https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/cf942da8b5e33fb8408fe460a4520748.mp3 d75da6b3f3dcd772934b3ac1bab3f66b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview 2 with Patricia Brown (Flower Mission Hospital) Subject The topic of the resource <a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/items/show/103">Flower Mission Hospital</a> Description An account of the resource Patricia Brown describes how St. John's Hospital in Anderson offered medical treatment to both African American and white patients, especially those in poverty who could not afford treatment elsewhere. This mirrored the integrated treatment at Flower Mission Hospital. <strong>***Transcript***</strong><em><br /><br />Patricia Brown</em><span>: At St. John’s Hospital for blacks. They didn’t say for blacks. They said for anybody. They opened it up for anybody because see, during that time, not only were people being segregated from St. Mary’s Hospital and Methodist Hospital. There were people that were too poor to go there, so St. John’s Hospital was a place that they could come and be treated. </span> https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/original/0270ec3a6adabb8553620cff738e402a.jpg 9d27985e8ea11fc46a1be300d4390c71 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Places Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Flower Mission Hospital Description An account of the resource The Indianapolis Flower Mission was a women’s charity organization founded by Alice Wright in 1876 [1]. The organization met every two weeks to give the patients of Indianapolis City Hospital a wide variety of flowers and gifts [2]. Early activities also included setting up a boarding house for homeless boys in 1879 [3]. After years of maintaining and raising funds for the boarding home, members envisioned a hospital that specialized in the care of women and children [4]. Due to a lack of funding, this idea did not come to fruition; instead the Mission set up the country’s second training school for nurses, which they ran until the City Hospital took over in 1896 [5]. The Flower Mission also started the city’s first visiting nurse program, for which they hired a nurse to visit patients at home to provide care and supplies. The school closed in 1980, having offered nursing training for almost a century [6]. The Mission received needed funding in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, thanks to very generous donations from Colonel Eli Lilly, a local philanthropist and pharmaceutical entrepreneur [7] Eleanor Hospital, the mission’s first hospital which focused on the care of sick children, was named after the Colonel’s deceased daughter [8]. The mayor of Indianapolis at the time, John Holtzman, was another big supporter for the Mission. Upon the opening of the Mission’s first hospital for late-stage tuberculosis patients in 1903, Holtzman was quoted in a local newspaper as having said, “I want to assure the ladies of the Flower Mission that the present administration will give every assistance in the great work of earing for the sick and poor.” He claimed that any person that suffered from “the great white death” deserved the utmost care [9]. When it opened, The Flower Mission was one of the only medical institutions in Indiana that dealt with patients who were in the final stages of tuberculosis [10]. However, this quality of care was not available to African Americans. The early twentieth century surge of tuberculosis hit the black community particularly hard. Living conditions for African Americans in Indianapolis were already poor, and the effects of tuberculosis only made it worse. There was no medical facility in the city where black tuberculosis patients could receive the appropriate care they needed [11]. In 1916, the Indianapolis Women’s Improvement Club (WIC) appealed to the Flower Mission Hospital to accept African American patients. The WIC was organized by African American women to benefit the Indianapolis black community [12]. While the hospital did initially agree to WIC’s plea to accept black patients, a short time later, it rescinded this action and no longer accepted African Americans. A year later, the Flower Mission financially aided the WIC in employing a black social worker who provided at-home care to African American patients, much like their own visiting nurses. In 1918, WIC members were allowed to furnish a room in the Flower Mission Hospital to be used exclusively by black patients. When the Mission opened their final hospital on Fall Creek Boulevard in 1938, they provided a segregated ward for African American patients [13]. Years after the opening of the Mission’s first hospital in 1903, Mayor Holtzman’s words were true to the hospital’s purpose: any person who suffered from tuberculosis deserved care, and finally, African Americans were included, albeit still segregated from white patients. After the 1930s, activity slowed for the Indianapolis Flower Mission. The tuberculosis crisis was under control, and the Flower Mission primarily became a grant funding institution until they disbanded in 1993. The Flower Missions Memorial Hospital is now home to the Bellflower Clinic and the Wishard Memorial Nursing Museum, where the public can learn of the Flower Mission’s history [14]. <a href="https://digitalresearch.bsu.edu/digitalcivilrightsmuseum/files/show/227">Interview 2 with Patricia Brown</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived [1] Brittany D. Kropf, “Indianapolis Flower Mission,” Discover Indiana, last updated April 2, 2019, https://publichistory.iupui.edu/items/show/18. [2] Kropf, “Flower Mission.” [3] Indianapolis Flower Mission Records: 1884-1987, 1976.0206, 1997.0125. Indiana Historical Society Archives, Indianapolis, Indiana. [4] Indianapolis Flower Mission Records. [5] Indianapolis Flower Mission Records. [6] Kropf, “Flower Mission.” [7] Ibid. [8] Ibid. [9] “Mission Gives Hospital Keys to the Mayor,” The Indianapolis Star, November 27, 1903, https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4068531/flower-mission-hospital-opening-mayor/. [10] Kropf, “Flower Mission.” [11] Earline Rae Ferguson, “The Woman's Improvement Club of Indianapolis: Black Women Pioneers in Tuberculosis Work, 1903–1938,” Indiana Magazine of History 84, no.3 (1988): 237-61, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27791176. [12] Ferguson, “The Woman's Improvement Club of Indianapolis” [13] Ibid. [14] Kropf, “Flower Mission.” Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Student Authors: Gwyneth Harris and Phillip Brooks Faculty/Staff Editors: Dr. Ronald V. Morris, Dr. Kevin C. Nolan, and Christine Thompson Graduate Assistant Researchers: Carrie Vachon and JB Bilbrey Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource PHOTO & VIDEO: Flower Mission Tuberculosis Hospital, Indiana Historical Society, M0384. https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/tuberculosi/id/99/rec/13 1800s 1900-40s 1950s-present Healthcare Indianapolis Integration Marion County Oral History Organization Segregation Women