Material Type

Recording

Date Range

1993

Physical Description

2 90 minute audio cassette tapes. (digital file) Length: Approximately 110 minutes.

Physical Condition

Excellent

History Biographical

See also "White Caps And Red Roses", pg 11-16.

Acquisition Source

Sir Alexander Galt Museum

Scope and Content

Interviewee: Elizabeth Patterson Taylor. interviewer: Lori Jarakowsky (museum programmer), Clint grant (museum volunteer).date: 7 May 1993. Tape 1 Side 1 - Biographical information about her parents who married in Manitoba. Her father was a member of the NWMP and station at Fort Macleod, which is where the couple moved following their marriage. Her mother died in childbirth in 1897. Talks about her early family life. - Talks about playing tennis when she was a nursing student at the Gait School of Nursing The court was on the lawn in front of the nurse's home. - Talks about attending the Bachelor Ball, the biggest annual social event held in Lethbridge. She was late returning to the nurse's home and had to climb in through a window because the door was locked. - Discusses early nursing - the training, uniforms, patient relations. - Discusses the Downer Family and the Downer house (later Chinook Club). - Talks about nurse's wages, nursing, patients, staff relations. - Talks about recreational activities - such as going to the show. - Talks about midwives, and how women had their babies at home. The nurses often assisted the Doctors with the deliveries and generally remained with the mother and newborn for 10 days. - Talks about Lucy Hatch who was in training with her, as well as other friends and residents of Lethbridge. - Talks about her father retiring from the NWMP and starting his own company "T E Patterson Insurance and Real Estate". During WWI he joined the local battery and closed down his office. - Talks about the family's first automobile which was a Rambler. - Talks about the Stafford family. - She left Lethbridge in 1914. - There were 14 girls who started nurse's training in 1910. In the end only 3 graduated. Training was very difficult. - She moved to Edmonton. Talks about her husband, Arnold W Taylor (married May 1916). Tape 1 Side 2 - She was born in Fort Macleod 18 Nov 1891. - She describes the 1910 Gait Hospital building floor plan. - Relates an incident that happened to her early on in her training when she was sent to the supply cabinet to get some Winchesters. She assumed Winchesters were guns and returned empty handed, only to find out Winchesters were bottles. - She began her training at age 17, even though the age requirment was 18. A few years after she started the age requirment was raised to 21. She talks about her enrollment, the student nurse's wages, and Dr. Mewburn. - Her family moved to Lethbridge when she was 12, following her father's remarriage. From the time of her mother's death until moving to Lethbridge the children lived with their grandfather in Portage la Prairie. When they first came to Lethbridge the family lived in the RCMP barracks, where they remained until her father went into business in 1906. She talks about her family. - Talks about nursing at the Gait Hospital and the duties of the student nurse. Describes shaving with a straight edge razor. - Talks about an orderly named Sam who had trained as a nurse in Ireland. Describes his role in training the student nurses. - Talks about Sam, the hospitals Chinese cook who was also in charge of the laundry. The student nurses helped teach him English. - Talks about the opening of the 1910 Gait Hospital building. - Talks about making meals for typhoid fever victims and kumiss for liquid patients. - Further discussion about the floor plan of the 1910 building. Mentions that there was a statue of Sir Alexander Gait at the front entrance. Tape 2 Side 1 (approx 20 mins) - Continue with the hospital floor plan. - Describes the operating theatre - where they changed and scrubbed, where the instruments were kept and sterilized, and the prep area. Talks about how patients were put under. - Talks about the Red Light District in Lethbridge and the women who worked in it. She talks about one the woman marrying a local tailor. Many of the women were patients in the hospital. - Talks about a young native girl, about 10 or 12, named Snake. She was a patient in the hospital and liked to help the nurses care for the other patients.

Access Restrictions

Public Access

Accession No.

19971065002

Collection

Archive

Less detail