• IdentificationMidwest MS Wingreen
  • TitleInventory of the Amy Eleanor Wingreen Papers, 1898-1900 Midwest.MS.Wingreen
  • PublisherThe Newberry Library - Modern Manuscripts
  • RepositoryThe Newberry Library - Modern Manuscripts
  • Physical Description1.2 linear feet (2 boxes)
  • Date1898-1900
  • Location1 36 4
  • AbstractMaterial relating to Amy E. Wingreen's service as a nurse in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Consists of correspondence, mostly outgoing, memorabilia, photographs, a scrapbook of clippings and official letters and two manuscript narratives recounting her experiences.
  • OriginationWingreen, Amy Eleanor, 1870-1919

Gift of Esther E. Turkington, Chicago, from the estate of Amy Eleanor Wingreen, 1949.

The Amy Eleanor Wingreen Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

The Amy Eleanor Wingreen Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Amy Eleanor Wingreen Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Virginia H. Smith, 2003.

Chicago nurse and expert in yellow fever care, who served in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

Amy Eleanor Wingreen was born in 1861 or 1870 to Swedish immigrant parents. She trained as a nurse at Cook County Hospital and was described as an expert in yellow fever cases. Under the auspices of the National Emergency Association of Women Physicians, Surgeons and Nurses, she was sent to Cuba to nurse soldiers of the Spanish-American War in July 1898. She wrote, "We are the first body of women to go out in the time of war under the Government of the United States. What we go to face we do not know." Nursing in a camp hospital in Siboney, Cuba, for little over a month, Wingreen too contracted fever, but continued with her work until leaving in late August.

Wingreen married Arthur L. Macomber (1873-1971) in Chicago on November 26, 1902 and divorced in 1909. She died on April 5, 1919 in Chicago and was buried in Princeton, Illinois.

Includes letters, often reading like a diary, which Amy Wingreen sent to her sister, mother and nephew as she traveled from Chicago to Cuba and back again to New York and Washington in the summer of 1898, plus a small group of letters to her from relatives and friends of some of the soldiers she nursed. Also miscellaneous material relating to her medical service from April, 1898, to December, 1899; two narratives of her experiences, one by her and one by her (later) executor Esther Turkington; a scrapbook of clippings and official notes; and a group of photographs of the army hospital in Siboney, Cuba and some of the soldiers she nursed. Note: the Esther Turkington narrative is published in For Our Beloved Country, edited by Speer Morgan and Greg Michalson, The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994.

Arranged alphabetically by type of material.

  • Names
    • Turkington, Esther E.
    • Wingreen, Amy Eleanor, 1870-1919
  • Subject
    • Chicago
    • Family Papers
    • Manuscripts, American
    • Military nursing -- Cuba -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
    • Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Cuba - Hospitals
    • Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Cuba - Personal narratives
    • Women
    • Yellow fever -- Cuba -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
  • Geographic CoverageUnited States -- Armed forces -- Nurses -- History --19th century -- Sources