On November 9, 1621 at Plymouth, Massachusetts, Philippe de la Noye disembarked from the Pilgrim ship, Fortune. His name was then anglicized to Delano. From this heritage came Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Jane Arminda Delano.
Born March 13, 1862, Delano graduated from Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing in New York City in 1886. She began her nursing career at Jacksonville, Florida treating yellow fever patients. From there, she spent three years at a copper mine in Arizona treating typhoid patients. She was offered a position as Superintendent of Nurses at University Hospital in Philadelphia.
Red Cross Volunteer
She returned to Bellevue Hospital as Director of the Training School for Nurses. Delano was no stranger to war. Her father perished in the American Civil War and Delano herself was a Red Cross volunteer nurse in the Spanish-American war in 1898 - a scant 34 years after the formation of the Red Cross by Clara Barton. Delano joined the New York Chapter of the American Red Cross during the Spanish-American war where she served as secretary for the enrollment of nurses. In 1909 she was named Superintendent of the United States Army Nurse Corps.
Along the way, Delano exhibited superior executive and administrative skills as well as innovative nursing care to her patients. She formed dietetics classes and organized the Red Cross Town and Country Nursing Service to provided medical care to residents in rural areas. The name was later changed to the American National Red Cross Public Health Nursing Service and was a very successful contribution to the nation’s health care system. These contributions resulted in her being named president of the American Nurses Association and chair of the National Committee of the Red Cross Nursing Service.
Creating Nursing Service
Combining her skills, knowledge and her organizations, Delano created the American Red Cross Nursing Service by merging the American Nurses Association, the Army Nurse Corps and the American Red Cross. From the American Red Cross Nursing service, emergency response teams were organized for disaster relief.
Delano wanted to increase the participation of nurses in her Red Cross nursing service. Not only did she travel around the country, speaking at meetings and at nursing schools, she also encouraged the nurses themselves to help increase participation.