Lutheran Deaconess Home and Hospital, Chicago, Illinois

See also LDMNA 4 Administrative History.

Deaconess News was published until 1963 by the Lutheran Deaconess Home and Hospital (LDHC), Chicago, Illinois, for their members, friends, and supporters. The papers were 6 by 9 inches, and were a folded leaflet, usually of four pages; occasionally an issue was a trifold of six pages. Only the 65th anniversary issue, October-November 1962, had eight pages. The content was primarily about the deaconesses and their work, but there were also poems, articles about spiritual matters, news of the nursing school, and memorial articles at the death of deaconesses and others associated with the motherhouse and hospital. There was very little mention of the hospital apart from the deaconesses' involvement in it. Many issues had black and white photographs and beginning in 1933 December issues were printed in green. The issues had no volume or issue number, only months and years. At first the publication schedule was monthly, changing to bi-monthly in 1937, but even before that date, months were often combined in one issue. Usually two or three months were listed for each issue, with no set pattern for such listing.

With the April 1963 issue the publisher as listed on the masthead was the Lutheran Deaconess Hospital. Both the format and content changed at that time. The April 1963 issue was labeled Volume 1, number 2; there was probably no issue numbered 1, since there had already been one issue in the original format. The size of the paper was enlarged to 8± by 11 inches and color was used more, although photographs, of which there were many more than previously, were still black and white. The first issues in this format had four pages, but soon six and later eight became standard. The content was focused on the hospital with very little about the deaconesses. In 1967, publication became quarterly and in 1968, the first issue was in June.