Local Heroes is now on display in our main gallery, and with this exhibit we are proud to present a new online feature.
Many of our members and guests do not yet feel safe going out, and the history that Local Heroes tells is too compelling to keep inside the four walls of our museum. So here for the first time is an online version of the entire exhibit: under each section heading below is the full text, illustrations, images and even photos of each artifact. We want to share these important stories with as many people as possible.
Of course, nothing can replace seeing historic artifacts in person, nor the experience of discovery going through a museum. With that in mind, if you can join us in person, please do; but if not, please enjoy this online version. Either way, be sure to let others know about the inspiring stories of these local heroes, brought together here exclusively at Hennepin History Museum
First Hospital in Hennepin County
St. Barnabas Hospital at Ninth Avenue North and Washington Avenue, c. 1907.
Dr. Catherine Burnes (1849-1932)
Catherine Burnes sits at left next to her sister Diana Burnes Campbell, c. 1870.
In 1886, Dr. Catherine Burnes was the first woman to earn a medical degree from the University of Minnesota. Her father believed in education for women and supported his daughter as she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1879. After she completed her medical degree seven years later, Dr. Burnes became the first physician in Hopkins where she became known as “Doc Kate.”
In 1902, a Scarlet Fever epidemic struck Hopkins. After Dr. Burnes identified 100 cases, she recognized the need for drastic measures. Despite opposition from most of the town, Dr. Burnes implemented and enforced quarantine protocols. Through this act, she is credited with single-handedly preventing further deaths and stopping the spread of the disease.
Dr. Burnes had a reputation for practicing medicine with courage, generosity, and kindness. At a time when there were no hospitals or clinics in the area, Dr. Burnes made her way to her patients in her horse and buggy, no matter the weather. She even offered free medical services to families who were unable to afford them. The beloved Dr. Burnes practiced medicine in Hopkins for thirty years.
Silk and lace cape, circa 1910, which belonged to Dr. Catherine Burnes. Gift of Mrs. Sc. Campbell.
Northwestern Hospital
Northwestern Hospital at Chicago Avenue and 27th Street, c. 1911.
Sarah Harrison Knight (1849-1928)
Asbury Methodist at Sixth Street and Ninth Avenue South, C. 1900.
Dr. Robert Sirelle Brown (1863- 1927)
Dr. Robert Sirelle Brown, c. 1895.
Minnesota Nurses Association
25th Anniversary Banquet in 1930. Courtesy of Minnesota Nurses Association.
In 1905, the Ramsey County Graduate Nurses Association joined with the Hennepin County Graduate Nurses Association to organize nurses across Minnesota. They called themselves the Minnesota State Graduate Nurses Association (renamed the Minnesota Nurses Association in 1934), and they originally had 100 members. Their mission was to create a society “for the advancement of the nursing profession in the state of Minnesota and elsewhere, including the furtherance of efficient care for the sick.”
Just two years later, thanks to the advocacy of the association, the Minnesota State Legislature passed a bill that set standards for state registration of licensed nurses. When the bill was signed into law, the Minnesota Board of Nursing was established to oversee these standards, which included regulating who could use the title Registered Nurse.
Spurred on by this early victory, the Minnesota Nurses Association became a powerful political force. The MNA went on to establish a long tradition of promoting the
interests of nurses, fighting for improved patient care, and protecting public health that continues to this day.
25th Anniversary Banquet in 1930. Courtesy of Minnesota Nurses Association.
University of Minnesota School of Nursing
Six of the eight students in the first graduating class of the UMN School of Nursing in 1912,
with Superintendent Louise M. Powell at center.
Dr. Charles E. Dutton
Dr. Charles E. Dutton.
When he died in 1955 at the age of 94, Dr. Charles E. Dutton was the last surviving member of the first class to graduate from the medical school at University of Minnesota in 1889. He went on to serve as a captain and surgeon in the Spanish-American War with the 14th Minnesota Infantry.
Dr. Dutton ran a practice in downtown Minneapolis until 1935, but he continued to treat patients out of his home almost until the time of his death, amounting to over sixty years in total. Dutton was also well-known as the first doctor in Minneapolis to make house-calls out of an automobile.
Dr. Charles E. Dutton’s medical bag, circa 1900. It includes a stethoscope, speculum, forceps, steel calipers, anesthesia mask, trephine, bone saw, scalpel, syringe and needle, and many other tools. After use, instruments that required sterilization would have been boiled in the copper chamber in the lower compartment. Gift of Mrs. Charles. E. Dutton.
Dr. Richard Olding Beard (1856-1936)
Dr. Richard Olding Beard.
Katharine Densford (1890-1978)
Katharine Densford.
Josie Wanous Stuart (1871-1936)
Display window of Wanous Drug Store at 705 Nicollet Avenue, c.1908.
Josie Wanous was the first woman to become a licensed pharmacist in the state of Minnesota in 1891. Wanous worked in a drugstore as a teenager and developed a passion for chemistry. After high school, she attended the Minneapolis College of Pharmacy, paying for her own tuition.
After Wanous passed the state exam and received her license, she could not find a drugstore willing to hire a woman pharmacist. Eventually, Wanous was able to find a position at a drugstore within a department store in downtown Minneapolis. In 1899 Wanous was quoted in the Minneapolis Tribune saying, “I wish there were more women in this work, it is beautiful work, and to my way of thinking it needs the delicate care and attention only a woman can give.”
Embracing her entrepreneurial spirit, Wanous opened her own drugstore on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis in 1900. Though initially focusing on formulating and distributing pharmaceuticals, she found most success in concocting innovative cosmetics and toiletries – the most famous of which was the Wanous Shampoo Bag. This product drew such demand that Wanous, now Mrs. Stuart, created a company in 1910 so that she could distribute it nationally.
Josie Wanous (left) inside her drugstore, c.1905.
American Red Cross
Red Cross Unit at Zion Lutheran Church of Minneapolis in 1918. While wearing masks because of the influenza pandemic, these volunteers are sewing hospital pajamas for sick and injured soldiers. These volunteers, part of the Production Corps of the Red Cross, also produced surgical gowns for doctors and nurses, surgical dressings, hospital linens, and bandages for overseas hospitals during WWI.
Olga Hill wore this uniform when she served in the Red Cross Chapter of Zion Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. The blue ribbon in the headdress indicates that Hill was an assistant director of the chapter. Hill can be seen in the photo below in the first row, all the way to the left. Gift of Laurie Cutler.
Red Cross Unit at Zion Lutheran Church of Minneapolis in 1918.
Lydia V. Whiteside
Lydia V. Whiteside.
Lydia V. Whiteside was an American Red Cross Nurse who died in service of her country during World War I. Born in Canada in 1884, she relocated to Duluth in 1902. Whiteside completed the nursing training program at Asbury Methodist Hospital in Minneapolis in 1911. In 1917, she volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army, serving as a surgical nurse in a mobile unit at the frontlines in France.
Whiteside contracted influenza and subsequently died of pneumonia in 1918 and was buried overseas. She was returned to Minnesota in 1921 and buried with military honors. Though her military career was short, Whiteside was widely commended as “genuine nurse” and a “true soldier.” In 1919 an American Legion Post was named in her honor.
The inscription on the backside of this Tiffany & Co. bronze medal reads: “To Lydia Violet Whiteside For Service American Red Cross.” Gift of Elizabeth Hoffman.
Glen Lake
Glen Lake Sanatorium, c. 1925.
Glen Lake doctor and nurse administer pneumothorax to collapse patient’s lung. c. 1925.
Glen Lake Sanatorium opened in 1916 in Hennepin County in response to the growing infection rate of tuberculosis, which at the time was the leading cause of death in the world. In 1909, the State Legislature authorized the construction of fourteen sanatoria across the state of Minnesota, the largest of which was Glen Lake.
Glen Lake continuously adopted the most progressive treatments, which varied greatly over time. Initially, fresh air was thought to be the best treatment for the disease – which meant patients were exposed to it, even in the middle of winter. This model of treatment was quickly replaced by heliotherapy, which had patients exposed to sunlight or artificial ultra violet lamps for hours each day. In 1922, Glen Lake adopted surgery as treatment, utilizing procedures that collapsed portions of the lung. Eventually, the use of chemotherapy drastically reduced the number of patients needing care at Glen Lake. In 1961, much of the campus was converted to a nursing home, which maintained two floors for tuberculosis patients, the last of which was discharged in 1976.
Glen Lake established itself at the forefront of medical innovation and administration. It was one of the first to establish a Medical Records Department, which allowed doctors to track ongoing care and conduct research. It was also the first sanatorium in the country to receive hospital accreditation. For a time, when the threat of tuberculosis necessitated it, Glen Lake was one of the most prominent sanatoria in the United States.
This scale and set of weights, circa 1920, were used by medical staff at Glen Lake Sanatorium to measure pharmaceuticals. The plaques on the front show they these were property of Hennepin County. Gift of Faye Christiansen.
Christian Family
Thomas Hospital at 2340 Sixth Street South, c. 1911.
This property, now known as Hennepin History Museum, was once the home of Carolyn McKnight Christian. Though Carolyn was renowned for her own philanthropic endeavors, her in-laws, George Henry Christian and Leonora Hall Christian, were especially well known for their contributions to local healthcare. In 1905, George and Leonora Christian lost their son Henry to tuberculosis. After this, Leonora became involved with the Associated Charities of Minneapolis, sitting on the Anti-Tuberculosis Committee.
At the time, there were vastly insufficient facilities and treatment options available to tuberculosis patients in Minnesota. So, in 1906, the Christians opened the Christian Tuberculosis Camp on Lake Street and Forty-six Avenue South overlooking the Mississippi River. Reportedly, Leonora visited the camp almost daily during its two years of operation. In 1908, the Christians also built Thomas Hospital, a hospital for tuberculosis patients that would later become part of Fairview Hospital.
After Leonora’s death in 1916, George founded the Citizen’s Aid Society. Included in the articles of the Society’s incorporation was a clause that it contribute to the care and treatment of those suffering with tuberculosis. In 1922, the Society funded the construction of the Children’s Building at Glen Lake Sanatorium, named in honor of Leonora. Carolyn, who served as president of the Citizen’s Aid Society for more than twenty-five years, continued the family’s tradition of generosity and philanthropy. She maintained a special interest in Glen Lake. Annually, she visited the facility to donate gifts to the children and arranged for concerts performed by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra for the adults.
Glen Lake Sanatorium Dedication Plaque 1917 Gift of Faye Christensen
George Henry Christian founded the Citizen’s Aid Society which funded the construction of the West Cottage at Glen Lake Sanatorium in 1917 in honor of his son Henry, who died of tuberculosis, as recorded on this dedication plaque. Though George himself passed away in 1918, his daughter-in-law Carolyn, who lived in this very home, went on to carry on his legacy of anti-tuberculosis charity work.
Frances McHie Rains (1911-2006)
Frances McHie Rains.
In 1929, after graduating from South High School in Minneapolis, Frances McHie applied for admission to the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, but her application was denied because she was Black. With the help of local African American activist, W. Gertrude Brown, and Democratic legislator Sylvanus A. Stockwell, McHie brought this injustice before the Minnesota State Legislature. When McHie read her rejection letter from the University, the assembly was outraged, and the lawmakers voted that she be admitted to the School of Nursing immediately. Thereupon, McHie became the first Black woman admitted to the School of Nursing. However, she still faced a deeply rooted culture of racism and systemic discrimination at the University. For instance, McHie was not even permitted to live in the
dormitories with the other nursing students and instead was forced to live several miles from campus. Nonetheless, in 1932 McHie graduated from the School of Nursing at the top of her class with a double major in education.
McHie continued to trailblaze throughout her long and successful career as a pioneering nurse, educator, and activist. After graduation she became the first Black nursing supervisor at Minneapolis General Hospital (now HCMC). Later, she was the first African American to work with the Visiting Nurses Association in New Orleans, and she also helped to break the color barrier at Herman Kiefer Hospital in Detroit. McHie went on to became Associate Professor and assistant to the Director of the School of Nursing at Tuskegee Institute and Meharry Medical College in Nashville.
McHie married Dr. Horace Rains in 1951, and settled in Long Beach, California, eventually starting a family. Here, Mrs. Rains continued to work in healthcare and in 1953 she became one of the first African Americans to teach at the University of Southern California General Hospital in Los Angeles. Rains also devoted a great deal of time to community service. She served as an officer in the Long Beach branch of the NAACP and founded the Long Beach National Council of Negro Women. Rains died in 2006 at the age of 95. In 2019, the Frances McHie Nursing Scholarship was established at the University of Minnesota by her nephew, Benjamin McHie, to honor her memory, build on Black history in the medical profession, and support careers in nursing. This scholarship strives to combat racism in the field of healthcare, just as Frances McHie Rains did throughout her life and career.
Dr. Harry M. Guilford (1872-1963)
Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai Hospital at 727 East Twenty Second Street, c. 1962.
Sister Elizabeth Kenny (1880-1952)
Library at Sister Kenny Institute. Librarian Merry Greenwald with patrons Dana Rae Bauer at the shelves and Russell Depew in the wheelchair. March 1952.
Margaret Hewitt (1930-2010)
Margaret Hewitt.
Margaret Hewitt.
Margaret Hewitt was one of the two first nurse-midwives in Minnesota and was instrumental in revolutionizing maternity care practices. She graduated from nursing school in North Dakota and became the obstetric nursing supervisor at Hennepin County General Hospital (now HCMC). In 1968, she left Minneapolis to earn a nurse-midwife certification at Columbia University.
Hewitt returned to Hennepin General and was hired by Dr. Donald Freeman, the first Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the hospital. Dr. Freeman recognized the value in using midwives and supported Hewitt’s vision. In 1971, Hewitt founded the Nurse-Midwife Service, the first certified nurse-midwifery practice in the state.
Hewitt’s work was groundbreaking. She pioneered policies that made childbirth patient-centered as opposed to institution-centered, ensuring that mothers received personalized emotional support and physical care. She brought the totality of inpatient maternity care – labor, birth, recovery, postpartum stay and nursery care – into a homelike hospital room, inviting and encouraging the involvement of women’s partners. Variations on this are now the standard across the nation. Through her commitment to meeting the needs of women in our community she established a legacy. What Hewitt started fifty years ago has grown and is thriving in the current 15-member strong Nurse-Midwife Service at Hennepin County Medical Center.
Illustration of fetoscope in use.
Fetoscope
1960’s
This fetoscope, or fetal stethoscope, was used by Margaret Hewitt. This was the standard tool for listening to an unborn baby’s heartbeat until the introduction of ultrasound technology for obstetric use in the late sixties. This type of stethoscope is still used by midwives today. On loan from Hennepin Medical History Center.
Dr. Claude Hitchcock (1920-1994)
Dr. Claude Hitchock.
Dr. Claude Hitchcock was a pioneer in kidney transplant surgery. He received his PhD in surgery from the University of Minnesota (UMN) after studying under Dr. Owen Wangensteen. In 1952 he was named director at the UMN Cancer Detection Center.
In 1955, Dr. Hitchcock became the first full-time Chief ofSurgery at Minneapolis General Hospital, today known as Hennepin County Medical Center. Dr. Hitchcock soon earned a reputation as an administrator with a passion for teaching and research.
In 1963, after several years of experimentation, Dr. Hitchcock performed the first kidney transplant in the Midwest. He went on to develop an artificial kidney treatment program, the first in the region. It was later named the Regional Kidney Dialysis Program and became one of the largest in the nation.
In 1969, the Hitchcock Surgical Society was formed, initially consisting of the over 100 surgeons that studied under him. Dr. Hitchcock retired in 1988 after serving as Chief of Surgery for thirty-three years.
Kidney Transport Container
1963
In early kidney transplantation, the organ donor had to be declared deceased before the organ could be removed. This was done under optimal conditions at HCMC’s hyperbaric chamber operating room to keep the kidney hyper-oxygenated before removal. It was then cooled to 4 degrees Celsius, and this container was used to transport the kidney to the Operating Room where the recipient was prepped and waiting.
Indian Health Board
Dr. Ernest Ruiz (1931-2020)
Dr. Ernest Ruiz.
Dr. Ernest Ruiz established the emergency department – one of the first in the United States – at Hennepin County General Hospital (HCGH), today known as Hennepin County Medical Center. Born in California in 1931, Dr. Ruiz received his bachelor’s and medical degrees from Stanford University. He came to Minneapolis in 1962 for an internship at Minneapolis General Hospital, where he later became surgeon.
Emergency rooms at that time were generally overseen by the Department of Surgery and staffed with surgical residents. The emergency room at HCGH was overcrowded, poorly staffed, and underfunded. As the Chief of the Department of Surgery, Dr. Claude Hitchcock recognized the need for change. He called upon Dr. Ruiz to oversee the emergency room. Dr. Ruiz agreed on the condition that the ER became its own department.
In 1971, Dr. Ruiz was appointed the first Chief of Emergency Medicine. The emergency room was expanded and its staffing was increased. Dr. Ruiz also quickly introduced a residency program in emergency medicine education that was one of the first in the country. Throughout his career he continued to train and educate on emergency medicine. He remained Chief of Emergency Medicine for twenty-one years. As a leader and a visionary, Dr. Ruiz helped to develop a new field of medicine.
Illustration of Aorta Compressor.
Aorta compressor invented by Dr. Ernest Ruiz, known as the father of Emergency Medicine, in the 1970s. He made this prototype for use in an emergency thoracotomy (a surgical incision of the chest), with the purpose of pressing the aorta against the spine. This maintained oxygenated blood flow to the brain while decreasing blood loss below the diaphragm. It is known as the Ruiz Aortic Compressor and is now manufactured commercially. This is just one of Dr. Ruiz’s many inventions.
Mortar and Pestle
Mortar and Pestle Early Twentieth Century Gift of Jim Stage.