It was the year that Miss Olive B. Knowlton, a registered nurse and Dr. Nathaniel A. Gray launched the Knowlton Hospital and Training School in a Sycamore Street (Michigan Street) mansion which had been owned by the Rock family. Students who enrolled in the new school arrived by horse and buggy or via the yellow and orange Grand Avenue trolley car, which stopped a block away.

The training school was designed as a three-year course of study, which at that time was the second three-year program inaugurated in the state. When, in 1909, a Columbia Hospital Corporation was formed and took over the Knowlton Hospital, continuity of nurses’ training was not interrupted, though the name was changed to the Columbia Hospital School of Nursing. The school had claimed the longevity records as the oldest three-year nursing program in the State of Wisconsin when the three-year course of study ended in 1983 to become a baccalaureate program.

When the school changed its name, it also changed its director… Miss Carol L. Martin was appointed Superintendent of the Hospital and Director of Nursing. She held this post until 1917, when she resigned to take advanced studies in nursing at Columbia University, New York.

According to Miss Evelyn Smith, R.N., of Port Washington, who studied under Miss Martin, “…she was a beautiful woman - and an extremely exacting one. Because she always wore several well-starched petticoats, we were warned in advance of her actual appearance!”

Throughout the hundred-year history of the school - more than fashion was to change. Traditions have been built, curricula radically altered, student rules and student work schedules modified, locale of the school changed… all aspects of student nursing, as well as that of medicine itself, continued to metamorphose.

In 1919, both hospital and school moved to the present East Side location. At this time, theory for students was taught at the hospital by nursing personnel and by members of the medical staff. A four-month affiliation at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago was offered.

Through the years and as early as 1921 the school has had agreement with Milwaukee Downer College (then located on Hartford and Downer - its buildings are now part of the UW-Milwaukee complex). Milwaukee Downer made provisions to give two years of college credits to Columbia graduates making it possible to receive a college degree in five years. In 1933, Ripon College offered similar course of study (a six-year affiliation). Few took advantage of these opportunities.

In September 1923, five hospitals - Mt. Sinai, Deaconess, Evangelical, Milwaukee County, and Columbia - arranged to send pre-probationary students to Milwaukee Vocational School for a four-month half-day period of instruction. This affiliation continued until 1975, when Columbia students began taking required liberal arts courses at UW-Milwaukee. Columbia maintains an affiliation with Milwaukee Children’s Hospital for pediatric experience, which began in 1923. In September 1982, Carroll College in Waukesha began teaching the arts and sciences courses to Columbia students.

Clinical learning experiences were emphasized in the nursing program, although the work load for nursing students now seems more tolerable than in the past. Many of the young ladies in 1905 did not complete the program for such reasons as “not strong enough for work”, “gave up on account of hard work”, “work unsatisfactory”, and “not fitted for the work”.

In 1926 students worked from 7:00am to 7:00pm with three hours off and nights, 11:00pm to 7:00am. The average patient load was 6. In 1963-1966 split shifts were worked from 7:00am to 11:00am and 3:00pm to 7:00pm with classes in the afternoon. In 1970 student began a 40 hour week, including clinical and class time. Patient load for direct care remained high at 8-9. Curfew was at 11:00pm. In 1976, students no longer worked weekends and PM and Night experience were decreased to about two weeks of each. Dorm life saw many changes. Curfew and study hours were eliminated. Male guests were allowed in the basement any evening and every Sunday. Students were allowed to wear blue jeans and slippers to class.

Today students may wear anything to class and male guests were allowed in student rooms and the basement at any time. Many of the students are employed part time by Columbia Hospital and other healthcare facilities while they are going to school.

In July 1982, the Columbia Hospital Board approved plans for a joint Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program to be sponsored by Columbia Hospital School of Nursing and Carroll College of Waukesha. The Board’s approval followed a year long study on the future of the School, prompted by trends in nursing education which indicated a Bachelor’s degree will be the minimum credential for professional nursing in the future.

The new four-year program began in fall 1983. Students in the new program study primarily at Carroll College in the first two years and at Columbia the last two. This joint baccalaureate program in nursing was accredited by the National League for Nursing in March 1990.

Through May, 2000, both the Columbia Hospital School of Nursing and Columbia College of Nursing have graduated 2,959 nurses. There were four graduates in the first class, 1904, 55 in the last class of the diploma program, 1985, and 58 in the 2000 class. The 1998 graduating class of 78 was the largest in its history.

Comparison of costs in the one-hundred year history is a story in itself. In 1921, a tuition fee of $25.00 was charges for a three-year program. This included the cost of room and board, a reasonable amount of plain laundry, uniforms, and textbooks.

In 1935, the costs rose. Tuition remained at $25.00, but costs of physical examinations, books, uniforms, breakage, and bus fare to and from the Vocational School brought the total tab for a three-year program to $187.00.

Tuition structure changes once more in 1940. This time separate tuition fees of $80.00 and $50.00 respectively were charged for the first two years of schooling. Because of the heavy clinical duties, no tuition was charged for the third year. In 1940 total cost of the program was $327.50.

Students began to pay fees for all three years in 1959. In 1966, tuition including room and board was $1500.00 for three years. By the end of the diploma program, the cost of education at Columbia Hospital School of Nursing was commensurate with the increase in the technological quality of education, as well as the increase in cost of living. Tuition in 1982 was $5065.00 for three years. The fee included tuition to Carroll College and excluded any living expenses, books or uniform.

Basic annual expenses for the first class of the four-year baccalaureate nursing program in 1984-1985 was $8140.00 which included only tuition and incidental fee, activity fee, room (with roommate) and board (minimum plan). Today in the 1999-2000 academic year, a nursing student pays $14740.00 for one year’s tuition, plus $2,280 for room (with roommate) and $1050.00 for board (three meals a day and half of the weekend meals).

Many building have housed the School of Nursing throughout its one-hundred year history. In 1923, the Copeland House, to the immediate west of the present school, was built to house 25 nursing students. It was known as the “Annex” in later years until it was demolished in 1999.

From the early twenties until 1954, a structure known as the “cottage” was used at various times for occupational therapy, an employees’ dormitory, and for nursing student classrooms. Surrounded by a well-tended lawn, it stood in what is now the doctors’ parking lot.

In 1956 an addition to the original 1919 building was completed, providing a laboratory, classrooms, office space, the nursing library (which is now called the “Library Annex”), and a large (west) living room which is now the College Library.

A distinguishing mark of a Columbia School of Nursing graduate is the cap, which Miss Shirley Titus, then Director of Nurses introduced in 1921. When it was first introduced, the cap was only about 4 inches square. It has grown with the years to about 6 ½ inches square later.

In 1921, the nursing school student was given her cap after a 3-month probationary period. At the end of a second 3 months she was given a narrow black stripe to wear on the band of the cap, and an additional stripe was awarded at the beginning of each of the second and third years. At graduation time, these narrow stripes were replaced with a wide band of black velvet. In the 1970’s, a student nurse no longer wore stripes on her cap, but the wide black band was worn by all graduates of Columbia School of Nursing. In recent years neither students nor graduates wear their cap any more.

The cap itself is identical to that worn by graduates of Boston Children’s Hospital. These appear to be the only two schools in the country whose graduates wear this cap.

A mortarboard, always a symbol of scholarship, was the obvious inspiration for the cap’s design. Because of this significance, it was adopted by Columbia’s nursing school.

In 1943, during World War II, the nursing school participated in the United States Cadet Nurse Corps. The corps was authorized by the U.S. Public Health Service through action of Congress known as the Bolton Act. The bill, which provided books, indoor and outdoor uniforms, and all admission and tuition fees, plus a generous stipend, was conceived as a recruitment device to meet the unfulfilled demand for military and civilian nurses. The only requirement was a pledge to remain in some type of nursing service for the remainder of the war. Ninety-five percent of all nursing students at that time were under this bill. The School of Nursing at Columbia accelerated its curriculum during the last six month of the three-year program, student would be available for service if needed in civilian and/or military institutions.

Through the efforts of hundreds of doctors, alumnae, members of the faculty and administration, board and committee members, and friends, Columbia College of Nursing has been able to grow and change throughout its one-hundred year history to provide the best in nursing education.

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Last Updated October 28, 2003

2121 E. Newport Avenue | Milwaukee | WI | 53211-2952
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All Historical Information was gathered by
Shirley Chan & Masami Mishimura.