie Bear.

Biographical Information

Elizabeth Marie Bear (1933- ) obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing with honors in July 1956 from the University of California at Berkeley.  She pursued a Master of Science in Nursing at Wayne State University, Detroit, receiving this degree in 1959.  The Catholic Maternity Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico certified her as a nurse-midwife in 1966, and in 1986 she earned a doctorate in Educational Administration from the University of Texas.  In addition to six-years' practice as a labor and delivery staff nurse at the University of California San Francisco – begun immediately after completion of her Masters degree – Bear concurrently served as an instructor at the University of Florida College of Nursing.  She held the chairmanship of the Maternal Child Nursing Program at the University of New Mexico College of Nursing from 1966 to 1972, then moved to the University of Kentucky College of Nursing to become the coordinator of the Certified Nurse Midwife program, holding this position until 1987.  That year she joined the faculty of the College of Nursing at the Medical University of South Carolina, where she also coordinated the Certified Nurse Midwife program until her retirement in 1998.

Among the many instances of professional recognition Dr. Bear has received over her career are the U.NM. College of Nursing Professor of the Year Award for the 1969 academic year, Outstanding Educators in America for 1975, Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society membership in 1979, and induction as a Fellow of the American College of Nurse-Midwives in 1994.  In the 1990s, she served as principal investigator for a number of grant-funded projects concerning nurse-midwifery and education, in addition to obtaining a place on the editorial Board of Advanced Practice Nursing Quarterly, a seat she still holds.  She is recognized internationally for numerous paper presentations and publications on maternal/child health care, as well as an array of consultation projects, and professional, university, and community service activities.

Scope and Content

Midwives in trainingMidwives in training at the Penn Center, St. Helena Island, S.C., in the 1950s. Elizabeth Bear Collection.

The Elizabeth Marie Bear Collection consists of materials assembled by Bear throughout her career.  Particular strengths here include correspondence with social anthropologist Esther Lucile Brown in addition to a taped interview with Brown, the subject of Bear's doctoral dissertation.  Also present are letters and other items of her colleague and fellow nurse Martha Beth Hicks.  Materials from two organizations – the Frontier Nursing Service and the Penn Center of St. Helena Island, South Carolina, a historic African-American cultural and educational institution – are represented.  These primarily include photographs and artifacts.

Additional materials collected by Dr. Bear are archived at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, College of Charleston, 125 Bull Street, Charleston, South Carolina, 29424, (http://avery.cofc.edu/).  [Addresses current as of November 2014.]  Inventory contained in box 01 folder 001 below.

Series Description

Arrangement

The Bear Collection is arranged by subject, in general alphabetically.  Within folders the organization is chronological.  Frontier Nursing Service materials are grouped separately.

 

Contents List

ELIZABETH M. BEAR – CURRICULUM VITAE  – CORRESPONDENCE AND RELATED MATERIALS RELATIVE TO DONATIONS TO E.C.B.C.N.H.I.

2014/09, 10   Box-Folder:  01-001

 

CORRESPONDENCE – ELIZABETH M. BEAR  – MARTHA BETH HICKS

1984-1996   Box-Folder:  01-002

 

CORRESPONDENCE OF ESTHER LUCILE BROWN WITH ELIZABETH M. BEAR AND MARTHA BETH HICKS

1969-1979   Box-Folder:  01-003

 

CORRESPONDENCE OF ESTHER LUCILE BROWN WITH ELIZABETH M. BEAR AND MARTHA BETH HICKS

1982-1989, n.d.   Box-Folder:  01-004

 

ELIZABETH M. BEAR ITEMS:  1) NURSING PIN, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA;  2) RURAL HEALTH HANDBOOK, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO;  3) REPORT INTRODUCING HANDBOOK, SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO, BY MARY N. MARQUEZ;  4) PHOTOGRAPHS OF BEAR

1956, 1964, 1989, n.d.   Box-Folder:  01-005

 

ESTHER LUCILE BROWN ITEMS:  1) BOOKPLATES (5) SIGNED BY BROWN;  2) CONSENT FORM FOR INTERVIEW;  3) NOTES BY ELIZABETH M. BEAR;  4) INTERVIEW DATA SHEETS AND ANALOG MEDIA: TWO REEL-TO-REEL TAPES OF INTERVIEW OF BROWN, CONDUCTED BY BEAR

1985   Box-Folder:  01-006

 

MARY BETH HICKS ITEMS:  1) CADET NURSE CORPS PIN;  2) UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE MEMPHIS COMMENCEMENT PROGRAM, WITH NEWSPAPER ARTICLE CONCERNING NURSING STUDENTS;  3) PHOTOGRAPHS OF HICKS

1946, n.d.   Box-Folder:  01-007

 

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS:  1) AMERICAN NATIONAL RED CROSS NURSE PIN;  2) LILLIAN D. WALD COMMEMORATIVE PIN

n.d..   Box-Folder:  01-008

 

PENN CENTER MATERIALS, ST. HELENA ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA:  1) PHOTOGRAPHS;  2) BROCHURE;  3) REFERENCE TO RECORDING OF INTERVIEW, HOUSED AT UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, CHAPEL HILL, LIBRARY;  4) NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

1950s, 1980s, 2014   Box-Folder:  01-009

 

PHILATELY

1976, 1990, 1998   Box-Folder:  01-010

 

REPORTS – PUBLICATIONS:  1) BULLETIN OF THE TUSKEGEE SCHOOL OF NURSE MID-WIFERY [PHOTOCOPY];  2) ADVANCED WORKSHOP:  PSYCHIATRIC NURSING SKILLS, UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO COLLEGE OF NURSING;  3) SOUTHERN REGIONAL TASK FORCE ON INFANT MORTALITY

1945, 1972, 1985-86   Box-Folder:  01-011

 

FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE MATERIALS:  LETTER TO ELIZABETH M. BEAR

1974/12/28   Box-Folder:  02-001

 

FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE MATERIALS:  TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW WITH BETTY LESTER, RENATE PAGEL INTERLOCUTOR

1978/06/26   Box-Folder:  02-002

 

FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE MATERIALS:  1) PHOTOGRAPH OF MARY BRECKINRIDGE ON HORSEBACK;  2) POST CARDS;  3) UNIFORM SHIRT PATCHES, MARKED: F.N.S.

n.d.   Box-Folder:  02-003

 

FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE MATERIALS:  HANDMADE CORN DOLL OF FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE NURSE-MIDWIFE

n.d.   Box-Folder:  02- no folder

 

FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE MATERIALS:  WOOL SWEATER KNIT BY DR. ANNE WASSON, FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE PHYSICIAN

n.d.   Box-Folder:  02- no folder

 

OBSTETRICAL TOOLS:  1) MARTIN PELVIMETER, STAINLESS STEEL;  2) STAINLESS STEEL SPRING SCALE FOR WEIGHING INFANTS

n.d.   Box-Folder:  03-001

 

WIRE SCULPTURE OF NURSE MIDWIFE HOLDING INFANT 

n.d.   Box-Folder:  03-002

 

ANALOG MEDIA: VHS CASSETTES (2):  1) FIFTIETH CELEBRATION REUNION, REMEMBERING CATHOLIC MATERNITY INSTITUTE SANTA FE, WITH ACCOMPANYING TEXT NEWSLETTER;  2) FOCUS: SPECIALTY NURSING

1994, n.d.   Box-Folder:  03-003

Notes

Administrative Information

Access

No Restrictions

Use Restrictions

No Restrictions

Preferred Citation

University of Virginia School of Nursing, Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry, Elizabeth Marie Bear Collection

Processing Information

Processed by Henry K. Sharp in November 2014.