The Illinois Training School for Nurses (ITS), Chicago's first nursing school, was established on September 21, 1880, by a group of prominent Chicago women determined to promote the application of scientific methods to the field of nursing and to provide trained nurses for the Cook County Hospital. Twenty-five directors, all female, headed the project. Prominent among these women were Sarah L. Wright, Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson, Margaret Lawrence, Lucy L. Flower, and Elizabeth B. Carpenter. On May 1, 1881, the first pupil nurses began working in some of the wards replacing untrained male nurses who had held their positions through political appointments. Eventually, ITS provided nursing service for every ward of Cook County Hospital. ITS gradually added to its curriculum many special programs and pioneering innovations, including private nursing, a visiting nurses service, post-graduate and dieticians' programs, and affiliation with other nursing schools. In 1929, ITS reached an agreement to merge its corporate identity with the University of Chicago (UC). In return, UC would later establish a nursing school which would award its graduates a Bachelor of Science degree. ITS continued to operate independently until 1929, when the merger took effect and ITS ceased to exist. All ITS property and assets reverted to the University of Chicago and ITS contracts with the Cook County Commissioners were terminated. The Cook County Commissioners, who had relied almost entirely upon ITS nurses to staff the Cook County Hospital, established its own training school to perform the same function. The County rented the former ITS facilities from their new owner, the University of Chicago, hired the former ITS faculty to staff the school, and allowed ITS students to transfer with full credit to the Cook County School of Nursing (CCSN). Although CCSN appeared to be a continuation of ITS, the Illinois Training School had actually ceased to exist as a corprorate entity upon its legal merger with the University of Chicago.
From the description of Records, 1881-1988. (University of Illinois-Chicago Library). WorldCat record id: 56396931
